John Cleary happy with Kerry win but staying grounded ahead of Cavan battle 

Cork manager John Cleary wasn’t exactly delighted with his side’s win over Kerry as the Rebels claimed another McGrath Cup title on Saturday afternoon.

At the same time, the Castlehaven clubman was pleased with lots of aspects as his team won on a scoreline of 0-16 to 0-15 against the reigning All-Ireland winners at Fitzgerald Stadium.

The Leesiders landed the last two points to win with Chris Óg Jones getting the winner. It's a third pre-season title on the trot for the Rebels.

It’s Cork’s first win at senior level over the Kingdom in Killarney since 1995.

“We’re all competitive, whatever you’re involved in, if it’s playing cards, if it’s playing tiddlywinks, we like to win,” Cleary said post-match.

“I wouldn’t say we’re delighted, but we’re happier going home winning than not winning because the competitive animal is in us all and everyone tries to win and we won today.

“We’d be hoping that there will be something more at stake the next time we come here.

“The resilience was there because when it comes down the stretch and you get over the line by a point, you kind of have to be happy. But again, around 10 subs on both sides were used, so the game had probably fallen apart for a better word at that stage.

“But look, I was happy that there were a few minutes to go and we got our scores.

“From talking to the Kerry boys, they were delighted to get a good competitive game, and so are we. We got over the line and move on to the league now.” 

Cork did have to dig deep and most certainly ticked a lot of boxes particularly in the second half in terms of their display having trailed by four points at the interval.

“It was a good work-out, that’s what the McGrath Cup is used for, we used 25 players today, that’s not possible in a normal game,” Cleary says.

“On both sides there was a lot of chopping and changing but I wouldn't have been overly happy with the way we played, particularly the first half. We were dead, we were pedestrian and missed scores then as well. Then we came good down the home straight.

“It’s preparation for the league, that’s what it is. That’s what we’re looking forward to now, trying to get going next Sunday against Cavan.

“We’ll need to come on another bit if we’re going to be competitive in the league. In saying that, when the game was there to be won, we won it in the end.

“That was probably a positive. But as I said, with a lot of changes on both teams. The result was immaterial today. What we wanted was a good blowout. We wanted to get minutes into legs and that’s what we got.” 

The serious stuff gets underway next Sunday for Cork when Cavan come to SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh for the opening Allianz Division 2 Football League encounter (1.30pm).