‘Super 8s are a kiss-me-arse, a joke. They’re there to make strong teams stronger’ - Seamus Clancy

Seamus Clancy is unequivocal. Many of the giants in Clare football history will wear the jersey in Portlaoise tomorrow.

But ask him where a last-eight spot would rank compared to the 1992 Munster SFC success he was part of and what’s on offer for Colm Collins’ men angers him.

“I totally disagree with the Super 8s. Where Clare have got to on the back of the results that they have had albeit they lost to Kerry, if they beat Meath they should be facing a knock-out All-Ireland quarter-final and win that and they’re in a semi-final.

“These Super 8s are a kiss-me-arse. They’re a joke. They’re there to make the strong teams stronger with the big panels and the big money behind them. It suits them down to the ground and you’re going to have five or six of the same teams in the Super 8s every year and the goal of the rest of the country will be to get there for the remaining spots.

“Outside of those five or six, you’re going to need something special to get out of the Super 8s. Getting to the last eight of an All-Ireland series, you should be winning one game to get to an All-Ireland semi-final. But that’s just money dictating things.

“It would be a massive achievement for Clare to get there but if they win this weekend they should only be one step away from a semi-final.”

Not that Clancy, Clare’s only football All-Star, is believing something sensational is beyond his county. “There are players at the moment that will go down as the greatest ever Clare players. You’ve the likes of Gary Brennan, Gordon Kelly, (David) Tubridy. For the service they have given to Clare… then you have Jamie Malone and Eoin Cleary.

“I’ve seen them training. I went down to UL last November and Colm (Collins) was trying to dig out a few young lads from around the county and he wanted to have a look at them. Gary Brennan had a long year with Ballyea but there he was in the middle of them getting stuck in. It was just unbelievable to see that leadership. The dedication they have given .... they inspire everybody involved in football in Clare.

“It’s easy to see why Gary Brennan’s form doesn’t dip. That doesn’t come by accident but by work. I saw him the other night down in Caherlohan on his own kicking 20 balls over the bar. You’re not just born a good footballer, you work at it, you dedicate yourself to it and he has done that for years. Some of my old team-mates might get onto me about this but I would say he is the greatest player that Clare has ever produced.”

Being drawn with Kerry in the Munster SFC these last four seasons, Clancy believes, has been damaging for the players but outside the province they are a different proposition.

“I know Kerry could have been out of sight at half-time in the Munster semi-final if they had taken a few goal chances but once Clare hung in there they were in with a chance of winning it. We have had a few chances against them but just haven’t gotten over the line.

“But Clare just seem to get new energy when the qualifiers come. In Munster, they seem to be under more pressure and they didn’t perform against Waterford but once the qualifiers come they were a different team. The reality of it is almost every team in the country would struggle if they had to face Kerry early on like Clare have had to the last number of years, particularly in Killarney.

“You get beaten by Kerry and it must be very easy to think as a player, ‘Oh, here we go again’. You need to break that duck some year and we have a very good team at the moment that you’d be hoping will one day break that duck. But there is a certain psychology to it and it’s difficult to break.”

Meath will arrive in O’Moore Park perhaps aware of how poor Leinster runners-up have fared in the fourth round qualifiers — not one has reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals since 2009. On the flipside, Clare lost to Meath by five points in their Division 2 game back in March, 14 last year and 12 in 2017.

Clancy doesn’t consider that run of defeats will have any impact on tomorrow’s clash. “I’ve seen Clare play Meath in the last number of League outings and the funniest thing about it is Clare would beat a team that had after beating Meath and then come up against Meath and lose.

“The last time I saw Meath I swore they were going to win the Leinster championship. We made them look that good. I think the qualifiers are a different kettle of fish in terms of psyche and the way Clare are. The ground is harder, Clare have a lighter team, they have a lot of fast lads and they get better as the season goes on with the type of training they’re done. They just seem to be scoring at ease.

“Now there are times in games when they have shut down. Against Leitrim, it happened when they looked to have the game in the bag. They have to learn to keep the foot on the pedal and keep the scoreboard ticking over. No matter who you’re playing, if you give them a chance they’re going to raise their head and come at you.”