Cork potential suggests Kieran Kingston should stay

When Kieran Kingston walked down the tunnel of the Hogan Stand after last year's big All-Ireland final defeat to Limerick, it must have been a lonely, lonely place.

Managing a county as big as Cork is a high-pressure job. It's pressure full stop, but managing your own when they don't perform is never a nice position to be in.

You think that you will never get a chance to rectify it. But bit by bit, time comes around again. They were flying in the league, and ultimately were beaten by a Waterford team who were in their prime at that time of the year.

I thought coming into the first round of Munster championship where they played Limerick, in the Páirc, that there would be sparks flying. Now is the chance to correct the wrong from last year.

But it was seriously flat, and then they were beaten by Clare. Looking back now, yes, you could say the two form teams to date.

But the penny dropped after the Banner defeat with someone. Kingston went for change. It looked to me that he went with a forward line which was the hardest working possible.

It was amazing to read Eoin Cadogan earlier in the year saying how bad the numbers were in their forwards in relation to tackles in last year's All-Ireland. It was clear for everyone to see, but you often wondered did they see it themselves.

But when you read Cadogan's piece they were well aware. You can ask the question why wasn’t the change made before the first round, but either way, they went down to Walsh Park, and did exactly what I thought they could do.

They turned Waterford over, running hard at them, pushing up on opposition puck-outs while racing back for the breaks. Simple things yes, but simple things they weren’t doing. Tim O'Mahony came on in the forwards for the first time and