Cork GAA CEO O'Donovan: Cork footballers 'starting to look like a serious team'

While Páirc Uí Rinn has served the Cork footballers well, the long-term aim is to having them playing in front of 30,000 supporters at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Cork GAA CEO Kevin O'Donovan said keeping manager John Cleary in place has been key in the rise of the county's footballers. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Cork GAA CEO Kevin O'Donovan said the county's footballers are starting to look like a "serious team" even if there remains a "long way to go" before they return to the heights of the 2010 All-Ireland win.

"The curve is still upwards, and it has been a slow burn," O'Donovan told the Southern Star's Star Sport Podcast.

"I don’t think there has been any dramatic turnaround. It’s people putting their shoulders to the wheel and working hard.

"If you look at the senior team, John Cleary is on a five-year journey. That’s how long it has taken. It’s the same with the U20s and the minors. It’s not some eureka moment. It’s hard work, with people edging their way forward and us climbing inch by inch back towards the top ranks.

"Consistency is what haunted us for the last few years, and that is starting to bed down now. We are starting to look like a serious team.

"There is still a long way to go for Cork football to get back to the days of 2010, but moving in the right direction."

O'Donovan said continuity has been a key element in the footballers' rise. 

"You have to leave management teams in place and have consistency of selection over time when you are trying to make it up," he said. 

"On the playing side, we haven’t had huge success at U20 level over the last five years, so there hasn’t been the same pipeline in football as there has been in hurling. I feel John has done a fantastic job, at times without the resources we would have in hurling, and has built it."

Páirc Uí Rinn has become home for the Cork footballers. O'Donovan is open to the notion of playing games outside the city but ultimately wants Cleary's team lining out regularly in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

"I’d be eager to explore any option like that with Cork football that would be a little more innovative in terms of reaching out," he said.

"We would all love a league game in West Cork. That seems beyond us at the moment. We would all love a McGrath Cup game in West Cork. That seems possible, and we will always look at that one.

"Páirc Uí Rinn is a double-edged sword for me. The connection we have had with supporters there, and the pitch invasions over the last couple of years, have been fantastic. 

"The flip side is that I believe Cork should have 30,000 at their football games. Building the brand and the connection with supporters, our home is SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh. I want the footballers to be treated the same as the hurlers.

"I want Cork and Kerry in a Munster final in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh with 40,000 supporters screaming for our team."

The Cork minors have reached the All-Ireland final, where they will face Tyrone. O'Donovan said manager Keith Ricken is a "messiah" for young players.

"The diversity of clubs in the panel, from East Cork, North Cork and small West Cork clubs, is a tribute to him and to the development squad structures in place. The players have been found," said O'Donovan.

"There is no dual overlap at the moment. That is another thing we have got right. You are not going to beat the Kerrys or the Derrys of this world if you have players dividing their time across both codes at elite level. That is just an unfortunate reality."

He added: "There are good signs, but you would like to put that down for three or four years at minor level before you count any chickens or talk about it going on to U20 and senior.

"U17 is so young now. There are green shoots, but we won’t be building houses on it yet. We would like to replicate it over a number of years."

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