*Eoin Cleary. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
COLM COLLINS’ successor as Clare senior football manager is going to oversee a period of transition with the exits mounting from the county panel.
Captain Eoin Cleary has confirmed he will be taking a year out from inter-county action. The St Joseph’s Miltown clubman who has been sidelined with osteitis pubis for the past thirteen weeks, is set to tie the knot in December to his long-term partner, Colette Keniry, herself a footballer with West Clare Gaels.
Cleary has confirmed to his teammates in the past week that he will be bowing out from the county squad for the 2024 season but he has not shut the door on a future return, something which comes as a sigh of relief to Clare supporters.
Both Eoin and Colette are to spend next summer travelling. In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Cleary admitted that the departure of Colm Collins cemented his decision to take a year out.
“As you get older you get to see the bigger picture of life and while football is very important there are also different aspects of life that you want to explore. You are not young forever and it is just something that I want to do a bit of travelling when I can, see the likes of America and maybe Australia where I have not seen before and see how that goes,” the Roxboro based Garda said.
Since making his inter-county debut for the Clare seniors in 2014, Collins’ first year as manager, Eoin has played 85 games between league and championship, racking up a personal tally of 4-334.
Kilfenora’s Cian O’Dea who exited the panel earlier this year will not be involved in 2024. The wing-back has taken up a three-year coaching post with New York GAA.
Pearse Lillis who made his championship debut in 2016, the same campaign as O’Dea will also be absent for next season. The Cooraclare man is currently travelling in the United States.
Another leading light in Clare’s attack, Keelan Sexton is also expected to be in the United States by the time preparations begin for Collins’ successor while a travelling stint is also on the cards for Jamie Malone.
It deprives the next Clare manager of five guaranteed starters from the first fifteen but will underline the importance of utilising a first year back in Division 3 of the Allianz National Football League for beginning this period of transition.
Reports are also circulating that wing-back Ciaran Russell and midfielder Cathal O’Connor are considering their inter-county futures, for now the duo are focusing on their respective club campaigns with Éire Óg and Coolmeen.
A four-person committee comprised of Clare GAA Head of Operations, Deirdre Murphy, Chairman Kieran Keating plus former county forwards Ger Keane and David Tubridy is in place to find the next Clare senior football manager.
