*Shane Gleeson and Darragh Sexton pay their respects at the final whistle. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill

Darragh Sexton was one of the finds of the summer in 2016 when Kilmurry Ibrickane won a first Clare SFC title in four years, they retained the title a year later but with three seasons deprived of championship success, the defender made sure to absorb the moment as he got reacquainted with the Jack Daly.

Saturday’s three point win over Cratloe gifted Darragh with his third Clare SFC medal. It was one he had to wait longer than planned for. “I did two in my first two years and I thought we would win every year, I’ve been waiting a while for this third medal but for some reason this was one means the most”.

Wing-back on the side, Sexton provided an excellent delivery to his namesake Keelan Sexton to set up their first score with five minutes played which would settle the ship as Cratloe had already gone two points clear by this stage. “I did a nice bit of running and it was good to get on a bit of ball,” he said of his contribution throughout the contest in picking up breaks and launching counter-attacks.

“More importantly, the team every single player really played well today, we were gunning for this all year, we put in the hard work and we’re really delighted with this,” the business customer advisor with AIB added.

Sexton is grateful to get the opportunity to play alongside experienced men such as Martin McMahon, Shane Hickey and Darren Hickey whom he credits for making life much easier for the entire Kilmurry Ibrickane defence. “This is my fifth year on the team, getting to play with the likes of Martin McMahon and the Hickeys, they make you very comfortable on the ball, you have the lads organising everything and it frees you up, they tell you what to do. I’ve got that bit of experience and composure now on the ball, it was a good performance”.

He described the displays of their younger guns as “amazing” and believed they added a new dimension to their cause in 2020. “It was Andrew Shannon’s first year breaking into the team, Diarmuid King was excellent but it’s really the mix we have between youth and experience. Half of our starting team is under 24 someone said and I didn’t even realise that, it shows we are integrating these lads and it is good to see the hunger is still there,” the Corofin resident noted.