Reidy: Clare rebuilding a winning habit

The pressure is off, David Reidy declared.

Three rounds in and Clare are the first top-flight hurling side to secure their place in the league quarter-finals. Reidy and his Banner teammates will leave the relegation scrap to everyone else.

Ahead of this year’s condensed hurling league, the chief concern was this would be a spring packed full of shadow boxing. After all, the reward for the finalists is eight games in nine weeks, followed in early summer by four games in five weeks. Ensuring survival in Division 1A would demand counties target certain fixtures, yes, but it’d be foolish for any team to put their foot to the floor in February and expect to keep it there until May, June and beyond.