Keelan Sexton admits that transferring from his home club Kilmurray-Ibrickane to Dublin giants Na Fianna was one of the toughest decisions he has ever had to make.

The recently-retired Clare forward, who works as a solicitor in the capital, threw in his lot with the Mobhi Road club at the end of the year and is looking forward to facing Kilmacud Crokes for a place in the Dublin SFC final after bagging 1-4 in last weekend’s thrilling quarter-final victory over Ballymun Kickhams.

“I live here, I work here. I was living in Stoneybatter for a long time and my best mate, Dean Ryan, played with Na Fianna for years. They were good enough to accommodate me when I was trying to train, while playing with my club at home,” Sexton explained to gaa.ie

“This year I just said, you know what, I couldn’t put two legs in either county again. So I just said I’d commit to my life in Dublin for the next few years.

“For me, in sport, this is the toughest thing I’ve had to do. Leaving home is tough. Not a lot of people understand it, you know, where I’m from, west Clare, you’re born into a club, they give you everything and you want to give them everything back.

“But I was burning the candle at each end, and I was kind of falling out of love with football for a while. I just wasn’t putting in as much effort because it was so tough to get up and down the road.

“You’re not really a part of the slogging. The boys are running in November and very rarely would I get running midweek with them. I just felt that I was detached from the group a little bit. It’s nice to be up here, and you’re part of the group.”

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