*An injured Jamie Malone leaving the field. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
Clare’s senior football management will not make a decision on the potential involvement of Jamie Malone in Saturday’s Munster SFC quarter-final until later this week.
Corofin’s Malone who was nominated for an All Star in 2019 limped off with four minutes played in Clare’s Allianz National Football League round one clash with Laois.
He has not featured in any of the county’s matchday squads since that fixture in the middle of May. “Jamie is still struggling with that ankle injury, we won’t make a call on him until the weekend, it has taken a lot longer than we thought,” Clare manager Colm Collins told The Clare Echo.
Defender Kevin Harnett “is back in the reckoning,” Collins confirmed. The Meelick native was forced off with what was first feared to be an Achilles injury after twenty two minutes in Clare’s round three loss to Cork.
However, the Newmarket-on-Fergus clubman has made positive strides in training and is in the running to get a starting jersey and the opportunity to keep tabs on an electric Kerry forward line.
Stephen Ryan of Kilrush Shamrocks is to line out between the posts with Cillian Brennan, Cian O’Dea and Sean Collins forming key positions in his defence. Eoin Cleary is to captain the side from centre-forward and will form the Banner attack alongside David Tubridy and Gavin Cooney.
Podge Collins made his first appearance of the year for the footballers in the four point defeat to Mayo and made a noticeable impact from the bench upon his introduction. Fierce competition is expected between him and Joe McGann for the number fifteen jersey.
Tralee native Conor Jordan has the possibility of facing off with his native county and former U21 teammates. His father George hails from Kilkee and previously represented the county. His Austin Stacks clubmate, Ger O’Keeffe is confident the Kerry man can make a positive impact to the Clare defence, “In Kerry, if you’re on the fringes, it’s very hard to get an opportunity to get game-time under your belt, and of course game-time is critical for the development of players. He’s a young guy who is committed and has good application and trains hard. He’s dependable, a good marker, good on the ball, and he has vision. He plays hard and is a quality player,” he told The Irish Examiner.
Strong impacts from the bench has been a hallmark of Clare’s four outings this year. In this regard, Emmet McMahon, Aaron Griffin and Keelan Sexton will be putting their hands up.
Kerry boss, Peter Keane said they are “close enough” to having a full panel to choose from. “We’re in a real good shape, injuries have been a huge thing and factor, look around the country and the different counties with some of the high-profile players that have got injured, a lot of clubs are picking up injuries by the nature of it being so compressed, the GAA did a great move much earlier with seven substitutes for the League and I certainly think they need to go there for the championship purely from a player welfare point of view and being able to look after players. It seems to be soft muscle tissue injuries that are predominantly the issue here and I would call on the GAA to go and retain the seven substitutes for the championship”.
