'We’re waiting to sit down with John': Signs point to Cleary remaining as Cork manager

Cork hurling manager Pat Ryan's initial three-year term as Rebels' boss concluded after Sunday's defeat to Tipperary. Cork GAA chairman Pat Horgan said "35 minutes should not define a team or a group".

John Cleary's initial three-year term as Cork football manager ended after the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final defeat to Dublin. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Cork GAA chiefs are confident of having the Cork senior football manager’s position “sorted” by the August County Board meeting, with all indications pointing towards John Cleary remaining in the job.

Cleary’s three-year term concluded on the evening of Cork’s All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final defeat to Dublin, but recent dispatches suggest he is keen to continue for a fourth season, albeit with a shaken-up backroom team.

“We hope to be in a position by August 5, at our next county board meeting, to have sorted the senior football. We will be speaking to John and hopefully we will have that sorted by then,” said Cork GAA chairman Pat Horgan.

When pushed by the Irish Examiner if this was confirmation that Cleary was staying put, Horgan replied “the bottom line is that we are waiting to sit down with John, and once we sit down with John we will then be in a position to finalise it, hopefully”.

Ray O’Mahony’s two-year term as U20 football manager concluded with their comprehensive Munster final defeat to Kerry and so an appointments committee is currently dealing with that vacancy.

Similar to Cleary, Pat Ryan’s three-year term as Cork senior hurling manager came to a close on Sunday evening. Horgan insisted the proximity to Sunday means that position will not be moved on for another couple of weeks.

“We are all tremendously disappointed after the weekend but now is a time for reflection and we'll leave time for reflection. We'll then sit down and talk to everybody concerned.

“In my few words at the banquet, what I said is 35 minutes should not define a team or a group. The one point I made at the banquet very forcibly was that Sunday was our seventh championship game and every single one of them was sold out. That is something the GAA and business community have benefited from considerably. And we are very grateful to our fans for getting behind the team. We are also very grateful to the people who put their hands into their pockets to support the whole thing.” 

Horgan said the executive both understood and supported the decision of the Cork senior hurling management and players to abandon the traditional homecoming.

“The thing about the homecoming is that we had never actually put it in place until we saw what the result was. We respected their wishes that they just didn't want to go through with it, and we said that is fine. I think that is fair and reasonable.

“We had it last year, and I think they deserved a bit of space to themselves. I just think it was going to be so, so difficult for everybody involved. We understood.” 

The county board chairman did not give clarity on when the review recommendations of those who were part of the Cork football 2019-24 plan would be executed and who had been charged with executing them. They included a review of Divisions’ and Colleges’ participation in County Championships, continued focus on the senior development squad, expansion of training hubs across the county, and reform and restructuring of the county coaching committee.

“We have a meeting tonight [Tuesday] on nothing else but football and how we can improve football, and I’ve no doubt we will have lots of discussions between here and the end of the year on football and how we can make progress.”