Clohessy to lead Clare attack on Aughrim

THIS week the Clare senior football panel is preparing for the most significant hour and 10 minutes of their inter-county careers do date.
Win and Clare will be playing Division 3 league football in 2013. Lose and they will have to face into another season of slogging it out in division four, playing Mickey Mouse teams like Kilkenny.
Out of touch traditionalists might still think that championship is paramount. They are wrong. For a county like Clare to make progress, improving their league station is far more important in the medium term.
An ideal year for Clare in 2012 would be to win promotion and to qualify and compete manfully in a Munster final. Possibly followed by winning a game or two in the All-Ireland qualifiers. But if Clare aren’t promoted, a seventh successive year of Division 4 football would overshadow everything even if they did beat Limerick or Waterford and reach a Munster final. Winning on Sunday in Aughrim is all that matters.
“Right now it is,” Clare captain Alan Clohessy concurs. “We’ve set our stall out with the last three or four months that league is the priority at the moment. We’ll deal with championship when it comes to it but we’ve set our aim on getting promotion. We’re a game away from it and it’s in our hands,” the Liscannor forward added.
Clohessy says that himself and the panel having been preparing all season with defining fixtures like this weekend’s in mind.
“That’s exactly what we’re doing the work for. If you can come out on the good side of one of those types of games the lift it can give to a squad is massive. I think we’re in need of that and lads are hungry for it,” he asserted.
While the panel is solely focused on performing in Aughrim, Clohessy acknowledges that winning would raise the profile and interest in Clare football within the county.
“I think it would give a lift. We’ve got words of congratulations and encouragement lately and it’s great to see people having interest again and in getting Clare football back where it should be,” he said.
One of a number of players to sit out the Kilkenny game, Clohessy will resume training this week, keen to be fully fit for the trip to Wicklow.
“I’m had a small, niggly ankle injury. I’ve stayed off it for the last two weeks. I’ll be grand. I’ll be back training this week with a view to playing against Wicklow. That’s the one we’re all aiming at. We probably knew two or three weeks ago that it was going to come down to the last game,” he surmised.
Unfortunately Michael O’Shea’s participation is in serious doubt. The Kilkee man picked up a recurrence of an ankle injury in Cusack Park and had to be substituted.
“Hugely disappointing,” Clohessy sighed. “He’s been on form for the last four or five games. Hopefully there’s something that we can do for him but it doesn’t look great at the moment,” the Clare captain reflected.
As for Clare’s win over Kilkenny, Alan Clohessy accepted that it was merely a fixture fulfilling exercise.
“They got through it. The fixture has to be fulfilled. They did the job they had to do and got the scores on the board early. They slacked off a little bit towards the end but it’s hard to keep the concentration up when it’s one sided,” he suggested.
Concentration won’t be a problem for Clare this weekend. In fact they are probably tuned in already. Win and 2012 will have been a superb year for the Clare senior footballers, whatever championship brings. Lose and it’s more of the same. Lets not dwell on that just yet.