Clare GAA 2026 Season: Hurling & Football Update

Four wins from four in hurling. Two from three in football. More points scored than anyone else at either level. If you’d told a Clare fan in December that this is where they’d be by late February 2026, they’d have bitten your hand off.

The Banner are back. Both codes, both moving in the right direction. And the spring calendar is about to get a lot more interesting.

Hurling: Nobody in 1B Can Live With Them

Brian Lohan’s squad got relegated from Division 1A last year. First time outside the top flight since 2018. The pride was dented. The response has been violent.

Round 1 against Dublin at Páirc Chíosóg set the standard. A tight, physical game that Clare won through composure more than firepower. Then Antrim away in Dunloy — always awkward, never easy — and another W on the board. Professional. Controlled.

Round 3 is where the statement came. Down visited Ennis and left with a 3-35 to 0-15 defeat ringing in their ears. Forty-four points. In a single game. At this level, that’s not just winning — it’s humiliation.

But the Kildare game told us more.

Newbridge. Filthy evening. Rain so heavy you could barely see the far goalposts from the stand. Kildare rattled three goals into the Clare net and had the home crowd roaring with 15 minutes left. Any other team panics. Clare scored seven of the last eight points and won 0-27 to 3-14. We pulled up the play-by-play, and what struck us was how calm the Banner’s puck-outs stayed under pressure — no long balls into chaos, just short restarts and patient build-up. That’s coaching. That’s Lohan.

Six new players on the panel this year: Sheedy, Moylan, Stritch, O’Farrell, Dunford, and Fawl. Aidan McCarthy — the man who swung the 2024 All-Ireland final — hasn’t come back. There were whispers he wanted to return. The door stayed shut. You can argue that call either way, but the performances say Lohan’s squad doesn’t need him right now.

📊 Key Stat: Clare’s hurlers average 33 points per game — 10 more than any other Division 1B team. (Source: Clare GAA results, RTÉ Sport)

Boomerang Bet has Clare at 13/2 (7.50) for the 2026 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship — behind only Limerick, Cork, Tipperary, and Kilkenny. That price looks generous for a team playing like this, even from the second tier.

Two league games left: Carlow away (February 28), Wexford at home (March 8). Win both and it’s a 1B final on the first weekend of April. Promotion back to 1A feels like a formality.

Football: A Wobbly Start, Then the Engine Kicked In

Different sport. Different mood. Clare’s footballers play in Division 3 — two levels below where the hurlers want to be — and the target is promotion to Division 2. Simple as that.

It didn’t start well.

Down away in January. Dreadful conditions at Páirc Esler. Clare led by five at half-time after Mark McInerney scored 1-3 and goalkeeper Stephen Ryan hit a two-pointer from a free. Five up. Comfortable. And then? Odhran Murdock netted for Down. Daniel Guinness stuck an orange flag. Six unanswered scores. Final score: Down 2-19, Clare 2-14.

That kind of loss breaks teams. It didn’t break this one.

Fermanagh came next — away again, in Enniskillen. Clare won 2-18 to 0-18. First win of the season. The relief was obvious, but the performance was the real takeaway: eighteen points conceded, none from goals. The defence had tightened.

Then Westmeath at home. 2-19 to 1-17. Two-point game at half-time that Clare pulled away from in the third quarter. Aaron Griffin, Brian McNamara, Darragh Bohannon — all scoring from play. Captain Cillian Rouine holding things together at the back. A good day at the office.

Here’s a quirk of the new scoring rules that’s helping Clare more than most: two-pointers. Kicks from beyond the 45 that clear the bar count double now, and Clare have shooters — Griffin, McNamara, Ryan from frees — who can land them. Against Down, Clare scored three two-pointers in the first half alone. It’s a weapon not every Division 3 team has figured out yet.

Two fronts, both moving forward. Clare’s hurlers and footballers are both chasing promotion this spring — a workload that tests depth, but so far the Banner are handling it.

The Championship Shadow

League is league. Championship is everything.

The Munster hurling draw has Clare meeting Waterford first, then Limerick on May 2-3. Think about that fixture for a second. Clare won the All-Ireland in 2024. Limerick have won four of the last five before that. These two go at each other like they have personal grudges. May in Ennis or Thurles. That’s what the spring is building toward.

Football’s championship path is less dramatic but still matters. The provincial draw won’t be kind — Munster football means Kerry and Cork lurking — but a quarter-final win would mark progress for a team that’s trying to rebuild its inter-county identity.

Not everyone’s drinking the Kool-Aid, though. RTÉ’s Liam Sheedy flagged a worry that applies to Clare and several other counties: the production line of forward talent isn’t what it was. The hurlers have no obvious replacement for Tony Kelly if he picks up a knock. The footballers haven’t beaten a team expected to finish above them yet. There’s a gap between “looking good in February” and “still standing in July.”

Fair point. But right now, February is pretty sweet in Clare.

The Diary: What’s Left This Spring

Hurling: Carlow away (Feb 28), Wexford at home (Mar 8). Two wins = Division 1B final.

Football: Limerick away (Feb 28), Wexford at home (Mar 15), Sligo away (Mar 22). Promotion needs at least two from three.

Camogie: Clare drew their opening National Camogie League game under manager Eugene Foudy. Another thread in a busy spring.

The weekends are stacked. Both codes playing on the same day twice more. Panel management — making sure hurlers who also play football aren’t burnt out — will matter more than tactics over the next three weeks.

Check back for match previews and predictions ahead of every Clare fixture.