Gary Brennan: So Clare would profit from a run at the Tailteann Cup. Really?
HIGH STANDARDS: Niall Scully of Dublin in action against Emmet McMahon of Clare during the Allianz Football League Division Two match at Croke Park. Pic: Stephen Marken/Sportsfile
Be it Seamus Darby in 1982, Tyrone’s swarm and breakthrough in 2003 or Cluxton's late free in 2011, once a GAA year has passed, we tend to remember it more for singular incidents or outcomes than the many twists or turns within.
For each individual county there is often one moment which, with the passing of time, frames the entire narrative of that campaign.
Were the season to end today, Clare football supporters would look back on 2023 as the year of relegation from Division Two, and would have some unfortunate choices for the defining moment.
Some would talk of the defeat to Kildare after being three points and a man up entering injury time. Others would be tormented by being six ahead of the Dubs with less than 20 minutes to play and letting that slip. More might lament the freak goals conceded in Navan or the limp second half at home to Cork.
To remember 2023 for these moments would be a cruel reflection on a group that has, at times, played the best football I have ever seen from a Clare team. But history rarely records the effort, and so, these Clare players enter Sunday's Munster Championship knowing that this is their opportunity to change how time will view them. The script for the second half of 2023 has yet to be written.
There are many around the country (and some within Clare, I suspect) who would argue that Colm Collins squad would be best served writing a Tailteann Cup chapter. No matter how hard I try, I can see no sense to this argument. In fact, it vexes me. Of course, that's a matter of perspective and ambition. If you look at Clare from the outside and feel they are currently maxing out, and unlikely to progress much further in the future, maybe winning a Tailteann Cup provides a tangible reward for that limited ambition.
I remember confronting that perspective quite a bit after we won the Division 3 league and reached an All-Ireland quarter-final in 2016. I was nominated for an All-Star that year and the outside thinking was that we, and I, should be delighted with our year.
Perspective is funny though, because that was not how I saw it and I finished the year quite disgusted. Now, I don’t know the exact ambitions of the current group, but I do know that Colm Collins takes a more ambitious perspective than most and he will have been drilling that into his players over the past couple of weeks.
Take a player like Emmet McMahon for example. His underage football included extended runs in the Corn Uí Mhuirí and a Munster Minor final in 2018. He has never played anything below Division Two with Clare, he played in an All-Ireland quarter final last year, the last two Sigerson Cup finals and was named on the Rising Stars team of the year two years in a row.
The Tailteann Cup will not represent progress to Emmet and his colleagues. This is not to suggest that Clare are too good for the Tailteann Cup, by the way. There would be no guarantee that they would even reach the latter stages. I am saying that if Clare are to target promotion from Division 3 next year and loftier ambitions in the future, dining at the top table this summer offers the best route.
For starters, mixing with the best makes you a better player. It forces you to develop your game if you are to compete, because you simply won’t get away with anything less. In 2012, we had a strong league campaign but missed out on promotion from Division 4 on head-to-head after losing to Wicklow in Aughrim. We went on to contest that year’s Munster Final against Cork before Kerry hammered us in the qualifiers.
Up to that game, I had been doing particularly well in the air, even against Cork. But that evening, the positioning of Anthony Maher and Bryan Sheehan meant they broke or caught everything I got near and Paul Galvin seemed to appear from nowhere on every break. I had been getting away with standing my ground and competing 50-50 in the air for months, but that night really made me reflect and go about trying to bring my timing, angles and jump height to another level.
The best teams also force you to develop tactically. We learned through painful experience how Cork, circa 2010, never let themselves exposed across the half-back line and always ensured they were plus one at the back. On one hand, it taught us to protect the ball better against such a defence but we subsequently adopted very similar defensive principles as we moved up through the ranks. These may seem like simple learnings but they were challenges we weren’t always meeting in the lower divisions. These learnings then tended to filter down to underage squads, so as younger players joined the senior panel, the minimum standard was improving all the time.
In Clare, there is also the fact that football is seen by some as the second code. The major draw for impressionable teenage minds is towards hurling, as I see in school every day, but exposure for the footballers at the highest level has been valuable in showing youngsters that it also offers them an opportunity to compete at the highest level.
There is a real danger that the Tailteann Cup is less seen, and when it is, it’s not seen in an attractive light. There was always talk when we were in the lower divisions of players who should have been playing with the county but chose not to. That was never an issue in recent years. When you’re in the big time, everyone wants to be part of it.
For Clare to stay in the big time, they will have to begin by finding a way to overturn an eight-point loss from their league meeting with the Rebels. With Cathal O’Connor back and Darren O’Neill on the bench (both missed that league game), it will go some way towards curbing the influence of Colm O’Callaghan, who has been a major source of primary possession for Cork, and would free up Ciaran Russell to return to defence, where Seán Powter caused significant issues last day out.
Darragh Bohannon is selected at midfield and will broaden Clare’s own kick out options. On the flip side, the loss of Cian O’Dea to injury robs the defence of major experience. There is also the fact that Cork will very much be aiming to write their own positive story for championship 2023, and many of the signs in this year’s league suggest they are well placed to do so.
Clare’s task looks a daunting one. 2023 so far has been defined by relegation and the prospect of the Tailteann Cup, and if that ends up the case, they will make the best of it. But the final chapter is yet to be written. A big display on Easter Sunday could be the perfect resurrection.
