Banner deserve credit

COLM Collins must find it hard not to take a certain amount of offence. He does this marvellous thing and each and every time he does it, the talk is about the opposition. Cork in crisis. A new low. Rock bottom.

Clare beat Cork in the McGrath Cup final and we’re treated to a week of gags about the Cork county board’s five year plan, launched earlier that week. Cork beat Clare for the third time in three league campaigns on Sunday afternoon and again the focus is on the Rebels.

Hang on a second here, the Cratloe man would more than be justified in asking, what about us? Do we, Clare that is, not have any agency in this story? Is it not as much a case of Clare football stepping up to the mark as Cork slipping back off it?

We suppose it’s just a factor of Clare football’s place in the pecking order. Unfashionable, unloved, cannon fodder for so much of its existence. Even their greatest day is remembered as much for who they beat rather than what they won.

The Clare team of ‘92 was their best of all-time. Their achievement immense and, yet, that famous day in the Gaelic Grounds is thought of as much as Kerry’s nadir as the Banner’s zenith. Hardly fair. Hardly fair then and hardly fair now.

Collins is one of those unsung heroes of the GAA. Grafting away far from the maddening crowds, helping to hone the most competitive Clare side in a generation. Getting the most out of what he has, having the charisma to keep it going year after year, having the foresight to plan for the future.

Conal Ó hAiniféin, a star of the Banner’s Under 21 side, was one of Clare’s top performers in Cusack Park. His emergence is evidence that they’re doing things the right way up there. That may not always be reflected in how they’ve performed against Kerry in Munster minor finals – they suffered two big defeats in the last two campaigns – but for Clare to produce a player or two of real quality is the name of the game. The contrast with Kerry’s underage regime is both unflattering and unfair.

As is Clare’s continual misfortune to be drawn on the Kingdom’s side of the Munster championship draw. Should Clare make it through to the Munster semi-final it’ll be the fifth time in six years they’ll have played Kerry at that stage of the competition.

Those games give the false impression that Clare are standing still or even going nowhere. The reality is much more complex and encouraging than that. Clare are improving. Clare are proud. They deserve better than to the thought of as a fallen giant’s rock bottom.