John Cleary: Football now 'way more enjoyable to coach'

John Cleary was non-committal on his Cork future but admits job is now more fun

Sun, 22 Jun, 2025 - 14:15

John Fogarty

John Cleary was making no declarations about his future only to highlight his current term as Cork boss has concluded, yet he revealed the new rules have made his role more pleasurable.

Cleary’s four-year term concluded with Saturday’s season-ending loss to Dublin and while he will have strong backing to remain on, the commitment is considerable for him and his management.

“I won't say anything at the moment. My term is up now, I've been four years in it, and as anyone will know it's tough going, but look, we'll see during the week, or we'll talk to the relevant parties or whatever. But look, at this stage now, my term is up, so we'll see what the future holds going forward.”

However, Cleary made it clear that he is enjoying coaching more than ever because of the changes to the game.

“The rules definitely have opened the whole thing up completely, in that prior to this you could keep yourself in a game by putting 15 behind the ball. Now you've got to go and play and a lot of teams have discovered that they have very good players when they're allowed to express themselves and go for it.

“But there wasn't much point, the last couple of years, trying to go for it, when you were facing 15. They just ground you down, and they broke up and maybe got a score and maybe won the game 10 points to nine or whatever.

“But as regards to the championship, it is very open. There was five of us talking the other night, and five of us picked different (counties), what we thought would win the All-Ireland. So, I think that's where we're at now and I think it's something great to look forward to for the next few weeks.

“We're awfully disappointed that we're not in that mix now and we would love to be because the football this year, it has been way more enjoyable to coach, more enjoyable to watch, and the lads are even saying it's way more enjoyable to play.

"Overall, I think it's been a super championship and I think probably the best is yet to come for the next few weeks.”

On top of some surprise results, Dublin manager Dessie Farrell also believes the rules have contributed to levelling out the playing field. “It's more what the impact the rules are having on the game, I think, rather than the actual specifics of the rules themselves.

“It seems to be a leveller. It's hard to maybe qualify why that is the case, but definitely it seems to be so. I think a lot of teams have really embraced the change-up.

“The couple of turn-ups for the books gives other teams confidence as well. You see before us, the Dublin hurlers, even on the football side of things, that gives people confidence as well.

“There's nothing gifted to you anymore, and you can't take anything for granted. Every game from here is going to be a proper contest, you would imagine.”