Clare's Gary Brennan benefiting from football-only focus

Clare football has experienced a huge upturn in fortunes in recent summers.

Following their All-Ireland quarter-final appearance in 2016, there was pressure to back it up. Nobody can say they don't belong at that level. The Banner have consolidated their position in Division 2 over the last two years, and asked questions of Kerry and Mayo in the Championship last summer.

This progress has been spearheaded by Gary Brennan, among others. The 2016 All-Star is widely recognised as one of the best footballers in Munster. However, he is also well regarded in hurling circles.

Last year, he helped Ballyea to the All-Ireland Club Hurling Championship final, where they ultimately lost out to Cuala. His involvement in this run naturally affected his football season, and he lost out on a great amount of the Banner's League campaign as a result.

Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of the Championship opener against Limerick on Saturday evening, Brennan does admit he feels his preparation this season is better as a result of having full focus on the big ball.

"I was trying to balance it last year, I was back and forth between the two. I played in the first two rounds of the League, picked up an injury then, so that pretty much put me out of action until the All-Ireland club final.

"I suppose I was getting into a bit more of a rhythm towards the end of the League this year. I'm starting to get a bit more flow to my game, but there's no guarantee that that carries on. It's about possibly trying to work on, if you're not putting in the work, you're not getting rewarded. I'm trying to put in a bit more work this year,

"I've more time to focus on the football, so there are a few extras that hopefully might put me in a position to hopefully be my best."

Clare open their summer account on Saturday evening against Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds. While the two counties have been on different trajectories in recent years, Brennan is taking nothing for granted.

"We have spent long enough in that situation where Limerick are this year to an extent. I think in their first couple of games they had Laois first and Carlow second. But they were probably playing the two teams that did end up getting promoted, and if you lose your first two games in Division 4, there's not a whole pile else to play for in that League.

"So I would imagine Limerick would have had their eye on this game from a long way back."

Given the Championship restructure this year, the Super 8s is certainly the place to be. From a neutral perspective, it is an achievable goal for this Clare team. Brennan did admit it is an objective, but stressed they are not looking past the first game.

"Everyone would like to play in it (the Super 8s). Whatever your views about it, you'd like to get there. But that's a long way off for us at the moment. In my 11 years playing with Clare, we've got to the quarter-finals once. So it's not like a thing that we've done regularly.

"There'll be a big push on from everyone to try and get into that top eight, but for us it's cliché, it's game by game. We've got to focus on Limerick first, and if we get over that one let's see where we can go from there."