John Cleary made no attempt to hide his disappointment after Cork’s agonising Munster SFC semi-final extra-time defeat to Kerry on Saturday night.

“We are not in the Munster final,” the Cork manager lamented after his side’s 1-25 to 3-21 loss at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“We came in here today hellbent on winning the game. We firmly believed we could. A lot of people outside our group didn't believe that. But I knew we were going very well in training the last two weeks. I knew we would play well here today. I was disappointed with the way the first half went, Kerry seemed to run us a drag.

“We got ourselves back into the game before half-time. Then Kerry upped it again, got a great goal, and it looked like we were going to be chasing shadows at that stage. The sending off (of Seán Brady) changed the complexion of the game. It was do-or-die then for our lads. 

"Both teams could have won it at the end of normal time. Kerry maybe shaded the first half of extra-time, I thought we shaded the second period. We will have regrets about the scores we missed. Kerry got a great goal to win it.” 

He added: “Everyone left everything out there, on both sides. Ultimately, we fell short and we are going home disappointed.” 

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