Ciarán Joyce’s right hand was bloodied without the bandages but as the Mick Mackey Cup was being passed around him in the stand also named after the Limerick great the beaming smile on his face told no story of pain.

It was in such stark contrast to the despondency he wore coming off the same Gaelic Grounds field 20 days earlier after Cork were trimmed by 16 points.

The turnaround, he said, was built on realising they simply hadn’t turned up for that clash with Limerick. “The last three weeks in training was phenomenal. It was a real kick up the ass, to be honest with you. I’m lost for words. It’s some feeling. In their own backyard as well, it adds to it. You can see how starved for success the Cork crowd are too.

“(There were) no harsh words but our work-rate was questioned in that game and any time your work-rate is questioned, it does get to you because you put so much into it.

“You could see today that we fought tooth and nail for every ball and it’s an unreal feeling when everyone in the 15 is fighting like that.”

Centre-back Joyce pointed to last year’s All-Ireland final defeat to Clare after extra-time as a valuable if tough lesson as they were involved in another decider that couldn’t be determined after normal time.

“There’s savage character in this group. Last year when we got to extra-time in the All-Ireland final, we learned a lot from that. We stuck to our gameplan and we didn’t in the final last year.”

Four weeks has tripped up Munster champions before such as Limerick against Cork last year and Cork themselves in 2018. It’s new territory for many of their players but Joyce senses it will benefit the county on this occasion.

“We’ll celebrate. Four weeks is something we’re not used to but we’ve a lot of injuries, so I think it will suit us and we’ll see now who we’ll be playing in the semi-final.”

Source: Irish Examiner