Cork and Ronan McCarthy can’t afford this insular outlook

If Cork’s exit from the championship was highly embarrassing, then Ronan McCarthy’s exit interview to the print media was most intriguing.

Although he faced the customary rote of post-match questions last Saturday with what the Evening Echo’s Mark Woods described as “a calm dignity”, there was obviously only so much the Cork manager was prepared to divulge.

“After the first year, I’m very clear in my mind where I need to go from here and where we need to go,” he said after the Portlaoise massacre to Tyrone, “but I’m not going to share that.”