McHale drives Banner on

THERE’S roughly 137 miles separating Liam McHale’s home in Ballina in north Mayo and the village of Cooraclare in the west of Clare. In the winter he embarks on that route two nights every week to the pitch which is the epicentre for the Banner county’s football preparations.

At this stage he has the journey timed to two-and-a-half hours but it’s no easy trek, traversing the western seaboard to train one of the lesser inter-county lights in Gaelic football.

In the spring and summer the travelling generates less hardship as Clare’s training shifts to Cusack Park in Ennis. He appreciates the new M18 motorway which opened last November that bypasses Crusheen and Gort, while he regularly stays the night with relatives in Galway on the way home. But navigating his way around the country is nothing new to McHale. A career shooting hoops for Ballina and kicking ball with Mayo saw him hit the road most weekends.