I'm not saying that at all but that's the story of Cork football, the facts are there under Billy Morgan they got to 4 AI finals to win 2 and under Conor Counihan they got to 3 AI finals to win 1. In 1973 no team came within 7 points of Cork in the whole championship despite the Rebels losing Billy Field & Denis Allen and yet that Cork team couldn't win a 2nd AI title even when Allen returned. Morgan and Counihan still hold a distinction as AI winning players and managers. As a manager I thought he was conservative and too loyal to the guy that committed to football and didn't seem to have loyalty to the inter-county dual player e.g. when he played Kieran O'Connor instead of Eoin Cadogan in the 2009 AI final when Ray Carey was ruled out injured.
Your story regarding Haulie O'Neill is as much pie in the sky as your line that there should be 6 Clon players involved with the current Cork team when half of these guys won't turn up and the other half are almost permanently injured. If Haulie was apprehended for the job by Frank then there should be a lot more noise especially coming on the back of strikes if Haulie wanted the job. I heard a lot regarding John Fintan Daly's position but nothing regarding Haulie.
You are over rating the Cork players of that era and forgetting that Cork then had to deal mainly with Kerry twice in championship per year unlike the Morgan era. As good as Colm O'Neill and Donnacha O'Connor were Kerry had the Gooch and Declan O'Sullivan. 2019 was the only year that could have been different as in my aforementioned comment regarding Counihan's selection and if Marty Duffy did his job, in 2017 Cork were just not good enough to conquer Sam and in 2010 a little lucky they didn't have to play Kerry in the final.