Pat Ryan says his Cork players didn't feel sorry for themselves as they delivered a first Allianz Hurling League title since 1998 this afternoon, following on from defeat in last year's All-Ireland final.
But the sense of satisfaction comes with a health warning ahead of the start of the Munster championship in two weeks' time.
The Rebels' victory over Tipperary at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh was built on a strong first-half showing as goals from Alan Connolly, Darragh Fitzgibbon, and Ethan Twomey put them 13 points clear at the break.
The second half was less impressive but, after losing the biggest game in the sport last July, Ryan was happy that his players stood up to be counted when the next national trophy was up for grabs.
"I thought we went at the game really hard," he said on RTÉ's Sunday Sport afterwards.
"We've taken the league kind of seriously to a degree in that we wanted to find players and try and get better.
"Coming after an All-Ireland final loss you're trying to see are the lads up for it and ready to go.
"They didn't feel sorry for themselves. They've trained hard and we've got better over the league. But league is one thing but championship is where it's at."
Cork begin their Munster title bid at the home of All-Ireland champions Clare in Ennis on 20 April. It's a repeat of that Liam MacCarthy match from last July but, while the Rebels will go into it as National League champions, the Banner begin the defence of the Bob Mackey Cup off the back of relegation in the spring.
Ryan is hoping to use that contrast in results as they look to gain some revenge for that All-Ireland final defeat.
"It's just getting fellas ready - today was as good a preparation as you could get," he continued.
" It was a really good match. That the fellas will focus on and get better on. At the same time, it was great from our perspective as well that it wasn't all rosy in the garden.
" We'll go after the lads and look, they'll be disappointed with their second-half performance. We'll try to take the positives out of the first half and see can we build.
"We'll need a 70-minute performance of what we gave in the first half today if we want to beat Clare above in Ennis."
