Not all doom, says Ruairí Deane

Such has been the negative commentary directed at the Cork football camp in recent weeks that it’s become impossible for Peadar Healy’s charges to ignore the noise.

It’s been coming hot and heavy since the abject display at Newbridge in round two, with Brian Hurley first to break silence on the flak they’ve come in for.

“If you do listen to that [criticism] you’ll drag yourself into the gutter,” said the injured Cork forward in the days following the shock upset against Clare. That first defeat to the Banner since 1997 led to fresh attacks on the lack of leadership within the squad, prompting selector Eoin O’Neill to remark in this paper that “a lot of the stuff that is going out there about this team is fairly severe”.