Evolving Rebels are now genuine contenders

TWO headline stories from Semple Stadium on Sunday and the one that concerns Cork is, mercifully, free at last from clauses and caveats.

No ifs and buts this time around about what might have ensued had it not been for, say, the sending off of a Henry Shefflin or a Ryan O’Dwyer. No furrow-browed investigation of, for instance, how Cork had conceded 25 scores and still not lost or taken 50 minutes to wake up against Waterford but contrived to survive.

No. This was the signal performance of JBM’s second managerial coming, a display of power and poise that left no threads hanging and rendered the only conceivable response as due recognition and a tip of the hat.