Jackie Tyrrell says there's more room for optimism in Clare than Cork as the counties prepare for a massive Munster SHC clash this weekend.
Both sides came away from the opening weekend of the provincial championship without any points as the Banner lost out to five-in-a-row chasing Limerick, while Cork's defeat to Waterford was more of a surprise.
If there's to be a loser at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh then their chances of a top-three finish in the round-robin will be minimal.
After this weekend, Clare have fixtures to come at home against Waterford while they finish their campaign with a journey to FBD Semple Stadium to take on Tipperary.
For Cork, they'll welcome Limerick to the banks of the Lee on 11 May before, like the Banner, ending the round-robin with a trip to Tipp.
For Tyrrell - who won nine All-Ireland medals in black and amber - Clare have the slightly easier run in, and are at a higher level than Cork.
"They expect to be contesting for Munster Championships and All-Irelands. If they get beaten this weekend it's a long way back.
"If Clare were beaten you could see them somehow getting back into it. If Cork are beaten I don't see where the results are going to come from.
"Clare hurled well for 55 minutes [against Limerick]. They'll probably start Tony Kelly, there are some green shoots. They need to address that collapse and what it looked like, and make sure it doesn't happen again.
"So there is something for them to build on."
Cork lost two games last year and ended up finishing fourth in the Munster table, thus missing out on a run in the All-Ireland championships.
Their solitary championship victory in 2023 came against Waterford, so the reversal against the Déise puts them under massive pressure in Pat Ryan's second season in charge.
"For Cork you'd be saying Alan Connolly played well, Tommy O'Connell put in a fair shift," Tyrrell added when looking for some positivity for the Rebel County.
"Outside of that, where do they go in regards to the three lads who are in their 30s? [Conor Lehane, Séamus Harnedy and Patrick Horgan]. The three lads that played in the All-Ireland in 2013, do you roll the dice with one of them?
"Do you clean slate it and put three new guys in? What do you do with the centre of defence because for Jamie Barron's goal there was no centre of defence.
"Damien Cahalane was sent off, it was probably Ciaran Joyce's poorest performance, so I'd like to think that there's a ratty environment in that dressing room.
"You'd like to think that they're trying to make Páirc Uí Chaoimh a fortress this weekend; the people of Cork should be out.
"Sort of like Tipperary last year when they came to Páirc Uí Chaoimh, that bit of hostility, that bit of anger, it has to come out in the Cork players this week because last week wasn't good enough.
"For Clare it wasn't good enough [either] but at least they performed for three-quarters of that game.
"This is huge, it's monumental for Cork. They lose this weekend - they didn't make it out of round-robin last year - and they're probably not going to qualify this year and there'll be serious questions asked.
"Cork used to be in Croke Park nearly every weekend but they mightn't be in there for another year."
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
