Mark Ellis: How we won back our fans

If you want to trace the evolution of Cork’s style these last three seasons, look no further than the positioning of Mark Ellis.

He was in his customary centre-back role up to the 2015 Munster semi-final against Waterford when that defeat prompted Jimmy Barry-Murphy to deploy him in an anchoring sweeper role protecting the “D” during the qualifiers.

A season later and he was corner-back against Tipperary, as William Egan was commissioned as the deep-lying sweeper to cut out ball to Seamus Callanan.