Clare senior football captain, Cillian Brennan, who is a Physical education lecturer in DCU is honoured to be leading the Banner out on the field on Sunday but he doesn’t want that to be the only honour.
” There’s only one thing sweeter than leading this team out and that would be winning it. It didn’t go to plan twelve months ago in the Gaelic grounds but there’s huge learnings from last year. We didn’t do ourselves justice on the day. Had we gone out, given everything we could have and performed to the level we can and still ended up being beaten you’d be somewhat more heartened from it but we just didn’t perform but thankfully we now have another opportunity to show what we are really made of.”
The Clondegad clubman who has had his fair share of injury setbacks is raring to go and feels it’s an advantage that the management team have extensive knowledge of Kerry football.
” Both Mark and James have huge experience and knowledge of Kerry football which can only help. They’ll obviously know alot about their strengths and weaknesses and will have a game plan in mind for facing them but it’ll be up to us then as players to try and follow the game plan that they design as best as we possibly can.”
With ticket sales high and Clare being in back to back provincial finals for the first time in 87 years the twenty seven year old full back is hopeful of a big Clare crowd and feels that players always perform better when there’s an atmosphere and he hopes they can feed off of that.
” It’ll be great to have a huge home crowd here and then it’s on us to give the Clare football supporters and Clare people something to shout about Sunday. We can only do that through hard work but it has to be one ball at a time. I’ve played and followed Clare football a long time when my brother’s and even my Dad was playing and I’ve seen and played in front of tiny crowds. Sunday hopefully will be a great crowd and then it’s up to us to get them in full voice and lift the roof off this place. It’s important to stay present though and not get ahead of ourselves. You hear alot about process in professional sport and amateur sport but there’s a reason for that. You simply have to stay focused and take each moment on its own merits. Attack the next ball. You can’t be thinking of what just happened or what could possibly happen. It’s just next ball, next ball, next ball.”
Going in as rank outsiders doesn’t matter to the experienced Brennan who made his debut back in 2018.
” It’s an opportunity to throw the shackles off and have a right go at this. All the lads are only dying to play the big teams. All of us want to compete at this level. Everyone expects Kerry to win but it’s up us to deliver as best a performance as we can. We are sportspeople, we are competitors and every competitor in any sport goes out to win. You have to believe you can do it. All the running sessions in November, all the gym work, all the sacrifices that everybody on the panel have made is because they are competitors and competitors want to win. The young lads don’t fear the Kerry jersey and you saw that last year when the Under 20’s pushed them all the way to extra time in Tralee but moral victories are just that – moral. Our job is to win titles and we have an opportunity to do so Sunday. Yes it’s going to be a difficult task but you have to believe you can win. You have to ignore all the people who don’t rate your chances. All games are there to be won on merit and we’ll give it everything we can do to try come out on top.”
The Kingdom are a potent attacking force and considered by many as the best team in the country with the best player in the country. When asked about any plans to try curb David Clifford Cillian feels there’s plenty of others to worry about too.
” On Clifford we know he’s a phenomenal footballer and his consistency is truly remarkable both for club and county and of course we have to try curtail his influence but there’s fourteen others to worry about also unfortunately” he laughs.
Being in this Munster final has ensured that the Banner will compete for Sam Maguire and face more quality opposition over the next eight weeks.
” To be honest about it you’ll only improve by the level of opposition you face and it’s massively important to keep competing against the top teams. We have four more games now no matter what against four top teams. With such a young team we can only learn and develop from these games. Wouldn’t it be great to develop by being Munster Champions” he says with a smile but also a level of belief.
Roll on Sunday with throw in at 1:45 pm and who knows what might happen. With warriors like Brennan anything is possible and it should be a unique occasion and one for all Clare people to savour.