Clare club players the freshest in Ireland

A FULL eight weeks after senior club footballers in Clare last got a chance to play championship football, they will go back at it on Saturday and Sunday.
Teams who were beaten in their opening group matches and who go the same way this weekend, will have plenty of time to reflect on how their season imploded. Eight weeks after their first championship game of 2010, they will have more than eight months to get it right for next year’s championship. Although they might get to play senior B or relegation semi-final football to keep them occupied for another few weeks.
While there have been league fixtures in the interim, it is worth pointing out (yet again) that Clare GAA sees little problem with having a huge gap between the first and second round of the senior football championship. In a successful county there would be some excuse. Yet both the Clare footballers and hurlers exited their respective championships after the least possible amount of games apiece. Two.
Even so, it will be August 7, which is technically autumn, before round two of the senior football championship throws in. For clubs who lost in June and lose again this weekend, that will be it, barring an unwanted run in the senior B championship or an even less sought-after spell trying to avoid relegation.
This weekend’s losers definitely won’t be able to claim that lack of freshness cost them. Clare club footballers must be amongst the freshest in the country, given the two-month gap since the last time they were called into the heat of championship battle.
The wait will be even longer for the footballers of Kilrush and O’Curry’s, who will have to kill time until 7pm on Sunday evening, when they meet in Doonbeg. Saturday and Sunday will feel as long as the actual eight weeks since they last played championship.
All of that said though, clubs and players will have plenty to keep them occupied for the next few weeks, with games fixed every second weekend. Dual clubs will definitely have enough to keep them entertained.
However long the wait, this weekend’s second-round winners will instantly forget that they were sidelined, barring league football, for two months.
Losers may ask was the effort worth it, especially those who come Sunday evening, who will have played two games and are left with no points on the table.