By Cian O'Connell

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David Clarke's relevance to the Mayo cause should never be underestimated. All Ireland final defeats hurt certainly, but Mayo continue to show an admirable willingness and ability to respond.

Sunday's Connacht Championship clash against Galway is dominating the agenda out west. Clarke acknowledges that the Mayo footballers remain optimistic.

“Ah yeah, you do," Clarke admits. "Obviously most lads on the panel will say they want to win the All-Ireland, but you’re not sitting down every day saying that.

“First of all, I want to make the team. I want to do well at training because there’s huge pressure in my position to do well."

While hoisting Sam Maguire remains Mayo's objective Clarke never loses focus on the present. That steely 'focus' has been rewarded with two All Star awards.

“Me sitting at home saying “I want to win the All-Ireland”, next thing I won’t be playing on the team at all. You have a general focus at the top of the mountain but it’s all small steps. Training, training and working through the League. The next step for us is Galway.

“Most lads are back because they enjoy playing football, but also they see that there is an opportunity, if we do get all our small steps together, that we can challenge for an All-Ireland title again.

“Without getting that performance against Galway, getting to those levels and standards we talked about, it’s a very slippery slope, it could all be over very quickly."

Mayo came so close once more last September to accomplishing their mission, but Clarke was quickly back on duty with Ballina Stephenites. "There were a few days of disappointment, but on the Wednesday I went back training with the club," Clarke recalls. "You just have to get back in the groove.

“I enjoy playing football so it was a matter of getting back with the club and playing for another two or three months. Come January I had no hesitation in coming back again. I enjoyed the year and the competition.

“If you were to sit down and think too much about it you could tie yourself into a knot - is it ever going to happen? But when you enjoy playing football and training, you just try to make the most of it and get out there as much as you can.

“Obviously I’m getting a bit older now so you try to make the most of every year you’re around the set up to see what happens.

“But when I go to bed I’m not crying myself to sleep. Maybe in a few years’ time when you stop you might look back a bit differently at things, but when you’re in the middle of it you just keep on going and make the best of it."

Clarke highlights the enduring excellence of Dublin custodian Stephen Cluxton when asked about two goalkeepers being nominated for Footballer of the Year in 2017.

“It wasn’t something I saw coming," Clarke admits. "There’s a lot said about kickouts and the importance of goalkeepers at the moment. I didn’t foresee myself being in the mix for it. As a fan I see the footballers as the boys out the pitch kicking the ball over the bar and making the tackles and blocks. It’s like a sport within a sport, at times, goalkeeping.

“The brilliance of Stephen. The way that he’s changed the game, brought it to new levels and changed the way goalkeeping is thought about. I’m just following on from him.

“Just his kicking ability. When I started I wasn’t kicking the way I’m kicking now and that’s probably because Stephen did it so well and other managers and teams wanted something similar. You either develop with that or you’re going to be left behind."

This weekend's intriguing encounter with Galway carries huge significance according to Clarke. "When the draw was made and it was Galway in the first round it has been what our aim has been since we came back in 2018," Clarke states.

"They got the better of us the last number of times we played them in League and Championship so we’re going to have to try to do something different. "We’re going to have to bring a different intensity or different dimension to our game to get over them.

"They’re going hugely well in Division One. They’re bringing all the form. They’ve really developed as a team, physically and tactically. They’re strong at the back, strong going forward, hard enough to break down.

"It’s about us - Mayo trying to get to a position where we are playing our best football. Hopefully then we can deal with most opposition.

"Get ourselves in a position where we are playing our best football and take it from there."

Another summer full of green and red promise is set to commence.