Barry-Murphy 'can't wait' for 2016
Galway v Cork - GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-Final
Barry-Murphy 'can't wait' for 2016
Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy was in bullish humour after his side's 12-point hammering by Galway and insisted that he would be Rebels boss again in 2016.
This defeat brought to an end the fourth season of his second spell in charge. Cork have won one Munster title and made an All-Ireland final in that time, but their last two Championship exits - against Tipp last year and Galway this time out - have been limp.
"I can't wait for next year," he said. "I believe there's a great future for the Cork players. I'll leave it at what I said there now."
With that, the always courteous JBM concluded the interview, with some concluding that his remarks were meant to be interpreted as tongue-in-cheek. He also repeated the same mantra twice in an interview with Joanne Cantwell on RTÉ television.
Earlier on in his meeting with the media he admitted that the Rebels simply weren't good enough to beat Galway and that Damien Cahalane's second half red card was the final nail in their coffin.
"From that point of view, it wasn't looking good but we were hoping to make a fight of it. Losing a man, obviously, was a setback but when you play you have to hold your hands up and say you just weren't good enough on the day," said the All-Ireland winning player and manager.
"We were accused earlier in the year of having no tactics, then we tried a different system of defensive play.
"Every game you play you try to assess what's good for the team and the panel of players available to you. As I said, the lads have given us everything over the last four years, we've been competing at the highest level but just fallen short."