![\"Matty](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4969742_27_articleinlinemobile_3358747.jpg\" "\\"Matty")
Matty Taylor of Cork in action against David Dempsey of Offaly. Picture: Thomas Flinkow\/Sportsfile<\/p>\nCork manager John Cleary was satisfied after his side picked up another win in the Allianz Division 2 Football League.<\/p>\n
The Rebels defeated Offaly at Glenisk O\u2019Connor Park in Tullamore on Sunday afternoon as Cleary\u2019s charges made it three victories from the first three outings.<\/p>\n
Cork won on a scoreline of 3-15 to 0-19 to make their best start in the league excluding Division 3 since 2014.<\/p>\n
The away team did the hard work in the first half as they led by nine points at the break.<\/p>\n
The Cork boss though wasn\u2019t overly pleased with his side\u2019s display in the second 35 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played very well in the first half, but in the second half we were sloppy, so there\u2019s a lot to work on going forward,\u201d he said post-match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy with the first half, I\u2019m not so happy with the second half, but we\u2019ll take the two points and move on to next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe needed all of our scores in the end despite being in a very good position at half-time. Offaly are a running team and it probably suited them better playing against the wind and that\u2019s the way it happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They got breaks around the middle, which we were getting in the first half, and they ran at us and they troubled us.<\/p>\n
Matty Taylor of Cork in action against David Dempsey of Offaly. Picture: Thomas Flinkow\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be happy at all with the second half, but we knew there was going to be that kick in Offaly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at Kerry and Galway last night, games can change very, very quickly and, you know, 10, 12 points one time was game over but it\u2019s not anymore and we knew that. We were lucky that Offaly didn\u2019t get a couple of goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say we were holding on towards the end, that wouldn\u2019t be the right word, but we just had enough to see us over the line.”<\/p>\n
Cork are back at the summit of Division 2 after being knocked off it on Saturday night after Meath\u2019s dramatic win over Louth.<\/p>\n
The Rebels entertain Robbie Brennan\u2019s charges in a mouthwatering fixture next Sunday at P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Rinn. Both sides with six points from their first three games.<\/p>\n
Cleary isn\u2019t getting carried away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d be happy enough with our three wins but look, call a spade a spade, we\u2019ve probably met the teams down at the lower end of the table,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that when the draw was made that, you know, we had to really get off to a good start because what\u2019s coming now is a step up again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got out of jail a little bit the first day against Cavan but, you know, two fine victories over Louth and now Offaly. We\u2019d have to be happy with that but four big ones now to come.<\/p>\n
![\"Ruair\u00ed](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4969772_13_articleinlinemobile_3358846.jpg\" "\\"Ruair\u00ed")
Ruair\u00ed Deane of Cork signs a supporter’s jersey after the win over Offaly. Picture: Thomas Flinkow\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll need those six points going forward but look, we\u2019re looking forward now to Meath next Sunday. They had a tough game as well last night and, you know, first half performance, we\u2019d be okay against them, second half display, it wouldn\u2019t be good enough, so a lot to work on during the week.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There were four changes to the team that was named on Friday night with Tommy Walsh, Brian O\u2019Driscoll, Se\u00e1n Walsh and Brian Hurley all dropping out. There’s nothing serious with regards long-term injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBrian O\u2019Driscoll and Brian Hurley picked up knocks. Brian O\u2019Driscoll the last day against Louth and Brian Hurley during the week. Tommy Walsh has had a big workload. We just rested him because he had played all our games and played all the Sigerson Cup games and he has an injury history from last year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cork manager John Cleary was satisfied after his side picked up another win in the Allianz Division 2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1964,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-300502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-cork-gaa","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300502","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=300502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}