Clara more than making her mark in debut season

THE Daly household lives and breathes football and with two All-Ireland medal already in the house thanks to Callum, his sister Clara embarks on her quest to add to the collection when she takes her place in the Red Hand Ladies squad this weekend away to Leitrim.

Callum, a MacRory and Hogan Cup winning captain with Omagh CBS, continued his great run this year in Portlaoise with the Tyrone Under-20s last week.

Clara was there to cheer him on.

“It was a great day, a great game too, They won on the Sunday but he had an exam on Tuesday so it was back to the books for him. But they have a great team and hopefully there will be other great days,” she stated

The twenty year old Omagh defender is keen to follow in the footsteps of current club teammates Christiane Hunter and Orla McNamee who claimed national success with Tyrone Ladies back in 2018.

Clara made her debut in the recent National League campaign, a league season which culminated in an appearance at Croke Park against Kildare in the Division Two Final.

It has been an excellent introduction to inter county senior football for Daly.

“We only played a couple of games in the minors and it was so different. This is an excellent experience, the set up is so professional, everything about being here is good.”

She added: “ Coming in this year has been good. I’ve got on well with the girls, everyone is welcoming. You know coming from intermediate football to the County team is a big step
up, it’s a different way of playing football.

“ It’s faster, you have to be a lot fitter and it’s a real team effort. Everyone is focused on the one thing, the target is success for us, I have really enjoyed the step up,” confirmed the Belfast based apprentice at PWC.

As Tyrone embark on their All-Ireland Championship exertions away to Leitrim, Clara is hoping for continued game time having started in all but two matches in this her debut season.

The winners of Group Four qualify for a home quarter final and Tyrone will be fancying their chances. However Clara utters a note of caution,

“I know very little about the teams in the Championship. It’s new to me but we will be well prepared, our training has been good and we certainly won’t underestimate the teams.

“ I’m looking forward to see how it goes and of course Championship is completely different to the league. It will be my first taste of it”

Daly is one of almost twenty new faces in the Tyrone squad drafted in over the year. They include several of the successful minor winning side from recent seasons. Manager Sean O’Kane has been happy at the Tyrone response since their Ulster semi-final loss to Monaghan and as Clara pointed out they will refocus

“We lost to Monaghan. We gave them a head start and tried to get back into the game but I think we have learnt a lot since then. We will be ready for the championship and hopefully we get a good run.”