*Keelan Sexton leaves Jimmy Feehan in his path. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
AFTER a year away from inter-county action, Keelan Sexton says he is “delighted” to be back wearing saffron and blue.
Keelan spent last year Stateside and was one of thirteen players from the previous season that Mark Fitzgerald was without for his 2024 campaign as Clare boss. Since returning to the county cause, he has slotted seamlessly back into life in the Banner attack and has been a starter in every competitive game this season.
A back injury forced him off during Clare’s last outing in the Allianz National Football League and it was a niggle he had to try overcome before Saturday’s six point semi-final win over Tipperary. “I had an injury the last few weeks so I wasn’t as sharp as I’d have liked to be but playing in bits and drabs and I feel like I’m getting back to nearly a hundred percent, I’m not too far off it. I feel fine physically but it is just a bit of sharpness”.
Even within the space of twelve minutes, the inter-county game has changed, he observed. “It is a different game, there’s less value now, if you kicked two or three points in the old game you had a stormer whereas now you can get to six or eight points if you are really motoring, I’m happy to be in there and I feel I’m on an upward trajectory as we are collectively, we’ve been building momentum from the league which is the most important thing”.
Returning to the Clare fold has been a big plus for Keelan. “Peter (Keane) is so understanding and the backroom team with the likes of Shane (O’Rourke), Conor Stack and Ger Crotty have been phenomenal and they have really helped me get the body right even when I did get a bit of a niggle and I put in loads of work with them. I’m delighted to be back in a Clare jersey, hopefully there’s a bit more work to be done in it”.
Managing niggles and injuries is a bit more difficult at present as he is based in Dublin which limits the ability to take a recovery dip in Quilty or Lahinch. “I’m very lucky to be coming down the road with Cillian (Brennan), I’ve been lucky enough with work that I’m not in the office full-time but I’m back in there in two weeks so I’ve been able to get away with it at the minute with the recovery and sneak away a little bit earlier than usual but we’ll deal with that when it comes”.
There is a correlation in years spent on the Clare panel and time spent with the medical team. Keelan was first part of the county senior panel in 2015 when he was also captain of the Clare minor footballers. “Cleary is probably the only one with a bit more years thinking back on it. “I think I was in fifth year in secondary school when I was on the panel first, we played Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, that was in 2015, it’s not too far off ten years, I don’t appreciate you reminding me of it but we could have ten more who knows,” he told The Clare Echo.
Saturday’s win over Tipperary sees Clare secure their spot in the All-Ireland series and also a Munster final appearance against Kerry for the third year on the bounce. “Third Munster final in a row, it would be nice to win now. We’re delighted to be there, we’ll be a bit disappointed with what happened at times out there but semi-finals are for winning, Tipp gave us plenty of it but we were able to rise to it and go above it, we’re happy enough”.
Reflecting on their semi-final showing, Sexton stated, “We scored 2-18 and our efficiency was about 59 percent, we’re creating loads, we’ve loads of firepower, the bench impact was good, we went to town on the kickouts for a good majority of the game. The bad bits then were we fell asleep for the last five minutes of the first half and the last ten minutes of the second half, we’ve plenty to work on and plenty to be happy with, it is something good to have for two weeks, you don’t want to be going in saying you were flying and motoring perfect because that is not the reality of it but we’ve some objectives to hit for the next two weeks”.
