Kieran Shannon: Qualifiers will offer a true gauge of Cork’s progress

Last week Darragh Ó Sé departed from the traditional Kerry tact of coming to praise or plamás Cork by instead burying them, declaring the Cork footballers had been 'a disgrace'

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER: Cork's Brian Hurley and his team-mates huddle after the Munster SFC semi-final defeat to Kerry at Páirc Ui Rinn. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

For all the allowances we said we’d afford players and teams once sport would resume in Covid times on the basis of being grateful they were providing us with some sport at all, we were soon back to our normal judgemental selves, certainly well before normality itself returned.

The promised dispensations were never forthcoming, presumably because Covid hardly qualified as a variable considering it applied to everyone.