Classy Clifford must not be poached

I DON’T accept all this talk of Dublin’s three-in-a-row could turn into five titles on the trot, or as Tyrone great Sean Cavanagh suggested, they could win eight All-Irelands in the next 10 years. Gaelic football has a great ability to re-balance itself and we saw in the minor final, where the Kingdom guaranteed their fourth title on the trot with a mesmerising display that blew Derry out of the water, that it won’t be long before Kerry are back challenging Dublin consistently for senior honours. That wasn’t a bad Derry minor side by any stretch of the imagination but Kerry’s youngsters still ran up a frightening score of 6-17 — and it could have been even more. And in David Clifford (left), the Kingdom have found a talent for the ages. He is absolutely phenomenal. Clifford is everything you could want in a footballer. It would be an absolute disgrace if he is poached by the AFL, because it would deprive the GAA community of watching this player for the next decade or more. I would say that his apprenticeship in the senior panel will be short and we will see him lining out for Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s team in the spring. There was plenty of talent on show in that minor side, even some of the substitutes that came on looked highly skilled. It is not easy to transfer it all from minor to senior but, having won the last four All-Ireland titles at the grade, it is clear that the assembly line is working perfectly in Kerry. Fitzmaurice will have to clean the slate over the winter, but he has plenty of options if he decides to do that.