When he reflects on Saturday's events on Leeside and begins preparations for Cork's round three qualifier, Ronan McCarthy can look back with plenty of satisfaction on his side's performance.
Cork restored pride in pressing Kerry to the end, losing by three points just 12 months on from their 17-point demolition at the hands of their old rivals.
"If I say that that’s fine, I’m saying that it’s almost okay to lose the game,” Rebels boss McCarthy said. “We came up believing we would win the game and have fallen short.
“I’ll gave an example, the 2016 All-Ireland semi-final between Dublin and Kerry, which Kerry lost, even though they were beaten, they played with real honour.
“I felt our lads played with real honour tonight and spirit, but we have to regroup, learn from our mistakes, look forward to another big challenge.
“I’m sure we’re going to get another bumper team in the qualifiers but I’m looking forward to that.”
Cork will be in the pot this morning for the third round draw and can look forward with some optimism to what's still ahead, despite the presence of plenty of big teams in it.
“Through the league, I kept telling people that the quality was there, the character was there, the application was there." said McCarthy.
“I had no worries about Liam O’Donovan or Matty Taylor or these fellas, they absolutely live for it and they’re machines when it comes to physical fitness, two small men with big hearts.
“There were others, (James) Loughrey and (Paul) Kerrigan ran themselves into the ground but I’m not surprised by that, it was what I expected from them.
"The key thing in that is whoever we get in the draw, we feel we’ll have the capability of beating them.
"But we’ll have to gather ourselves again, get back in Monday for recovery, be back in Tuesday.
"We will have regrets, that’s part of the learning process but if we learn from that, I think we’ll be a handful for anyone, whoever we get in the qualifiers."
One player who almost had his name in lights at Pairc Ui Chaoimh was Ruairi Deane, who had a couple of goal efforts thwarted.
But McCarthy believes the 27-year-old forward - who skippered Cork to junior All-Ireland success a few years back - is capable of big things at the highest level.
“I think Ruairí, and I’m not exaggerating, is heading in the direction where he’s in the top 10 players in the country,” he said.
“Certainly he could become top three. He has gone to another level, he had a good duel with Gavin White but as the game went on Ruairí came stronger and stronger into the game when we needed him.
“It’s what I expect from him at this stage”.
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
