Clare ‘learning to close games out’

It’s taken time for the recent exploits of Clare’s footballers to migrate beyond the county’s traditional heartlands but Odran O’Dwyer knew Colm Collins’ team was on to something when hurling folk began to mention them on their visits to his performance therapy clinic in Ennis.

“It’s a good sign when you hear hurling people talking about it,” he says. The incidence upped with the defeat of Laois and has spiked this week ahead of the appointment with Roscommon.

O’Dwyer will be in Sathill today with his kids and a good many more from the Banner as the county seeks to extend a season that has already delivered promotion to Division Two, a first berth in the last 12 of the All-Ireland series since the qualifiers were introduced and some unfamiliar levels of attention.