{"id":228514,"date":"2026-01-05T12:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/228514\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T12:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:52:10","slug":"john-cleary-looking-at-bigger-picture-as-cork-play-tipperary-in-mcgrath-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/228514\/","title":{"rendered":"John Cleary looking at bigger picture as Cork play Tipperary in McGrath Cup\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cork manager John Cleary isn\u2019t putting a huge significance on the McGrath Cup this year as his side play their first game in the competition tomorrow night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Rebels face Tipperary in Cappawhite with throw-in at 7pm. The pre-season tournament returns after it was suspended last year for 12 months.<\/p>\n

The Tipperary game is quickly followed by the visit of Limerick to P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Rinn on Sunday (2pm) and if Cork are successful over the next week, they will proceed to the final.<\/p>\n

The Premier County beat Limerick last Friday in the opening match in Group B.<\/p>\n

Under Cleary\u2019s guidance, they have won the McGrath Cup on the last two occasions it has been running in 2023 and \u201924.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe McGrath Cup will give a chance for developing players, but the very fact that it clashes with the Sigerson Cup kind of inhibits that a bit,\u201d the Castlehaven clubman says.<\/p>\n

\"Cork'sCork’s Se\u00e1n Meehan with the McGrath Cup in 2024. Picture: INPHO\/Natasha Barton<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an awful lot on for those players and young players but look, the fixtures are there, we\u2019ll play them and they\u2019re competitive fixtures.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise maybe you\u2019re trying to scurry around and get challenge matches and things like that. We hope to try a lot of fringe players and development players in the McGrath Cup. A lot of them are students, so that\u2019s probably not going to be possible.<\/p>\n

“We have a big squad, we haven’t narrowed it down yet. The McGrath Cup should give us a chance to look at lads. We have found in other years that you may want to blood a fella in the league, but that’s too serious for that. It’s probably not fair to throw someone in at the deep end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The McGrath Cup should be the platform to do that, that’s not the case with the Sigerson Cup. We just have to see how they perform in our in-house games and things like that.”<\/p>\n

Cleary isn\u2019t beating around the bush when it comes to the McGrath Cup. Cork\u2019s aim is clear for this year and that is to be in the promotion mix in Division 2 of the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cavan are the opponents first day out at SuperValu P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh in under three weeks\u2019 time on Sunday, January 25.<\/p>\n

\"Se\u00e1nSe\u00e1n McDonnell of Cork in action against Cian Madden of Cavan last year. Picture: Matt Browne\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

\u201cOur sole focus now is on Cavan on the last weekend of January, that\u2019s our focus,\u201d the Cork boss said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt maybe in years gone by that we needed to get wins under our belt and the McGrath Cup was a good starting point.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat box is ticked. We see the bigger picture now. The start of the league is that. This is the last year of the McGrath Cup really. It was bulldozed through for this season from maybe the likes of Ulster and maybe Connacht to boost gate receipts or whatever before the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut again, I would like to use the pre-season competition if you could use it for the purpose that maybe we would like it to be used for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“And at this stage, I don’t think we can because, you know, physically we can’t because like we’re not going to pull players away from their college teams as they’re playing Sigerson Cup. We’ve got to use other players.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Se\u00e1nSe\u00e1n O’Shea of Kerry in action against Matty Taylor of Cork during the McGrath Cup final two years ago. Picture: Michael P Ryan\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Cork\u2019s opponents tomorrow night in the shape of Tipperary will be waiting in the long grass in April when the championship comes around.<\/p>\n

They are in the semi-final waiting for the winners of Cork and Limerick in the Munster quarter-final.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we could even blood two or three players and see where we’re at and look, the competitive nature in everyone, we don’t want to lose any games.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the McGrath Cup is not where our focus is on at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork manager John Cleary isn\u2019t putting a huge significance on the McGrath Cup this year as his side…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-228514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}