WILL he stay or will he go? That’s a question Cork football fans are asking this week after John Cleary remained tight-lipped on his future as Rebels’ senior football manager following the All-Ireland exit to Dublin.
The Castlehaven man has been in the hot seat for four seasons, having taken over as interim manager in 2022 after Keith Ricken stepped back due to health reasons. Cleary was then handed a three-year term in the summer of 2022 – that came to end when Cork were knocked out by Dublin last Saturday.
It remains to be seen whether Cleary will stay on as Cork boss for 2026. He had suggested after last season’s exit that he needed time to think about his future, and the same applies now.
‘I won’t say anything at the moment. My term is up now. I have been four years at it and as anyone will know, it’s tough going. We’ll talk with the relevant parties or whatever. We’ll see what the future holds going forward,’ Cleary said.
It is fair to say there is more positivity after the 2025 season then there was after their 2024 loss to Louth. There is a lot to build on, if the Cork boss stays on.
‘We had a mixture. In the league, it was a bit mixed but we finished very well. With one more victory, we probably would have got promoted. In the championship, in the Kerry match we had our chance in extra-time particularly in the Munster championship,’ Cleary reflected.
‘This round-robin was a bit up and down. In the Meath game, we would have been disappointed. Kerry were a bit better than us in the second game but I thought we battled very well in the last two weeks, particularly in the Roscommon game to eke out a victory. On another day, we could have got over the line against Dublin. There were a lot of positives out of the year.’
Losing by just one score, the Dublin-Cork game was the second tightest preliminary quarter-final last weekend. With the game being on in Croke Park, Dublin’s home ground, it showed that Cork can compete with the top teams. Closing out games may have been an issue at times but there is a sense there that the group is improving against top opposition.
‘In other matches during the season we would have been frustrated, particularly the Kerry match and one or two matches during the league. Sometimes that seeps into the confidence of guys when you’re losing matches and trying to build them up again,’ Cleary said.
‘For the bigger matches, we don’t seem to have a problem then. Anytime we played Kerry, even though we were well beaten in the round-robin, I thought we played very well for a lot of it.
For the Dublin match, there wasn’t a case of getting the lads up for it. I knew they were in the right place. That’s why we’d be very disappointed to come so close. Everyone will be looking back at this incident or that incident when you’re beaten by one score. That’s the nature of the championship this year. The one pleasing thing is that we know, at our best, we can compete with anyone in the country,’ Cleary noted.
So another year ends but will this be the Castlehaven man’s last in the managerial dugout? We’ll find out quite soon.
