Cork hurling manager Kieran Kingston says the Allianz League campaign left him with a sense of disappointment.
His Rebels side kick off their Munster championship against Tipperary on May 22nd.
But he will certainly want to see an improvement from their league form which saw them lose all five of their regular games but avoid relegation by beating Galway in a playoff.
"We set out our stall in the league before we met in terms of what we wanted to do throughout the league. In no way did it include fighting relegation, lets be honest about it," Kingston told Newstalk Sports' Oisin Langan.
"We didn't want to be in a relegation fight, we were disappointed our league performances outside of the Kilkenny game and even that game, that was a game we should have won, so we didn't close it out when we should have, which is disappointing. And some of our defeats were disappointing. There was no masterplan whereby we would win our last game and we'd feel we were in a better position than we were before the league started."
Kingston also suggested the door remains open for players who were left out of Cork's All-Ireland championship panel and also feels there is no expectation on Cork as they prepare for Tipp.
"Certainly from our perspective, it's well documented, well commented on that we don't have much of a chance going up there and that's everybody says and there's no expectation on Cork going up there and we know that. Tipperary are a fantastic team playing in Thurles, so it's a huge ask and we know that," he said.
Listen to the full interview on the podcast player, as well as an interview with Tipp's Brendan Maher:
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