Clare football bit by travel bug with seven footballers opting out for 2026
*Ciaran Downes. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill SEVEN members of the 2025 Clare senior football panel have opted out of representing the county next season.
*Ciaran Downes. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill SEVEN members of the 2025 Clare senior football panel have opted out of representing the county next season.
*Tadhg Lillis and Kevin Pender swarm Kilmihil’s Mikey Keating. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill A quintessential derby showdown complete with an exceedingly anxious crescendo that saw Doonbeg just shade the spoils to progress to the last nine of the Clare SFC and send Kilmihil back to the relegation play-offs.
*Clare in 2026 will have a fourth manager of the senior footballers in as many years. PETER KEANE’s tenure as Clare senior football manager ended officially on Sunday, but it should have come to a halt long before then.
*Jason Linnane of Doonbeg. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill. WITHIN Doonbeg there is a quiet confidence that the eighteen-time Clare SFC champions could end a long wait of six years to return to the knockout stages.
*Stephen Ryan. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill STEPHEN Ryan has returned to Clare’s senior football panel ahead of Sunday’s crunch All-Ireland SFC tie with Louth.
*Clare goalkeeper Eamon Tubridy. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill A RETURN to inter-county football was not on the radar for Eamon Tubridy but he has found a new lease of life while nailing down the number one spot as Clare’s goalkeeper.
*Photograph: Gerard O’Neill CLARE’S senior footballers enter the white heat of championship this Saturday but it’s a tie with a lot on the line so far as their season is concerned.
*Keelan Sexton is outnumbered but breaks through the Kildare wall. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill. SUCCESSIVE WINS to raise the pulses and heart rates has Clare in fourth place of Division 3 but with an extra game to play, Páraic McMahon examines the performances of Clare’s footballers in their latest victory over Kildare.
*Brian McNamara. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill. BRIAN MCNAMARA is named to make a return to the Clare senior football team.
*Eoin Cleary splits the posts. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill. CLARE’s senior footballers got off the mark in Division 3 of the Allianz National Football League with a comprehensive second round win over Leitrim, Eoin Brennan rates the performances of the Banner’s footballers.