John Cleary questions future of preliminary quarter-finals 

CORK football manager John Cleary says a bit of tweaking needs to be done in the GAA calendar to help teams prepare properly.

Speaking on Off The Ball on Thursday morning, the Castlehaven man spoke in detail about the challenges teams face that have to navigate the All-Ireland SFC preliminary quarter-final route. The Rebels were beaten at that stage last Sunday by Louth on a scoreline of 1-9 to 1-8 in Inniskeen.

“At this time of the year, it’s all engrossing really,” Cleary told Off The Ball.

“You’re going from week to week to week and naturally you are even physically tired. For example, we had three out of four weeks there of real cut and thrust stuff. If we qualified for the All-Ireland quarter-finals, it would have been four out of five weeks. The amount of organising, the amount of talking to guys, dealing with players, dealing with everything that is going on and you come home on a Sunday night and you don’t know where you’re going the following week.

“We were in Tullamore and we were next down the road and then up the road again to Inniskeen the following Saturday so a lot goes into it physically and you have to keep yourself mentally fresh as well and dealing with everything that comes in from the media, county board, players, backroom team and when it’s over, you are physically tired. That’s one thing maybe that the GAA may want to look at.

“I can talk freely now as we aren’t in it, I don’t feel it’s fair for any team to be playing three weeks in a row. Particularly the teams who were in the preliminary quarter-finals, they didn’t know until the Monday where they were going on the Saturday. That’s not easy even when they finished the preliminary quarter-finals, they didn’t know until Monday whether they were playing the Saturday or the Sunday. 

“The logistics that goes into that whether guys have to take work off or not. I know for example if we were playing on the Saturday, players would have to say on Monday afternoon that I can’t work on Friday because we are going up to Dublin. Those things have to be looked at.

“While I am all for the split season, there has to be a bit of tweaking done on it. Rather than rushing it through at the end of the season, I think players have to be given a chance to prepare properly. Even if they did away with the preliminary quarter-finals to give the team going into the quarter-finals an even keel to compete. That’s the better way forward.”

When Cleary was asked about his future as Cork boss, there was no further developments as he will sit down with his backroom team in the weeks ahead.

“When a season finishes, the first week is about a bit of reflection and downtime,” he said.

“I’ll sit down next week or the week after, I’ll talk to the guys who were with me in the backroom team, talk to the county board and have a chat with the family here at home and just see then whether it’s something I am basically ready to do or have the hunger for to commit for another 12 months.

“There’s an awful lot that goes into it and it’s really a full-time job. I work for myself but look you know that going in and it’s not something when the season will finish, we will carry on as normal. It’s something you just have to sit down, make a plan and at some stage, decide either you don’t have the hunger for this anymore or you physically can’t do it. 

“Or you decide that you have a good set of guys with you, you have the county board behind you, the players are on board with you and then you decide, ya we will commit for another eight, nine, ten months going forward.

“That’s what I’ll be doing in the next few weeks rather than running into something blind because I know exactly what is involved in it.”