‘Cork beat Cork’ in 2009 All-Ireland final against Kerry – the defeat which still rankles for Noel O’Leary

Like kicking away an All-Ireland SFC final in 2009. Or retiring too early in 2012.

It is, historically, part of the existence of most Cork footballers to lose to Kerry at least occasionally. But O’Leary’s generation were the first to suffer the excruciating experience of being beaten by them in All-Ireland finals.

Twice.

It’s the ’09 one that rankles, though.

“When I say that Cork beat Cork, I think we had the opportunities to power on and we didn’t take them. That was down to us.”

Three years later, when Conor Counihan stood down as manager, O’Leary was part of a spate of players who shuffled off quietly into the inter-county sunset.

​He admits now that there was “enough fire in our bellies” to keep going a while longer.

“I would say any of the guys at that stage or at that time were willing to stay on that bit longer to be honest with you,” he admitted yesterday in an interview to coincide with the episode of TG4’s Laochra Gael on his career. “Look, I suppose the incoming management were going a different direction and you’ve got to respect that as well.

“It was the one thing at the time alright, I’d say a lot of people were surprised at all the retirements and that we slipped away kind of quietly but certainly something that I feel there was more in us.”

Counihan stood down as Cork manager at the end of the 2012 season, replaced by Brian Cuthbert.

That change coincided with a massive turnover in squad composition.

Asked whether some players had been pushed towards retirement, O’Leary replied: “I suppose it’s kind of hard for me to speak on their behalf. I guess there was a bit of that there.

“Look, again, I suppose you kind of have to respect a new management team that comes in like that. They had different ideas. I would say, looking back on it, I would say if they could have gone over old ground again they would have changed a few things.”

Almost overnight, Cork faded as a top-level championship force.

They won three National League titles in a row between 2010 and ’12. They were Munster champions in 2006, ’08, ’09 and ’12.

They made All-Ireland finals in 2007, ’09 and again in 2010, when they ended a 20-year absence of leave for Sam Maguire from Leeside.

And then … well, they more or less vanished.

No All-Ireland, no Munster and no league title since 2012. Not even an All-Ireland semi-final appearance in that time.

“It has been disappointing,” O’Leary admits. “We’re obviously a big county and you would expect Cork to be challenging a lot more than they were in the last ten or 12 years.

“But being a big county brings its own challenges. And football really is the poor relation down here. That’s not making excuses or anything but it is the way it is.

“But again, there’s no excuse for what has happened over the last ten or 12 years. Touching on the man that’s there now, a lot of it is about who the number one is really.

“The guys who have been there over the last ten years really have all put in a huge amount of work. But I just always felt that John Cleary was the man to bring it that extra step.

“It’s so important to get the right guy at the top. I just felt that since Conor Counihan left the position, there was no-one really came up to that level since then. I’m hoping now John Cleary is the man who can change that.”

One part of the programme, which airs on Thursday night (9.30) on TG4, deals with his fiery tangles with Paul Galvin. There was familiarity and there was contempt and for a while, no-one could take their eyes off the pair.

Asked whether they had met or spoken to each other since their infamous battles, O’Leary revealed: “Yeah, we have. I suppose not a lot, but we have. There’s a mutual respect there, to be fair. You have to give credit where credit is due.

“He was a huge driving force for Kerry over all those years. What happens on the pitch stays on the pitch and we always kept it that way, to be fair.

“When I look back on our meetings on the field, the one thing I would say about the guy, and he would probably say it about me as well, was that we never had a bad word to say to each other out on the field, whether you believe that or not.

“It was more of a physical confrontation and trying to get the better of each other, I suppose. That says a lot about him too.”