Kingston: Mocks are over, it's time for the real exams

Cork hurling boss Kieran Kingston will be pressing the 'reset' button, rather than the 'panic' button ahead of the Munster Championship despite shipping four goals to Waterford in their National League final defeat on Saturday night.

Stephen Bennett had a field day up front for the Déise as they sealed the Division One crown with a 4-20 to 1-23 victory over the Rebels at Semple Stadium.

But Kingston partly put the victory down to "60 seconds of madness" in the first half, which saw Waterford find the net twice in a minute and break the game wide open. Cork would never recover.

"It's not back to the drawing board after one game," Kingston tole RTÉ Sport after the game. "If we'd lost to Kilkenny last week by a point, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"We'll take a lot from the league, we learned a lot from [the final], obviously, and we'll learn a lot from the season.

Recap: AHL Division 1 final - Waterford 4-20 Cork 1-23

All-Ireland champions Limerick await Kingston's men on the opening weekend of the Championship in a fortnight. The Rebel boss is determined to have his troops studied up for the ultimate hurling test.

"Sometimes you learn more when you lose than you do when you win," he said.

"Now, the pre-Leaving is over. We've got to press the 'reset' button and get ready for the Leaving Cert - starting off in two weeks' time."