CLIFF FACES PRESSURE
RARELY has so much hype surrounded a player preparing for an All-ireland minor final, but David Clifford insists he carries that burden lightly. The Kerry captain is an outstanding talent and has been linked with a move Down Under to the AFL. His form has done little to quell the speculation, not least in the semi-final against Cavan, when he hit 1-10. “I don’t tend to think about those kind of things too much,” he says of the pressure of being his team’s talisman. “I think more about the team and if I don’t perform somebody else will, another forward is going to get the scores or somebody out the field is going to perform, so I don’t worry about it much.” He continued: “There are enough fellas around who’ll bring you back to earth!” Clifford has drawn comparisons with Kerry legend Maurice Fitzgerald, mostly because he is so comfortable kicking off either foot. “I do try to put in the extra bit of work, because if I’m not doing the work, somebody else is. That’s the way I look at it, I have to stay on top.” In the Kingdom, they’ll be hoping that kicking action is restricted to just the Fossa and Kerry colours going forward.