John Cleary on Cork's season: We would have a lot of regrets 

Cork football boss John Cleary admits there are regrets with how this season panned out.

After reaching the quarter-finals of the All-Ireland in 2022 and 2023, expectations were high on Leeside that the Rebels could make another bit of progress in 2024, but fell at the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final stage following the high-profile one-point defeat to Louth.

Cleary took some time considering his future as boss. He was entitled to a fourth year at the helm having been given a three-year term after his first campaign when he replaced Keith Ricken midstream in 2022. 

Cleary said on Monday evening when speaking to the press at the Oriel House Hotel in Ballincollig, that it was an easy decision in the end to remain on.

“Look, I was kind of asked the day of the Louth game and when you're after a defeat, you haven't had time to talk to any of the backroom team or anything like that,” he says.

“I suppose it was maybe a collective decision with the guys who were with me. We just parked it for a couple of weeks but when we got talking about it again, we decided that we'd go again for another year. I suppose it was an easy decision to stay on. Once the other guys were willing to come on board, I felt happy enough to keep going. During the championship season it can be very intense. And when you're beaten there's kind of a lull straight away. I didn't want to be making a decision for the other lads on my own that day so that's why I just took a bit of time to see where we're at.

“In fairness, there were a few of the players who came to me and asked me not to do anything straight after the match. There would have been feedback from them and it was largely positive, so that did have a bearing on it as well."

Kevin Walsh remaining on board as coach for next season did surprise many, but Cleary says the Galway native didn't need any convincing to stay around. 

"No, he was fine. Kevin is a practical guy so I suppose he wanted to see where we were at. Once we gave it a bit of time and reflected on the whole season rather than the one Louth match, I think we came to a consensus that we were happy enough to go again and so was he. I don't think there was any reluctance. Maybe we just wanted to let things settle and then see where we go again after a week or two."

Now that the dust has firmly settled on Cork’s season, nearly three months on since the one-point loss to Louth, how does Cleary look back on the 2024 campaign?

"I suppose realistically it was a bit mixed,” the Castlehaven club man said.

“We got off to a bad start in the league and then recovered after a good McGrath Cup. We finished the league well, went into the Munster championship and fell short in the Kerry match. In the round-robin, we won a good game in Clare, had a great win against Donegal and then in the last two matches, when you lose you're not happy. We felt that the Tyrone match came down to a minute or two when we missed a goal. We had four on three going in and instead of getting a goal or a score, we got turned over and got a black card. Basically that game should have been even-steven going down the stretch and it wasn't.

“And then against Louth, I did feel that they played very defensive and in the second half we had the opportunities and didn't take them. Even looking back at the video afterwards, I think we missed about 2-6 in the second half. We only scored 1-8, which we know isn't good enough. But we did feel that we definitely left that game behind us. The opportunity was there, we didn't take the scores and it was a disappointing end to the campaign in that regard.

“There was a narrative there that we should have went at it a bit more. We had got a goal before half-time and were three up. They came back at us and the game was in the melting pot. We created the scoring opportunities but didn't take them. 

"We definitely had two gilt-edged scoring opportunities and five or six point opportunities, and if we had taken two or three of them...then it came down to a draw game and we shouldn't have been in that position. Tough referee's decision, but we shouldn't have been in that position, we should have been four or five up, particularly up there with a partisan crowd and a tight pitch. We had the opportunities, but I felt we didn't take them.” 

It was a season that expected much but failed to deliver from a Cork point of view. It was the most open All-Ireland football championship in many years. Cleary is confident this group of Rebels can come back stronger in 2025.

"A lot of teams, including ourselves, had a lot of regrets this year,” he said.

“We were in pole position and we didn't take the opportunity that was there. Likewise, I think Kerry were in a very good position, Galway were, Donegal were, and it was Armagh who went and took it in the end. From our point of view, definitely, we would have a lot of regrets in that there was an opportunity there, the door was open, and we didn't take it. We didn't become a bad team overnight, so that tells me definitely the potential is there, the players are there. It is just in those big moments we fell short when it really mattered.”