Cork’s defeat means no Munster football final when Páirc Uí Chaoimh re-opens

No doubt the calls will be sounded again soon. Root and branch reform. Sweeping change. Not good enough.

This braying has become not an occasional phenomenon in Cork GAA but an echo that resounds at every new nadir, this time the defeat of Cork on Sunday by a Tipperary football team missing at least 11 players. As a sign of desperation Cork resorted to putting on a teenager still grappling with the Leaving Certificate.

This is just a random marker of Cork’s ineptitude, which exists here both as a team-specific issue and an indicator of wider problems.