U-20 boss O’Connor is resigned to losing Clifford to seniors

JACK O’Connor has conceded that All-Ireland winning minor team captain David Clifford is likely to bypass the Under-20 Championship and go direct to the senior squad next year.

O’Connor was only recently appointed as U-20 team manager but the Dromid man is resigned to not having the hottest young talent in the country at his disposal next season for the inaugural All-Ireland U-20 Football Championship.

The new U-20 Championship will be played later in the summer, away from the traditional spring dates for the now discontinued U-21 Championship, and O’Connor expected Clifford’s senior career will be underway by then.

GAA rule prohibit any player lining out for the U-20s if they are a member of their county’s senior championship panel. Speaking on local radio on Monday O’Connor all but conceded that the Fossa star, who will turn 19 in January, will be called in by the senior management at the start of the new season.

“He has to get a go at it - there’s no question about that,” O’Connor said. “He’ll be a loss to the Under-20s obviously but I think the Kerry public might demand that he’s promoted fairly quickly,” O’Connor said.

“He’ll certainly get a cut at the (National) League and if his trajectory keeps going upwards he should be a big player for Kerry in the next couple of years,” O’Connor, who managed Kerry to the first two of the county’s four-in-a-row of All-Ireland titles, said.

O’Connor added that playing senior football with Kerry would be “a massive step-up” for Clifford but feels the IT Tralee student - who he described as “an absolutely serious player” - will assimilate without much

difficulty. Referencing Clifford’s performance in last Sunday’s All-Ireland final win, in which he wscore3d 4-4 from play, O’Connor said: “There is no minor in the country that could mark him one on one. That’s what Derry tried to do and they paid the ultimate price.”