‘I wasn’t 100% for it’ – Steven Sherlock explains decision to step away from Cork and why he's back
Steven Sherlock, St Finbarr's, kicks a free against Clonakilty during their PSFC game this season at Bandon. Picture: Jim Coughlan.
For the Cork footballers last season, one name lingered in the background more than most – Steven Sherlock. Not on the pitch, not in red, but in conversation.
As Cork adjusted to a new brand of football that promised freedom and flair, they struggled to turn those freedoms into scores. The county’s most natural finisher was elsewhere, kicking hurling tallies for the Barrs in the league and, for once, enjoying the rarest thing in his career – time.
Now, Sherlock is back. The St Finbarr’s forward has confirmed his return to inter-county football for 2026, following what he calls a “necessary pause”.
“My ambition at the start of last year was to just kind of take a year out and see where I was. Like inter-county is a fair, fair commitment,” he explains. “If you’re not 100%, it’s unfair on management, players, backroom and everything like that.
“And to be honest, I just didn't feel like I was 100% for it.
“I said I’d go and play with the club for the year, see how I get on. Everything went well, and I decided there in the last number of weeks that I’d go back and give it a crack.”
It wasn’t just rest that rekindled the spark – it was the rule changes that breathed life into football again.
“With the new rules at the moment, they’re extremely enjoyable. You want to be able to test yourself, with the new rules against the best defenders in the country, and embrace the new rules, because I think that's all part and parcel of it.
“Fifteen men behind the ball, less than 10 scores nearly every game, that’s not football,” he says. “It’s been huge this year with the amount of scoring that's going on and stuff like that and it's been fantastic, so long may it continue.
“Even on Clubber, you're watching a game from, Roscommon, Monaghan, Kildare, you could be watching any club team and I could safely say if that was last year, you'd turn it off.
“Because football has got so exciting now, you're staying there, you're watching it, you're watching different club games, you're watching different counties, fellas have a really interest in it and it's only gotten better for the game of football.
“I just think like it had to change and everybody's delighted. I don't think there's anybody really out there that's saying a bad word about football at the moment, so it’s brilliant.” At club level, Sherlock has seen first-hand how those changes can reshape momentum.
“We lost to Nemo in 2022, and we lost two consecutive semi-finals too,” he says. “For us, we’ve been relatively disappointed the last number of years. I just think even with this year, even the new rules, I know we keep talking about it, but it kind of felt fresh.
“We wanted to make that be a fresh start with this group of lads, to try and move on as best we could. We put a big emphasis on the league and we won that, and look, we got off a rocky start in the championship.
“We'd had a number of players kind of coming back from inter-county duty, and we weren't gelling as much as we'd like to. But the more the season has gone on we kind of started to gel.
“We've got more lads on the pitch training and fellas back from injuries and all that type of, so we're in a good position now. But at the end of the day, in the Premier Senior championship, if you don't perform, you don't win.
“From here on in, it's just all about performing.”
With inter-county commitments parked and his focus fixed on the Barrs, did the thought ever cross Sherlock’s mind to dust off the hurl and go back to the small ball?
“No, not really. I suppose it would have been in the back of the head at the start of the year, but the year out was just to concentrate on the new rules and trying to get back with playing bit of club football and all that.
“That was just kind of my ambition for the year,” Sherlock explains. “Give the league a good crack, and enjoy aspects of life as well, which has to be done too. The way the year has panned out, I couldn’t ask for better at the moment.
“I played hurling for a while, up until minor and kind of one or two cameos senior as well, to be forgotten!” he laughs. “It's very hard as well when you're playing with Cork and stuff like that to go back and play hurling and it's one of those games where the skill level is through the roof.
“At the moment, all I’m good at is Poc Fada I’d say! We’d do that regularly during the summer with the lads just to practice for the winter.
“At the moment, I’m 2-0 in Poc Fada’s for the year so yeah, not that skilful!” He laughs about Poc Fadas and lost hurling touch, but there’s a contentment there too. A season spent with his club brought back the joy in football – and that’s worth more than any rest.
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