The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Clifford has the potential to step up straight away
AS the dark rolled in over Fossa GAA club on Monday night and the slightest bit of drizzle started to fall on the large crowd gathered, the bus carrying yet another victorious Kerry minor team turned the corner and slowly made its way towards the impressive club house bedside the field.
Supporters from all over Kerry had made their way to show their appreciation to these fine young men and their fantastic achievement. Of course, the people of Fossa had come to pay homage to their hero.
I wasn’t in Croke Park on Sunday. I watched the David Clifford show from the club house of Frankfurt Sarsfields GAA. I had been invited there a while back to coach their young players along with senior men and ladies teams so I had to see through my commitment to them. The one request I had was that I wanted to see the minor final and to their credit they facilitated me.
They know about David Clifford in Germany too. Before the game started I was being quizzed as to how good he really was. I didn’t want to tempt fate, but I did say that David, along with this special group of players, from my experience, always delivered on the big day. Boy, did they did deliver.
It took Clifford only twelve seconds to show his class and as goal after goal rattled the Derry net I could see the look of awe on the faces around me. As the game petered out to its inevitable conclusion the conversation at the table I was sitting at turned to the historic achievement of doing four in-a-row at minor level and what this means for Kerry going forward.
In Fossa on Monday evening it was the hot topic on everyone’s lips as well. When will we see this young top quality talent integrated into the Kerry senior set up?
In my opinion there is no straightforward answer to that.
Kerry football is at a major crossroads from where I stand. Do we persist with the players we have at senior level and see where that takes us or do we now look at the last four winning minor teams and start giving them a go?
If we go for the latter then it is going to require a huge amount of patience from management and supporters because it will take a while for players to develop and grow. There is no doubt in my mind that the senior squad needs freshening up and I wrote here after the defeat to Mayo about that.
It’s time to start giving the younger guys some game time especially in the league campaign and see how they go. It doesn’t have to mean starting them in every game.
Back in 1999 I was called into the seniors for the three league games before Christmas. I had played minor the previous year. I was given 10 or 15 minutes towards the end of each game and it certainly was the right approach by the management as it gave me a taste as to what senior inter-county football was all about.
Of course, you will have the exceptions who are just so talented that they will jump from minor to senior without any fuss. Seamus Moynihan and Colm Cooper are probably the best examples of that in the most recent era.
Having worked with him in the development structure since 2013 I think David Clifford has the potential to do the same. That might sound like a big statement to make but think about it.
Go back to the drawn game with Mayo and with 10 minutes to go you introduced David with the tired legs in the opposition full-back line.
I would back him to cause problems for any senior defender but he is an exception in so many ways.
His physical make up, for one, is phenomenal for a minor and of course his raw talent is there for everyone to see. Look at his goals and points against Derry. Left foot, right foot, high fielding and his vision, in particular to spot Fiachra Clifford’s run for the Killorglin man’s first goal.
David has the ability to make the step up. The question here has to be, are you putting him at risk by putting him in at a young age? That is the concern. It is the concern when you push any of these young players straight into senior level. For a management team it is a very difficult decision.
Personally, I think it might be the best course of action to let them go and play with the Under 20s. It is their level after all and another year working in the gym, an area that I have big concerns over that I covered last week, will help bring these players on physically and have them in better stead come the start of the 2019/20 season.
Kerry supporters might not like hearing that as we demand success every year but as I mentioned earlier it is going to require patience to filter these minors through the system, but for now all we can do is wait.
Dublin have done the three in-a-row, but only just. I still maintain that there is very little between them, Mayo and Kerry. The winter in Kerry will be long but seeing David Clifford and his team mates lifting the Tom Markham Cup high over their heads on Monday night helped us feel that better days are ahead again.
It’s all about timing and patience.
Do we persist with the players we have at senior level and see where that takes us or do we now look at the last four winning minor teams and start giving them a go?