Joint Clare boss Gerry O'Connor says the two month layoff for his side after tomorrow's relegation playoff with Dublin will provide "a huge chance to get in some meaningful and worthwhile training."

He told SunSport: “That’s a positive in its own right, it will allow our guys to just refocus and completely target June 4."

Clare face Limerick in the Munster Championship semi-final in Semple Stadium.

“Once Sunday passes, our sole focus will be on Limerick and that two-month window gives us a huge chance to get in some meaningful and worthwhile training," said O'Connor.

“At Under-21 level you probably had three or four months to prepare for a game, then you’d play the game and wouldn’t have another one for a month. That gave you time to work in training."

“But with the National League the gap was a maximum of two weeks and that gave us very little time to do any meaningful training between games. The big difference with the league is the volume and the frequency of games in such a short period of time," he said.

Having looked at Ger Cunningham’s Cuala stars, O’Connor feels Cian O’Callaghan will prove a massive difference in the Sky Blue defence this time.

He said: “There was nothing between us only two or three weeks ago, and when you add in the Cuala guys, they’ll have an excellent defence. Cian O’Callaghan will be back in there with Liam Rushe, Chris Crummey and Eoghan O’Donnell. Somebody of O’Callaghan’s calibre coming back will pose a huge challenge for our forwards, for sure."

“We met on the Tuesday night after their club final and the Ballyea lads were anxious to get back into the fold and wash the experience of St Patrick’s Day out of their systems. What better way than to just get back into our system?

“The reality of the situation for both teams on Sunday is, it is probably going to be as close to a Championship match as you can get because of the do-or-die scenario that the winner and the loser will be involved in. We are expecting a huge challenge from Dublin and a huge performance from our own guys.”

O’Connor feels Clare have been able for every team they faced in the top flight. But he knows their failure to deliver over 70 minutes has cost them.

And losing by 2-21 to 1-22 to Munster foes Waterford last time out summed it all up after they threw away a precious lead.

He added: “We were in a winning position and let the game slip away from us. But that’s been reflective of the way we have performed in the National League. We played really good hurling in segments but we haven’t consistently delivered an excellent performance for the full game. The positive is we know we have — especially in the Waterford game — matched most teams for periods of the games.

“We just haven’t been consistently able to perform for the full game.”

Clare take on Dublin in a crucial relegation playoff at Cusack Park tomorrow at 4.00 p.m.