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JBM: praised performance of Derek McGrath's Waterford. Cathal Noonan/INPHO

Jimmy Barry-Murphy: 'I hope we have character to rebound for the championship'

Cork have a lot of ‘heart searching’ to do, says the Rebels boss.

JIMMY BARRY-MURPHY admits he has a job on his hands to get Cork’s year back on track after today’s 10-point defeat to Waterford.

The Rebels were thoroughly outplayed all over the pitch by a side they’ll face again in five weeks’ time in the Munster championship.

“Derek McGrath will be very proud of the way his players played today and all we can do is take our hats off and say well done to them,” Barry-Murphy said afterwards. I thought they were brilliant.”

Asked if they Rebels can take any positives into the summer, the Barrs clubman said: “Not sure. We made progress in the league. Today is a setback but I hope we have the character in the dressing room.”

He continued: “[L]ooking at the manner of the defeat an awful lot of heart searching to do both on the line and on the team to see can we get back to the level we want in five weeks’ time and that is the challenge but we will face that as well.”

Cork came through a thrilling semi-final thanks to a second-half comeback against Dublin last time out. Did that win paper over the cracks in the Leesiders’ set-up?

“Maybe it did,” said Barry-Murphy. “We were honest enough after that to say we were happy with the win but not happy with the performance and we certainly knew that that level of performance wouldn’t do and again today we didn’t get to the level we think we can play to.

“And you saw Waterford and their skill level athleticism and movement  and score taking and we had no answer today.

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