Onwards and upwards for Cunningham

His three-year appointment was hailed as Dublin hitting the jackpot by chairman Andy Kettle, but Ger Cunningham’s first public appearance as the county’s senior hurling manager was fairly down to earth.

The mild-mannered St Finbarr’s man will meet the players for the first time this weekend.

Talk about winning All-Irelands can and will wait. “My view is that I’ll be targeting working with the players, getting to know the players over the next few months, seeing where as a coaching team we can try to improve them and looking at trying to improve performance on the pitch. That’s the whole focus, nothing else other than that.”