Spotlight turns on Clare's footballers

GAA:As more pre-season competitions get under way this weekend it's the time of year when counties are experiencing a new beginning - some more than others. In Clare a new era begins in both football and hurling this Sunday and for a change the spotlight will fall on the footballers.

While Tony Considine takes charge of his first competitive game as new Clare hurling manager - playing UCC in the Waterford Crystal Cup - it's in Miltown Malbay where the greater excitement is anticipated as Páidí Ó Sé formally begins his reign as new Clare football manager, albeit in the low-key McGrath Cup game against the University of Limerick.

Some people in Clare are still wondering what convinced the former Kerry and Westmeath manager to take the job.

"Clare people came down to me and they were so genuine that, being honest with you, I wasn't going to refuse them," Ó Sé said at the time. But what is known is that Ó Sé is not rushing into the task, clearly aware nothing is won or lost on the second Sunday in January.

"The footballers only got together for the first time last Friday," explained Clare's long-serving press officer Des Crowe. "They also played a game among themselves on the Saturday, with the 30-odd players on the panel at the moment. But that's only two sessions done, and while they'll train again this week, there's obviously a lot of work to be done on fitness in the weeks ahead.

"But I know the first game that's really been talked about is our opening league game, in Division two, against Carlow, on February 4th. I watched Carlow at the weekend against Wicklow and they looked to be about a month or six weeks ahead of where the Clare footballers would be at the moment, so that will be the first true test. But Páidí still has a month to get ready for that and I expect he'll have a lot of work done by then."

It was the middle of last month before Ó Sé completed his backroom team, calling in former Kerry player Vincent O'Connor and former Clare standout Kieran Kelleher, as well as last year's Clare under-21 manager Barry Keating.

Ó Sé won't be finalising his first line-up, however, until later in the week. As with the other provinces, the McGrath and Waterford Crystal Cups have a stipulation where the third-level teams get their first choice of players, in this case UCC, UL, Cork IT and Waterford IT.

It's a similar scenario with the hurlers, although none of the current panel also play with their opponents on Sunday, UCC. Considine held his first training session on New Year's Day, with a twice-weekly programme in place up until the start of the National League.

For the first time in over a decade those sessions haven't included Seanie McMahon or Brian Lohan, who announced their retirement at the end of last summer. Considine has, however, managed to hold on to Frank Lohan, Niall Gilligan, David Hoey and Colin Lynch.

"The only player who hasn't been back training yet is Alan Markham," added Crowe. "But there's been no suggestion whatsoever he won't be back, or is contemplating retirement. After that the only absentee is Tony Griffin, who as we've known for a long time has returned to Canada to study and won't be with us for the foreseeable future."

Like Ó Sé, Considine took his time to complete his backroom team, calling in Pat O'Connor, Ger Ward, Tim Crowe and Ciarán O'Neill as his selectors, and also adding Dave Mahedy, the athletic director at the University of Limerick, as the team's physical trainer. Mahedy previously worked with the Limerick hurlers, and has helped with access to the university's many sports facilities which both Clare teams will be taking advantage of.

And, like Ó Sé, it's the opening league game Considine is targeting, not the Waterford Crystal Cup: "To be honest there's no great interest here in the Waterford Crystal Cup," said Crowe.

"The only game that's really been talked about in hurling circles is our first home game in the league, against Wexford, and that's not until March 4th. We are away to Down on the opening Sunday of February 18th, but I don't think they'll be too many problems with traffic that day. So we'll just see how it goes with these two games on Sunday but nobody will be reading too deeply into them."