Eoin Cleary continues to impress for Clare, who face Limerick at Cusack Park on Sunday.
By Cian O'Connell
For a glorious summer Clare experienced what beauty the Championship can bring. A run to the 2016 All Ireland SFC Quarter-Final confirmed the progress Colm Collins' team made.
It gave Clare a taste of the big time. "That was it, that's what you want again," Eoin Cleary admits. "It's like any addiction, you get a feel for it and you want more. We want to be near the Kerry's and Dublin's again.
"We want to be in that top tier, at that top level. That's the reason we train and we give up our lives for this.
"That's where we want to be again. We'd love to get the opportunity to get as far as we did last year."
The clearest sign of Clare's development is Cleary deeming the Banner's spring as 'indifferent' even though they survived in Allianz Football League Division Two. "Yeah, before if you'd told us two years ago, we'd have been absolutely delighted," Cleary says.
The win over Cork was a notable achievement in the League. "Reaching a quarter-final last year gave us great confidence altogether," Cleary says.
"Cork are a team we'd consider to be at the very top bracket so to beat a team like that in a first time in my time as a Clare footballer was really uplifting.
"It gave you the confidence that you could possibly be a Division 1 team. "Unfortunately Division 2 is so competitive, we had three losses. It was a good experience, but we were disappointed not to push on a bit further."
Cleary recalls the delight of winning last year's Round 4 Qualifier against Roscommon at Pearse Stadium. "I was talking to staunch supporters of Clare football and they said it was like a Munster championship win to them," Cleary acknowledges.
Clare footballer Eoin Cleary.
"You had lads on the field you'd never seen before and it was a real electric feeling.
"I remember playing that first-half you could sense there was massive energy on that field. If we brought that energy to other games, we'd have done a lot better. The Roscommon game was brilliant last year. Against a top team to perform like that is brilliant."
The success Clare enjoyed meant that it was easier to return to training during the winter. "I remember after 2015, it was a very poor year," Cleary states. "We barely stayed up in Division 3 and we had two very disappointing losses and we were out of the Championship very early.
"The following year then it was a struggle to get lads to training at the start of it, but fortunately enough lads committed to it, gave everything.
"You had a very good year. Then those guys that didn't commit in 2016 came back this year because they saw these guys are successful, we want to be part of this. When you lose, it's very hard to coax guys back into it."
Cleary's twin brother, Conor, is an established hurler with Clare. It ensures the Cleary family endure a hectic schedule with all the inter-county matches, but it is a good complaint. "Yeah they get a lot of trips away," Cleary laughs.
"My mother would be more into the football and she went to Kildare when we went up, my father was in Ennis when they beat Tipperary in the National League quarter-final.
"It's brilliant for them, they get a lot of exposure to these games. It's brilliant for us too, we get to see each other in these games and we can give advice to each other.
"When I see him do well, it rubs off well on me, it gives me good energy as well. I can feed off that. There's a few fixtures clashes but my mother goes to the football and my father goes to the hurling. That's that, it's what they're kind of into more."
