Tony Kelly Is Back. Brian Lohan Confirmed It. What His Return Means for Clare’s 2026
Brian Lohan said it directly, no qualification, no “we’ll see how he goes in training” – Tony Kelly starts on Sunday against Dublin, his first full competitive match since the ankle that kept the Ballyea man away from the opening phase of the 2026 Allianz Hurling League, and anyone who has watched Clare hurling in the years between 2013 and now understands what that confirmation means, not just for Sunday’s final at TUS Gaelic Grounds, but for the Munster Championship that begins a fortnight later in Ennis.
| Tony Kelly Career Overview | Stats |
| Club | Ballyea |
| Age in 2026 | 32 |
| All-Star Awards | 5 (2013, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024) |
| All-Ireland medals | 2 (2013, 2024) |
| First senior debut | 2012 (aged 18) |
| 2026 role | Clare captain |
| 2026 injury | Ankle (missed league group phase) |
| Status for April 5 | ✅ Confirmed starting |
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Kelly is 32. He has five All-Star awards – more than any other player in Clare hurling history, more than Seamus Durack, Anthony Daly, Seanie McMahon, or Davy Fitzgerald. Two All-Ireland medals, the first won at 19 in 2013, the second at 30 as captain in 2024 when the county had waited over a decade to go back. Between those medals is a career defined by performances that made opposition managers build their entire defensive structure around one man’s movement before the throw-in.
Lohan said it plainly after the 2024 final: “When Tony is playing, there is a different dimension for us. When he’s there, there is always that threat, regardless of what position he plays. And if a team ignores him, they will suffer.” That is a tactical description of what the Ballyea man forces defensively – the space it creates for Peter Duggan, Diarmuid Stritch, and the rest is the consequence every other Clare forward benefits from.
| Clare With and Without Kelly | Context |
| 2025 Munster Championship (without Kelly) | Waterford won in Walsh Park |
| 2024 All-Ireland Final (with Kelly) | Clare win, Kelly captain and man of match |
| 2024 Munster vs Waterford (with Kelly) | Clare win by last-puck 65 |
| 2026 league group phase (without Kelly) | Clare unbeaten, 8-83 scored |
| Status for April 5 final | ✅ Confirmed starting |
The 2025 Munster Championship without Kelly available against Waterford ended with the Déise winning in Walsh Park, and that specific result is what makes the confirmation for Sunday a story that runs beyond the league final itself. Everyone inside and outside the Clare camp knows that April 19 against Waterford at Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg is the moment the 2026 championship starts in earnest, and getting the captain through sixty competitive minutes on Sunday is the real purpose behind the league final, alongside winning it.
He turns 33 in December 2026. Shane O’Donnell has confirmed this year is his last. Kelly has said nothing publicly – which is the correct thing to do in April – but the awareness that this championship run is likely among the last of his career at this level gives Sunday’s comeback an extra weight that a Division 1B League Final would not normally carry on its own.
Tony Kelly starts on Sunday for Clare against Dublin – the five-time All-Star whose return changes how every opposition manager prepares, regardless of the occasion.