CONVINCED I MADE THE RIGHT CALL
Cleary has no regrets about leaving football behind
Cork v Clare Semple Stadium, Sunday 2pm BY MICHAEL SCULLY CONOR CLEARY has heard all the banter from the football heartland of west Clare.
The 24-year-old is a rarity, a talented footballer from Miltown Malbay who ultimately threw his lot in with the Banner hurlers.
Before he made that call though, he played in the Munster minor and under-21 football championships, his first year with the 21s coinciding with the last for Podge Collins.
His brother Eoin (inset) played for Colm Collins’ footballers in the qualifier win over Offaly last Sunday. But Seanie Mcmahon was Conor’s hero growing up and his ambition was always to emulate him.
“A lot of lads would be telling me, ‘Why don’t you just play football?’, and that I was wasting my time,” smiled Cleary. “But it was all in good spirit, and to be fair the club is great, they always back me.
“When I go back and play club football, I try to give it all I can for them.”
The perfect reply would be to come home with a Munster senior hurling medal to show off after Sunday’s showdown with Cork.
“Yeah, it would be great,” Cleary said. “It would be special.”
He added: “I started off with Kilmaley when I was nine or 10 and I went to Flannans then when I was 12.
“I was playing as playing as much hurling as Tony Kelly and Jack Browne and those lads in school, I would have been pally with them.
“So it wasn’t as if I was isolated in the west for a couple of years – I was basically living in Ennis for six years, and with the standard that the boys were playing at, that brought me on too.”
Cleary was part of the Clare under-21 side that won back to back All-ireland hurling crowns in 2013 and ‘14, the 2012 success coming just too soon for him.
Those wins, taken in the context of the senior team’s Liam Maccarthy triumph in 2013, meant the Banner looked set fair for a golden era.
Remarkably, the seniors haven’t hurled in Croke Park since then in the Championship. They haven’t won a Munster title in those five years, either.
So was there a fear growing that those winners of a few years ago were becoming a lost generation?
“I’m not just saying it but that never has been mentioned in the last two years that I’ve been involved,” insisted Cleary. “We were just focusing on the games we have ahead. The lads in 2013 did what they did, but this is a different group now and you just have to focus on the now.
“If you start thinking about what you did in different years, you’re just wasting your time.”
Cleary and Clare are loving the new provincial round robin format and after an initial loss to Cork they bounced back with three important wins, the thrilling victory against Tipp in Thurles the stand-out.
“To be testing yourself four times against quality opposition in the championship is brilliant, and that’s the real way you want to improve as a hurler, when you’re testing yourself in the real heat of the Championship,” said the full-back.
“So I think that has really brought us on and it’s great to have another top class game to look forward to on Sunday.”