The Banner’s first Croker return since 1992 proves what is rare is beautiful

WHAT’S seldom is wonderful – a state of mind that Clare football folk certainly know all about given the paucity of success there has been in the county over the past couple of decades.

That it has finally come in championship over the past three weeks has been uplifting as it has been energising, with the hat-trick of All-Ireland qualifier wins over Laois, Sligo and Roscommon bringing Clare to where they’ve never been before in the county’s largely unrequited affair with championship down the years, decades and centuries.

A first ever All-Ireland quarter-Final; a first championship outing in Croke Park since the storied All-Ireland semi-final day out in 1992; a sixth championship game in a season for the first time ever; a 14th competitive game between league and championship in 2016.

That’s a lot of boxes ticked and a year of huge progress. You could say the biggest year of progress since 1991-92 when the county moved from being beaten by 13 points by Kerry in the Munster semi-final to beating them in the following year’s Munster final.

Where playing Kerry is concerned, making the same kind of leap as Clare made between 1991 and ’92 is what the current generation have to do if they’re to set up a potential All-Ireland semi-final date with Dublin.

It’s a huge task. Many might say an insurmountable task given the gap that there was between the sides when they met in the Munster semi-final in June. That was a chastening day out, when all preparation and planning for the monumental challenge of taking on Kerry in Killarney went up in smoke within five minutes of the start by which time Joe Hayes had picked the ball out of net twice.

Thereafter Clare were competitive, but the reality was that Kerry were in cruise control from there until the end as they took the first of three steps to set up a semi-final showdown against Dublin.

And make no mistake about it that’s what Kerry have been looking ahead to ever since they were carved open in the final 20 minutes of the National League final by the Dubs back on the last Sunday in April.

Kerry weren’t looking at Clare; they weren’t looking at Tipperary either, while their traditional Munster final rivals of Cork probably didn’t even flicker on their radar either.

For Kerry, it has, and still is about coming up with a gameplan to take on the Dubs and trying to get their first championship win over them in seven years. This is why manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice was in Croke Park for the Dublin v Meath Leinster semi-final, a game that took place prior to their Munster final against Tipperary.

That it’s Clare that represent the final stumbling block to the destiny of the Dubs date won’t in any way alter this Kerry mindset as they fully expect to steamroll past the Banner challenge.

And against this backdrop Kerry will be looking for a repeat of what they produced in Killarney, killing the game early and then moving on.

For Clare, the maths are simple. They need the start that Tipperary got against Kerry in the Munster final when their early goal gave them the platform to try and take on the champions. Ultimately Tipperary still failed, but at least it gave them a chance, while for Clare it was just damage limitation after the hara kiri of the concession of those two early goals.

If Clare could get into the same position as they did against Roscommon in the first half – where they were against Kerry in Cusack Park back in 2014 – this game could be a lot closer than expected.

That day Clare showed no fear against the Kingdom, bringing a high intensity and apart from a dip after half-time they maintained it throughout and were only four points shy at the death.

It will be much harder in Croke Park, because even allowing for Clare’s National League final appearances there in 2014 and this year, it’s nothing onto the experience Kerry have there. Put simply they know every blade of grass there as well as farmers know their land.

Clare need another tour de force from Gary Brennan at midfield, while the need to shore things up at the back is another given, as is maximising the chances that come their way up front.

It’s a mammoth task; it’s mission impossible in terms of expecting that Clare can win, but this is bonus territory and the game has to be viewed through this prism. Yes, for Clare it’s all about believing they can win and the belief that’s there on the back of three successive victories has to be there, but at the end of the day reaching the quarter-final is more a platform for next year rather than to reach the semi-final.

Clare need another tour de force from Gary Brennan at midfield, they need to shore up at the back