Noel O’Leary believes John Cleary is the right man to revive Cork football.
The Rebels have endured a difficult period since winning the All-Ireland in 2010. Their last Munster SFC triumph was in 2012 and they are currently in Division Two of the National League.
However, O’Leary feels Cleary – who is in his first full season as manager having stepped in midway through 2022 on an interim basis – has Cork back on the right track after a number of underwhelming seasons.
“Personally, I would have felt that he should have been there a lot sooner,” says O’Leary.
“The guy is doing a great job but at the same time you have to crawl before you walk. He has a job now to build a foundation there and to really make them a team that can challenge in the next couple of years.
“Being a big county brings its own challenges and football really is the poor relation down here. That’s not making excuses or anything but it is the way it is.
“The guys who have been there over the last 10 years really have all put in a huge amount of work, but I just always thought that John Cleary was the man to bring it that extra step.
“I just felt that since Conor Counihan left the position, there was no one really that has come up to that level since then.”
O’Leary retired from intercounty football in October 2013, at the age of just 31.
Within days of Brian Cuthbert replacing Conor Counihan as Cork boss, a raft of 2010 All-Ireland winners stepped away – including O’Leary, Graham Canty, Pearse O’Neill, Alan Quirke and Paudie Kissane.
O’Leary now looks back with disappointment that his Cork playing days came to an end at a relatively young age.
“It is a regret. I would say any of the guys at that stage or at that time were willing to stay on that bit longer to be honest with you,” he recalls.
“Look, I suppose the incoming management were going a different direction and you’ve got to respect that as well. It was the one thing at the time all right, I’d say a lot of people were surprised at all the retirements and that we slipped away kind of quietly but certainly I feel there was enough fire in our bellies at the time.
“There’s no denying it, certainly for a few of us there were definitely another couple of years in us, but look, it is what it is and that’s just the way it went.”
During his career, O’Leary’s rivalry with Paul Galvin was almost a constant narrative – the pair engaged in some memorable personal battles.
But while it might have looked raw and fiery, O’Leary says it never lingered off the field.
“There’s a mutual respect there, to be fair. You have to give credit where credit is due, he was a huge driving force for Kerry over all those years,” says O’Leary.
“What happens on the pitch stays on the pitch and we always kept it that way. When I look back on our meetings on the field, the one thing I would say about the guy, and he would probably say it about me as well, was that we never had a bad word to say to each other out on the field, whether you believe that or not.
“It was more of a physical confrontation and trying to get the better of each other, I suppose.”
Looking at the general landscape of Gaelic football right now, O’Leary feels the provincial championship format has run its course.
“I think the provincial series, it doesn’t mean as much any longer. That grá is not there to win a provincial championship and when that starts waning at all I think it is time to move on and I think a league-based structure would be the way to go.
“I firmly believe that is the way it’s going to go, it will be on a league basis. I would say give it another five years and things will be totally different.”
Noel O’Leary’s Laochra Gael will air on TG4 at 9.30pm on Thursday
