By Cian O'Connell

Donal O'Sullivan has been involved with Limerick through good times and bad.

Just over a decade ago Limerick were motoring smoothly claiming Championship scalps and emerging as a competitive force in the Allianz Football League.

Much of the past decade, though, has been a challenge, but goalkeeper Donal O'Sullivan, who joined the panel during their run to the All Ireland Quarter Final in 2011, remains hopeful.

"It’s a bit of a cycle, we are kind of arguably at the lower side of the cycle at the minute, but that’s the standard you are trying to aspire to and trying to attain, those games with Limerick years ago would have been great games to go to growing up and would definitely have started my interest in playing for Limerick," O'Sullivan admits.

The Limerick custodian wants Billy Lee's charges to find a pathway back to those type of occasions when the Treatymen were relevant and respected.

"It’s definitely a work in progress," O'Sullivan says. "It takes lads a couple of years to get up to speed, develop their strength and conditioning, fitness, valuable game-time and experience. It’s arguably getting more difficult with the demands that people have outside of football.

"And then you see the big Division One teams pumping so much money into it, there is a bit of a gap. But it’s something to try and aspire to, I guess."

Now in his eighth campaign with Limerick, O'Sullivan, who works as a doctor in the acute medical unit in Galway University Hospital, thought about travelling to New Zealand in the winter. "I was debating going to New Zealand, but at the start of the year I had a good think about it and decided to put it off for the time being," O'Sullivan says.

"From that regard, working in the hospital, it’s a nice balance to just get out and kick football for an hour or two, clear the head, because obviously in some regard there is a lot of strain on the services.

"So it’s good just to go out and kick a ball with your friends, at any age and at any level it’s enjoyable. In that regard, I wouldn’t stop playing just because I have a busy job, I’d just try to accommodate as much as possible, within reason."

For the fourth year in a row Limerick clash with Clare down south, a challenge the underdogs will relish according to O'Sullivan. "One aspect of it is that it’s a derby game and form goes out the window," the Monaleen clubman acknowledges.

"But the other side of it is they are a Division Two team and were challenging for promotion, so it’s a huge challenge. They are favourites, but these are the challenges you like to pit yourself against as a footballer."