Where do Cork go from here?

Two points scored in the second half. It’s frightening how quickly a game can swing.

The wait goes on.

And Cork have no one to blame but themselves. Granted, Tipperary were excellent in that second half. Some of their scores were outrageous. But to see Cork get ripped apart so easily after being so exceptional all season is incredible.

It goes to show why this sport is the greatest in the world. No one would have imagined Tipperary getting to the All-Ireland final, let alone winning it. And fair play to them.

DESERVED 

Tipp deserved every bit of that win. Eoin Downey’s red card certainly played a part, but it’s no excuse. Tipperary had already reeled off 1-5 11 minutes into the second half. They were in front and in control before that penalty was scored.

That first goal really gave them the belief. Jake Morris’s shot in that Patrick Collins saved, but he parried it too far and John McGrath was there to bury it. It was a gift from Cork. A gift that Tipperary used as the springboard.

Then, for the next – Michael Breen found McGrath, Downey was caught between a rock and a hard place, and brought him down. That was it, from there Tipperary were never going to lose it.

Darragh McCarthy finished with prowess. But to make matters worse, Tipp kept going. They were unstoppable. And Cork were annihilated.

Eoghan Connolly’s ball in, expertly read by McGrath. The cheeky flick, the Tipp crowd in shock and awe as Collins looks back with that same feeling of disbelief.

How the Rebels not only let it slip, but let themselves be torn apart is truly astonishing. It was hard to watch from a Cork perspective.

MOMENTS 

It took the two teams a while to get settled, unsurprisingly. The first quarter was a cagey one. Both sides were guilty of poor shot selection and shooting.

But there were several moments of quality. More often than not in the first period, those moments were created by Cork.

That 15th minute point was brilliantly worked between Ciarán Joyce, Tim O’Mahony, Patrick Horgan and Brian Hayes. That left Cork 0-6 to 0-4 up.

Six minutes later we were treated to Hoggy’s beauty over the shoulder, assisted by Barrett.

But Tipp had chances. Eoghan Connolly’s glaring miss across goal looked like a worrying one. When they did finally rattle the net, Jason Forde was deemed to be in the square. A gutting one for Tipp, given how threatening the ball in from Connolly was and how well Forde had done to flick it beyond Collins.

It took until the end of the half, but Cork would eventually punish Tipp for their prior lapses. Tipp played the puckout short, the deep pass was intercepted by Rob Downey.

He kickstarted one of those gallops, reminiscent of his goal against Clare in last year’s final. Instead, he handpassed to Coleman, who immediately offloaded to Barrett. The Blarney man closed the space and buried it into the far corner. Six point advantage. Rebels soaring, 35 minutes from ending that drought.

WHERE TO GO FROM HERE 

I struggle to see how Cork can recover from not just a brutal beatdown, but losing in the decider by such a hefty margin, having done almost everything right in the league and championship up to that point.

This one is going to hurt for quite some time. Cork poured everything into this season and ending that drought. You can see that. The players believed, the fans believed. But they leave Croke Park without Liam MacCarthy.

We’ll see how it shakes up in the coming months, but I can’t see Cork coming out next season with the same 15 and the same management team.

Taking the season as a whole, you can’t fault anyone’s effort. But I struggle to see how Cork are going to reach that same level without changing something.

Whether they take a page out of Tipp’s book and bring in underage stars to replace their most experienced players, or just reshuffle the management, something has to give.