Noel O’Leary: Retirements shouldn’t be on agenda for Cork

Former Cork footballer Noel O’Leary doesn’t expect a raft of retirements following Saturday’s All-Ireland SFC defeat to Kildare. 

The defeat in Thurles marked the first time since 2004 Cork failed to reach the All-Ireland quarter-finals but, of the starting 15, only 34-year-old Donncha O’Connor and Alan O’Connor, who turned 30 in June, are out of their 20s.

O’Leary, who departed the inter-county scene two years ago, hopes none of his former team-mates will want to leave on such a low note, while he believes manager Brian Cuthbert “has a lot of thinking to do” as regards staying on. “Being honest, I’d be very slow to see it, or to tell any of them to contemplate that,” he said.