John Cleary 'not totally surprised' at Cork league form drop off but remains optimistic
Cork manager John Cleary suffered the biggest defeat of his reign against Derry. Pic: James Lawlor/Inpho
Early Tuesday evening at Páirc Uí Rinn. Members of the Cork football backroom team come through the main door in dribs and drabs. The medical and logistic personnel arrive in hands full.
Manager John Cleary occupies a disused office upstairs. He is attempting to justify Cork’s changed League reality.
Nine days earlier, Cork’s League reality was four wins from four and control of their promotion fate. Then Celtic Park happened.
Even in the best of form, there was always a doubt about Cork going all the way up to Derry and collecting maximum points. That doubt turned to outright scepticism when Ian Maguire’s suspension-enforced absence was followed by the injury withdrawals of Tommy Walsh and Mark Cronin.
Defeat thus became tolerable, or as tolerable as defeat can be.
What nobody had bargained for was the biggest defeat of John Cleary’s reign. The 20-point pummeling has placed their promotion fate in the hands of Derry and Meath. That they all sit on eight points doesn’t tell even half the story. The full picture is their respective score difference totals of +46 (Derry), +18 (Meath), and -7 (Cork).
So when John Cleary tells us that had he been offered four wins from five at the start of the League, you believe every word he is saying. But in the context of where they sat two weeks ago, all pre-League offerings, expectations, and otherwise are irrelevant. Cork were in control. Now they’re not.
“I’ve said before that our league was a bit frontloaded, with maybe the easier type games at the start, and we had always a notion that this was going to be the way it was going to be,” Cleary begins.
“We expected Tyrone to be in the mix as well, and so it left us in our last four games playing, in particular, Tyrone, Derry and Meath, so we knew that's where the league was going to be and so we’re not totally, totally surprised.
“If we had beaten these top-four teams, it could be different, but realistically, we're happy enough to be four out of five and we'll just see now where the weekend takes us. Meath or Derry don't have easy games either. We're still looking for one of the other teams to do us a favour, but all we're concentrating on is Kildare.”
We’ll come to the Lilywhites shortly. Celtic Park requires further introspection. Cleary accepts that the second 35 minutes was one of the worst halves of football of his four-year reign.
Behind by four at the break and now battling into the wind, Cork were beaten out the gate in the second period. They finished 1-31 to 0-14 adrift.
From 15 second-half attacks, they mined just 0-5. Their kickout was utterly dismantled. Micheál Aodh Martin’s first seven long restarts were lost. Included in that was a six in-a-row sequence. Four of them resulted in scores; three white flags, one orange. They lost 12 of their 21 second-half kickouts. Derry registered 0-9 in the process. Derry outscored them 0-21 to the aforementioned 0-5.
“We had a tough game the week before against Meath, bodies might have been a bit tired, and in the second half when they started to take over midfield, any bit of possession we had we forced, which led to turnovers. It was the one half in the year that our game-management didn't work that well,” the Cork manager continued.
Cleary was correct to state post-match at Celtic Park that there was no need to throw all toys out of the pram. That result might well end up costing them a return to Division 1, but the body of work that came before, and that can be further layered against Kildare this weekend and Tyrone the next, can be carried into championship.
“This is probably the strongest panel we've had. Our game management in the first four rounds was better than previously. The Cavan game, we didn't panic coming down the straight. We were under severe pressure and previously people would have lost the run of themselves and started trying to shoot from everywhere.
“Similarly, the game in Louth, we were ahead and we managed it very well in the second half, let them come at us and picked away our scores. Our game management again against Meath was very, very good, particularly coming down the home straight. That would be the one thing we've definitely improved on this year.”
Cork have beaten Kildare in their two League meetings - 2023 and ‘24 - on Cleary’s watch. The job is to extend that run. The hope is that Louth or Tyrone might give them a dig out at Ardee or Croke Park.
“We have to concentrate on here at Páirc Uí Rinn. All we're interested in is getting a win and let the rest take care of itself,” he concluded.
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