Fitzmaurice: No natural successor to Cleary within Cork

John Cleary has brought a level of progress to Cork’s senior footballers during his tenure and there is no natural successor should the manager choose to step away, according to Éamonn Fitzmaurice.

The Rebels’ All-Ireland championship campaign came to an end with a narrow preliminary quarter-final defeat to Louth in Inniskeen on Sunday.

Despite the curtailment of their season, Fitzmaurice believes many in Cork would want to move mountains to keep Cleary – manager since 2022 – in charge for another year.

“People within Cork especially would want John Cleary to stay on. He’s progressed the team, he’s a steady hand, there’s no dramatics with him win or lose,” the former Kerry manager said on The Sunday Game.

“He’s developed the group. Today is a setback, there’s no point saying otherwise and it’s a disappointment for them.

“They would have fancied getting in. Even last weekend (against Tyrone), they had it in their grasp to get into the All-Ireland quarter-finals and avoid this preliminary quarter-final.

“But even if he decided to step back – because it is such a huge commitment – I don’t think there is a natural successor within Cork that’s ready to go now.

“So I think the players and probably the county board will certainly be putting pressure on him to hold on, continue with the development, keep progressing.

“They’re not far away but they need to back up a couple of those wins in a row where they get into those real big games again.”

Also speaking on the programme, Lee Keegan lavished praise on Louth and the work of the manager Ger Brennan and his staff.

“It’s brilliant and I’ve said it numerous times during the year that the job Ger Brennan has done with the group, you can see they’re buying into the system,” he said.

“They’re buying into what he wants to get out of them. But what I love about them, they maximise themselves every game.

“Yeah they had a tough time against Kerry but they had opportunities last week and maybe just got away from them late on.”

The Mayo man added: “In terms of the celebration at the end, you see what it means to the people of Louth and again, we’re talking about progression from teams and Louth are the gold star for that.”

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