Clare hurler John Conlon says that the county board's Centre of Excellence isn't up to scratch, but that he's hopeful it can fulfil its potential.
The facility at Caherlohan was described by All-Ireland winning captain Anthony Daly recently as "not fit for purpose" in his Irish Examiner column.
The Banner have been drawn against Waterford in the Munster SHC quarter-final, and a date with Tipperary will follow for the winners of that tie.
There has been much discussion about matters off the field for Clare, and Conlon admits that the Centre of Excellence has to be delivered to a proper standard.
"In terms of Brian (Lohan, manager) and getting, and all the resources there for us to perform, I can't say that they're not there," the 2013 All-Ireland winner told RTÉ's Game On.
"In fairness to Brian he's done his utmost to get funding with whatever means possible. I can say this with my hand on my heart that Brian has been super to put everything in place for us as players.
"When Caherlohan opened in 2012 it was an exciting project, and it was a massive step forward from where we were. It took forward thinking from the county board to buy such a facility.
"Those plans and visions haven't fully materialised in the nine years since. In 2021 now and not much has changed there. I passed the Offaly one before Christmas just to see the facilities that they have, and there are others like the one in Tyrone.
"A centre of excellence is supposed to inspire the youth and us to want to play for Clare. That's the way I'd look at a centre of excellence - it's a high performance centre.
"Currently that isn't up to standard. The county board have admitted that. They've put a committee in place at the start of the year. Hopefully they can drive that forward and bring it up to the standard whereby we'd have proper facilities and playing fields to use all the year around. And that we have a proper gym to use.
"Clare underage and senior players, both hurling and football, can have a place to call home, and really enjoy it and love going there."
Daly: Clare must 'knuckle down' amid off-field issues
Conlon missed the 2020 campaign after damaging his cruciate ligament in training last May. He says that what's being written about Clare GAA is unwelcome and that he can't wait to get back on the playing field when the Allianz League begins next month.
"It's not nice a nice thing to be hearing, or reading about," he acknowledges.
"We'd prefer to not see Clare GAA spattered across the newspapers the whole time in the past number of weeks.
"We won't beat around the bush; the current structures aren't perfect. It's positive to have a new committee in place over the last few weeks, and to have business people who are Clare GAA people [backing us].
"It's up to us to back them and see what recommendations they come back with. As a county we're very ambitious.
"We played Waterford in the [All-Ireland] quarter-final last year and they beat us by a few points in the end. They had a great year last year but we were disappointed to lose to them.
"Seeing them going to the All-Ireland then gave us hope that we're not that far away. Hopefully I'll be injury free and back on the field this year.
"We've a lot of loads who got exposure to inter-county last year and now have that year under their belts. We're looking forward to playing Waterford and an exciting summer."
