Bill Cooper admits Cork's hurlers have fallen behind "the rest of the leading pack".

The Leesiders open their Munster SHC campaign against Tipperary at Semple Stadium on Sunday and influential attacker Cooper knows it's going to be a major test for the 2013 All-Ireland finalists:

"People are talking about the counties they're talking about with good reason," he said at the launch of the provincial championship yesterday. "We haven't shown - we've been well behind the rest of the leading pack, we are where we are because of how we've been performing.

"Other counties have improved and we probably still have some development to do, I'm not sure if it's one particular thing. We're concentrating on ourselves. We know we have strengths in the group too, we're not doom and gloom by any means. We have a tough task ahead of us but we'll be looking to give a performance.

"We know we're a long way behind the Tipperarys and the Kilkennys, Waterford, the other teams, we're under no illusions about the amount of ground we need to make up."

Reflecting on the Rebels' twelve-point league defeat at the hands of the Premier County in March, Cooper adds: "To be honest, it wasn't a dead rubber to us. We were looking to win the game and they were far too good for us. In that sense we've a lot of ground to make up - they opened us up at times. They were very good and we haven't had too much joy against them in recent years, so it's going to be a tough ask."

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