Jimmy Barry-Murphy admitted the magnitude of the defeat to Kilkenny is a big setback to Cork.

"It is a steep learning curve and we just got a big knock back today," the Cork manager acknowledged.

"It's our job as the management team to get them up for the championship. It is a steep learning curve and we took a lot of positives from the league but I would have to say that the comprehensive defeat today knocks confidence in you and I hope that it won't set the players back too much.

"I have been on the receiving end of Kilkenny before," he added.

"It is just very disappointing for the team and the supporters to lose by so much and I am disappointed for them but we were always going to get knocks along the way. We are developing a young team, I am just very disappointed that we did not show what we are capable of today."

"We will just have to learn. We did not play our own game and we did not play as well as we can. It is as simple as that.

"I think we were very nervous on, funnily enough. I didn't see why we would be but we were very nervous early on. We seemed a bit overawed by the occasion so maybe it is a learning process for some of the lads, I really don't know but we did look nervous early on." Tweet

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