Ronan McCarthy: 'If I don’t believe this team can win an All-Ireland in the next two years, what am I doing here?'

Ronan McCarthy has signed up for two more years as Cork football manager. By 2022 he expects they’ll be consistently challenging, and beating, the top football teams in the country. He spoke to Tony Leen.

Ronan McCarthy: 'You need time with teams - and to be fair the Cork County Board afford you that - but this is done against a slightly hysterical background in terms of extremes of despair.'

Seldom has soaring expectation been as coldly cut at the knees as in the final minutes of November’s Munster football final. Here was Cork, a Kerry Championship scalp in the plus column, blowing up again against Tipperary with the road to Croke Park stretching out before them.

Was it worth beating Kerry at all, at all?