John Cleary (born 20 June 1963) is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played as a left corner-forward at senior level for the Cork county team.
Cleary was a member of the Munster inter-provincial team on a number of occasions but never won a Railway Cup medal.
[3][4] After enjoying championship success in the under-21 grade with Castlehaven, Cleary subsequently joined the senior team.
[6] Cleary won a second championship medal in 1994 as Castlehaven defeated bitter local rivals O'Donovan Rossa by 0-12 to 0-10 in one of the greatest deciders of all time.
In spite of losing a controversial championship decider in 1997, Castlehaven still represented Cork in the provincial series as divisional side Beara were prohibited from doing so.
Cork were well on top for the opening twenty minutes and nearly took a seven-point lead when Jimmy Kerrigan's shot was blocked by Mick Lyons.
A Colm O'Rourke goal in the 25th minute steadied the Meath ship and gave them an interval lead of 1-6 to 0-8.
An injury to Cork full-back Colman Corrigan necessitated his withdrawal and had a further upsetting effect on the team.
He won a National League medal that year as Cork defeated New York with an aggregate score of 3-21 to 2-14 after a two-leg final.
He missed Cork's fourth successive provincial triumph and also failed to make the starting fifteen for the All-Ireland decider against Meath on 16 September 1990.
Cleary was introduced as a substitute, however, Séamus Downey scored the key goal which gave Derry a 1-14 to 2-8 victory.
Having previously served as manager of the Castlehaven senior team, Cleary was a selector in 2011 when the club reached their first championship decider in eight years.
Once again it looked as if Castlehaven were going to be narrowly defeated, however, a Shane Nolan goal in the dying minutes of the game secured a 1-7 to 0-9 victory.
[23] In October 2003 Cleary was included as a selector as part of Tony Leahy's Cork under-21 management team.
[25] Cork made it three provincial titles in-a-row in 2006 following a 4-14 to 1-6 trouncing of Waterford, however, All-Ireland success still eluded the team.
A Daniel Goulding point, two minutes into injury time, secured a narrow 2-10 to 0-15 victory for Cork and an All-Ireland title for the Cleary-coached side.
[27] After a disastrous opening season Cleary guided Cork to the Munster title in 2009 following a narrow 1-9 to 2-5 defeat of Tipperary.
Four points from both Ian Burke and Shane Walsh together with Damien Comer's second-half goal ensured a 1-14 to 1-11 defeat for Cork.
[34] He stood aside as Cork senior manager for the remainder of the season in April 2022, due to health problems.