The opportunity to line out for your club in Croke Park on St Patrick's Day doesn't come around too often so Tony Kelly is determined to make the most of it.

Fresh from winning their first ever Clare SHC title, the former 'Hurler of the Year' and his Ballyea club-mates will take on St Thomas' of Galway in Semple Stadium today (5pm) with a place in the blue riband event of the GAA club calendar up for grabs.

"If you told me this time last year I'd be preparing for an All-Ireland club semi-final, I'd have told you you were mad," the 23-year-old remarked to The Irish Independent.

"When we started out, there wasn't much talk of winning a county final, let alone going on to represent Munster in an All-Ireland series.

"We may never get to a county semi-final, let alone an All-Ireland semi-final, again. That's just the way sport goes. When you get this far, you've got to knuckle down and realise this is our only chance. That realisation hit home coming back from the Christmas break.

"This is our one chance with this group of players - we've never had a group of players like this before. There is no guarantees that we'll ever be successful again. We're very aware that we have to make our chance count."

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