“It’s an incentive, of course it is, because realistically one rubs off the other. If the Páirc is open in time and if it includes Cork in the final. Cork [hurlers] owe Limerick a game away, so that rules that out, but it’s amazing now, after beating Tipp, that everyone is saying ‘wouldn’t it be great now if we were in the Munster final and it was in the Páirc?’

“I’m sure the county board will pull out all the stops to have both finals there, if Cork are in the hurling final, as well as the football one against Kerry.

“There’s a little driven man inside the footballers’ heads saying they have a chance to face Kerry in a Munster final in the Páirc, no disrespect to Waterford or Tipperary. To be the team that represents Cork in the opening of the Páirc would be big. There’s an added incentive for them and everybody needs a jolt now and again and that might be the one that’s required. What better way to open your own new grounds than with your two teams in Munster finals?”

Like most observers, McCarthy anticipates a handsome win for Cork over Waterford, but he is concerned at how the Rebels have lost leads in the spring and before. He’s also slightly alarmed at the lack of under-age talent making the transition to senior level.

“Tradition in Cork doesn’t say we should be winning an All-Ireland every third or fourth year. Some people say tradition should go out the window, but it doesn’t work that way. Cork have only won seven [senior] All-Irelands in football and that’s not exactly something to be writing home about. We’ve been there or thereabouts, but we haven’t been winning them on a regular basis.

“In saying that, up to this year our underage structure has been quite competitive without winning major silverware, but I’d just love to know where that has gone now. Under John Cleary, Cork won five or six Munster championships, which is a tall order, but I don’t see enough of them coming through. The players are the people in the pole position. I’ve only seen a couple of their league games, but they seem to be losing leads very easily. They can be comfortable at times, they can be awesome at times, but the next thing a bit of pressure comes on and they are in trouble. I just think they’re lacking a bit of leadership and the players who are there have to take responsibility and realise they’re the leaders and don’t mind making excuses.”

Although he sees the footballers’ path to a Páirc Uí Chaoimh Munster final being more straightforward than the hurlers’ route, that’s not to say McCarthy isn’t worried by how Peadar Healy’s side’s Division 2 league campaign developed and their failure to be promoted, as the hurlers retained their Division 1 status.

“It was a different scenario for the hurlers in the league from the footballers. The hurlers consolidated themselves and, from where they were coming from, I felt they had a reasonably good league. It gave them that bit of impetus going into the championship, whereas you couldn’t say the same for the footballers.

“The league was very disappointing for the footballers, in general. I just wonder if the confidence is at a low ebb. Listening to the hurling management going into the Tipperary match, they were very confident that the players were going very well in training.”