Cork footballers revamp panel as six players depart

The Cork footballers started their pre-season training last Sunday with the new league season seven weeks away.

John Cleary’s side face Meath in their opening Allianz Division 2 football league match at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday, January 25 at 5pm. The Rebels will be determined to have a strong campaign overall with the first objective of challenging for promotion.

There has been a lot of change so far in the off-season at inter-county level for the Leesiders.

Six players have departed the panel including three retirements in John O’Rourke, Killian O’Hanlon and Thomas Clancy with Steven Sherlock and Damien Gore opting out for 2025. Kevin Flahive will be travelling and will be a loss in defence.

In fact, all of the players will be losses no matter what way you look at it. You could argue with a couple that they were injury prone and didn’t exactly play a considerable amount in recent years and there does comes a time when you just have to make the big decision.

But, losing six players in one go is significant, with Sherlock being the main one. He was top scorer in the McCarthy Insurance Group Premier SFC this year and while the St Finbarr's player might not have blistering pace for inter-county level, there is no doubt that he’s a classy footballer. 

There aren’t too many of his calibre on Leeside.

And also with the new rules coming in, it could be argued that it would have suited him, especially the two-point for a score outside the 40-metre arc.

NEW BLOOD

There are new faces on the training panel for the new season, with the likes of Dano Dineen, Bríain Murphy, Colin Molloy, Éanna O’Hanlon and Gerry O’Sullivan just some of the new blood. 

Cork boss John Cleary is fully aware that there will be added pressure next year to challenge for promotion in Division 2. The Castlehaven club man is going into his third and final year on his term that was agreed in the summer of 2022. Before that, he was interim boss for the majority of the 2022 campaign. 

It was a long road up to Inniskeen in Monaghan for Cork’s preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final against Louth back in June, but it was a longer road back after the 1-9 to 1-8 defeat. Whatever about losing, the Rebels didn’t exactly deliver in what was a disappointing display with ponderous play and poor shooting the key takeaways.

The Leesiders didn’t fully click in 2024 for one reason or another. 

There were flashes in many games, but Cork never replicated their form from 2023 that saw them reach the All-Ireland quarter-final for the second year on the bounce.

After the progress stalled this year, Cleary knows 2025 has to be much better, in performances and most importantly results.