'We can compete with anyone in the country' says Cork boss as they make exit
Cork boss John Cleary says that his side have proven that they can compete with the best in 2025.
While Cork have little to show for from the season in terms of tangible success having failed to win promotion from Division Two or make a serious dent in Munster, while they only just got out of their group to make the last 12, Cleary believes there is something to build on from their showings against Kerry and Dublin.
'For the bigger matches, we don't seem to have a problem then,' he said. 'Any time we play Kerry, even though we were beaten, well beaten in the round robin, I thought we played very well for a lot of it and the Dublin match again, there wasn't a lot of getting up for the lads.
'I knew that they were in the right place coming in here today. That's why we'd be very disappointed to come so close and everyone would be looking back at this incident and that incident when you're beaten by one score.
'But look, that's the nature of the Championship this year and I suppose maybe the one pleasing thing is that we know at our best that we can compete with anyone in the country.'
Assessing the season as a whole, Cleary said: 'The League was a bit mixed, but we finished very well, and look, if we had won one more victory, we probably would have got promoted.
'The Championship then, the Kerry match, we had our chance in extra-time. The round robin was a bit up and down.
'The Meath game, we would have been disappointed, Kerry were a bit better than us on the day of the second game, but I thought we battled very well the last two weeks, particularly the Roscommon game to eke out a victory, and look, on another day, we could have got over the line today, so look, there was a lot of positives as well out of the year.'
As for his own future, having served a part-season as interim manager in 2022 followed by three years in the hotseat, he said: 'I won't say anything at the moment, my term is up now, I've been four years in it and, as anyone will know, it's tough going.
'But look, we'll see during the week, or we'll talk to the relevant parties or whatever but at this stage now my term is up, so we'll see what the future holds going forward.'
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