He joined the senior panel in the early 2000s; however, he had to wait several years before he would make a big impact, due to the presence of stalwarts Joe Kavanagh and Colin Corkery playing in his favoured position.
[1] In spite of contributing to this victory he played no part in Nemo's subsequent All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship triumph on St Patrick's Day, 2003.
He won his first county senior championship title on the field of play that year as Muskerry were defeated by ten points.
Masters later secured a second Munster club title; however, Nemo missed out on the ultimate success.
That year, as captain of the team, he won a Munster winners' medal in that competition following a 1–13 ro 0–14 defeat of arch-rivals Kerry.
In a similar pattern to previous encounters Cork failed to beat Kerry at Croke Park.
Both sides met again in the All-Ireland semi-final; however, after a thrilling draw and a replay Kerry were the team that advanced to the championship decider.
In 2009 Cork defeated Kerry in a replay of the provincial semi-final, thus securing a place for Masters's side in a fifth consecutive Munster final.
Limerick provided the opposition on that occasion and, while many expected the game to be a foregone conclusion, Cork had to fight tooth-and-nail for every ball.
For a while it looked as if Limerick would claim an historic victory; however, at the full-time whistle Cork got out of jail and won by just a single point.
Masters decided to withdraw from the Cork panel in March 2010 citing his lack of game time as the reason.
Masters had become a more peripheral figure in the Cork set up throughout 2009 with the emergence of younger players such as Colm O'Neill reducing him to the role of a substitute.