Selector Ray Keane opts out of Cork football backroom team

STANDING ASIDE: Ray Keane won't be part of Cork's backroom team for 2023. File pic: James Crombie

Kerryman Ray Keane won’t be part of the Cork football backroom team for 2023, with his absence as a selector with the team going forward confirmed by manager John Cleary after the McGrath Cup victory against Clare in Quilty.

Keane wasn’t present for the game, with Cleary revealing that the Cahersiveen-native, who was one of four selectors along with Micheál Ó Croinín, Barry Corkery and James Loughery, has pulled out during the past week.

“Ray has work commitments and was unable to commit,” revealed Cleary. “He has work and family commitments and he has his own business — he came to us during the week and said that he just couldn’t make it work.

“We are very sorry to lose him, but he has offered to do any background work for us going forward during the year but just can’t commit to being a selector at the moment,” he added.

Asked whether Keane, who is a brother of former Kerry manger Peter Keane, would be replaced as a selector, Cleary said, “we’re probably not sure and we will think about it over the next week or so”.

He joined up with the Cork squad last season, when becoming part of the management team put in place by Keith Ricken when he succeeded Ronan McCarthy as the Rebels' boss for the 2022 season.

Ricken was subsequently forced to stand back temporarily as manager last April because of health reasons, with Cleary coming in as interim manager, before he stepped aside altogether from the role last July, allowing the Castlehaven man to assume the reins permanently.