Cork GAA chairperson Pat Horgan on football results this year, where it went wrong and John Cleary's future

Cork GAA chairperson Pat Horgan has said a lot of work is going on behind the scenes to improve football on Leeside.

It has been well documented the struggles of the Cork inter-county football teams in recent years most notably at underage level.

Speaking to The Echo at the launch of the 2025 McCarthy Insurance Group Football Championship at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Tuesday evening, the Midleton clubman is confident the tide will turn with the football crisis meeting a fortnight ago a starting point.

“We flagged it a long time ago that when our inter-county season was completed, we would devote a meeting to football,” he says.

“We did. We prepared very well for it. We had a lot of meetings about football in advance of it.

“I thought we had a very, very good meeting that lasted three hours and I thought everybody got their opportunity to make a contribution. I think the report that Kevin O’Donovan sent out there last week, I think it took a bit of time to do it because with the pressure of the tickets and everything to do recently, so we were under a bit of pressure to get it out.

Cork GAA chairperson Pat Horgan.

"The bottom line is that we will be going forward now from here, taking all the points on board and we will be having more meetings on football.

“We have a meeting on football tonight, strictly on football tonight, and we will have more meetings going forward. Everybody, management, the management of the county board, the clubs, we’re all going to have to have a look and see how we can do things a bit better.”

The results for the various Cork football teams overall this year were not what anyone wanted. The seniors didn’t manage to get out of Division 2, another season without Munster silverware and lost out at the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final stage.

The U20s and minors both lost to Kerry in the Munster final by eight points and nine points respectively. The minors then lost to the eventual winners Tyrone in the All-Ireland quarter-final by nine points.

The Cork minor team before the Munster final against Kerry this year. Picture: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Cork have lost the last 13 games against the Kingdom across all grades. The lack of matches is a concern though for the Cork GAA chairperson.

“I would say that we were under the cosh with the minor results and the U20s in particular,” Horgan said.

“We have felt, and I think the meeting a few weeks ago discussed it, we have felt all along that we need to get more games.

“We aren’t happy with the structure of the championship at U20 and minor level and we’re talking to the Munster Council on that and the thing about it is that we weren’t happy in advance that Cork and Kerry were seeded and the other teams were playing away and that we had no games. We’d like to see a change on that.

"There’s a pile of work being done but as you know, inter-county is all about momentum and you’ve got to build momentum. We need more competitive games for our U20s and minors.

Cork’s Seán O'Leary moves away from Eddie Healy of Kerry in the Munster U20 final this season. Picture: INPHO/James Crombie

“I think overall the Cork senior footballers, they could have beaten Kerry, they could have beaten Dublin. So I mean, we weren’t that far away but at the same time we all realised that there’s plenty of work still to do.

“Cork football is always going to be in a difficult position in a predominantly hurling county like Cork but having said that, we should have an ample amount of players from all the clubs.

“We have a vast amount of clubs, bigger than anybody else and like we should be able to compete. The most important thing would be that we need to get back into Division 1 of the league.

"If you want to be taking on all the teams at the top, you’ve got to be at Division 1 and I think that’s something that we have failed narrowly over the last number of years to attain. If we could get back to Division 1, I think that would be a huge step forward for us.”

There’s a growing confidence that John Cleary will remain on as manager of the Cork senior football team for the 2026 campaign. The chairperson remained tight-lipped on Cleary's future, but did say there should be white smoke at the next county board meeting with delegates on Tuesday, August 5.

“We allowed John time for reflection after the championship defeat against Dublin and all I will say is that we will be sitting down with John shortly and we will be assessing where we’re at.

Cork manager John Cleary celebrates after beating Mayo in 2023. Picture: INPHO/Evan Treacy

“We have an appointment committee set up for the U20 level and if a vacancy arises at senior level, then we will be dealing with that. John and Kevin Walsh and all the backroom team have put a huge effort in over the last few years.

"They have done well to be fair to them taking into account the difficulty of not playing in Division 1. I cannot stress enough how much playing in Division 1 would be a bonus to us.

“It really is a handicap for us not to be playing in Division 1. I would be fairly confident by August 5, we would be in a position to have the senior football manager's position sorted.” Horgan concluded.

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