By Daire Walsh

She and her county have endured some heartbreaking defeats since she first joined the panel in 2019, but Clare and Amy Sexton maintain a strong ambition to challenge for top honours in the TG4 All-Ireland intermediate football championship.

Following appearances in their semi-final reversals to Meath and Laois in 2020 and 2022 respectively, Sexton was named at left half-forward when the Banner suffered a one-point loss to Kildare in an All-Ireland IFC showpiece at Croke Park on August 13, 2023. The latter game is the closest Clare have come to regaining their senior football championship status with the Munster county last featuring in the Brendan Martin Cup all the way back in 2014.

The last two seasons has seen Clare exiting the intermediate championship at the quarter-final stage, but Graham Shine’s outfit have returned to the last eight of the competition in 2026 after recent wins over Wexford and Laois helped them to top Group 3 of the All-Ireland series in impressive fashion.

“It's always our goal. This is my seventh year now and we've reached the final once. Which was three years ago and I suppose you kind of think you're going to be there again the following year, but it just doesn't work that way,” Sexton acknowledged.

“The last two years then we've been in the quarter-final and haven't gone further, so hopefully now if we can get past the next day and even get back to Croke Park we’ll be happy. We're taking it game-by-game. We're just looking at the quarter-final now, but the overall goal is to be in Croke Park and back hopefully to win it and be up in senior.”

As is the case in the TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship, the bonus on offer to those who finish top of their group in the intermediate grade is a home fixture at the quarter-final stage. As a result of their exploits to date, Group 3 table-toppers Clare are now set to play host to Fermanagh in the knockout rounds of this season’s Mary Quinn Memorial Cup on Sunday week (June 28).

This looks set to be a tough encounter for the Banner with Fermanagh having followed up their victory in the TG4 All-Ireland junior football championship decider at Croke Park in 2024 by reaching back-to-back intermediate quarter-finals.

The Erne County previously welcomed Clare to Kinawley Brian Boru GAA in round six of Lidl National Football League Division 3 on March 22 of this year with the hosts triumphing on a 2-15 to 1-10 scoreline. Their spring campaign ended in relegation to Division 4, but the Banner have since bounced back by securing the Munster Senior ‘B’ Football Championship title in advance of their unbeaten run through the All-Ireland intermediate group stages.

“I suppose the league didn't go our way at all, we have a lot of new girls in. A lot of girls gone, so I think it was more rebuilding than anything. Just trying to gel as a team I suppose and come the Munster ‘B’ Championship and into the All-Ireland series now, we have really gelled and are working as a team now. Which is great,” Sexton explained.

“I'd be thinking it'll be a completely different game now the next day, but we will look back on our game against Fermanagh and see where we can do better. They're only up two years, but they're a fiery team. We know from the last day they are well able to score. We can't be giving away any frees in the scoring areas because they'll pop them over.”

Although her sole national success with Clare thus far came when the Banner claimed the Lidl National Football League Division 3 title at the expense of Roscommon in 2024, Sexton has achieved provincial honours in the shape of the aforementioned Munster Senior ‘B’ Championship.

A starter in the half-forward line when Clare secured this crown against Cork in Kilmallock last month, Sexton also featured when her county won the competition in 2023.

Because themselves and Limerick are the province’s sole teams in the All-Ireland intermediate and junior championships respectively, the TG4 Munster Senior ‘B’ Football Championship provides them with an opportunity to take on second string sides from Cork, Kerry and Tipperary (new additions to the competition this year). Considering the alternative, Sexton is more than happy to participate in the Munster SFC ‘B’ and offer Clare a shot at securing silverware in the process.

“There'd be a big period there where we'd have nothing and senior counties would be playing their own provincials. Even for challenge games it would have been tough, so it was great to have the games. You only get better playing games.

“Obviously Limerick are junior and then the second teams from Cork and Kerry, they're huge counties and they're still very, very good. So they were great challenges definitely and I think it has made us better as a team.”

A graduate from the University of Limerick who has recently completed her first year as a PE and Maths teacher at St Joseph’s secondary school in Spanish Point (which she previously attended as a student), Sexton has also enjoyed considerable success at club level in recent years.

Having bagged a hat-trick of goals when Kilmurry Ibrickane sealed the Clare intermediate football championship crown with a final win against St Joseph’s, Miltown Malbay in 2020, Sexton also had a pivotal role to play as her club marked their first Clare senior county final appearance four years later by defeating St Joseph’s Doora Barefield in fine style.

Their impressive journey through the local scene has seen Kilmurry Ibrickane gaining serious recognition on the Clare senior panel with Sexton being one of six players from the club to start in their TG4 All-Ireland IFC group stage victory over Laois at Laois Hire O’Moore Park in Portlaoise on June 7.

“It’s great to have so many of the girls. It makes it a small bit easier to know even the forwards myself. I know Chloe [Moloney] so well. I know exactly where she's going to run and we were so used to playing with each other, which is great. We're a small club, so it's really good to see six of us on the team,” Sexton added.

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