The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Clifford leads minor rout
IF you were there – and probably in the future more of you will claim to have been there than actually were! – it was one of those ‘I was there’ moments.
It was jaw dropping stuff. A performance for the ages. Whatever he touched turned to gold. By the end of the game the Fossa man had bagged 4-4... from play, in an All Ireland final, in Croke Park, in front of thousands and thousands of people watching in person and at home on TV.
Watching him that day, his size, his class and, most of all, his composure, it was easy to forget that he was just eighteen years of age. It was boys against men stuff, except, of course, that David Clifford was the same age as everybody else out there on that green swathe.
The guy is special, no question about it. We knew that before, but this was something different entirely. Clifford’s performance that day was transcendent and, if that seems hyperbolic, consider that on top of his 4-4, Clifford assisted his colleagues for an additional 1-4.
Of course it wasn’t just the David Clifford show. Every single one of his colleagues performed exceptionally well. Kerry won the majority of kick-out possession (dominating on their own), kept it really tight at the back (Derry created half as many chances as Kerry did and took less than half of those) and had a set of brillaint forwards to compliment the maestro.
Such was Kerry’s dominance in the game – they won 6-17 to 1-8, having led 3-8 to 0-5 at the break – that even if you subtracted Clifford’s 4-4 and the 1-4 he assisted, Kerry would still have won the game by a point.
Aside from the brilliance of the performance, it was remarkable for another reason – it was Kerry’s fourth All Ireland minor triumph in-a-row. It was the first time ever that a team had won four All Ireland minor football titles in succession. A remarkable achievement for the county and a remarkable achievement for Kerry minor boss Peter Keane (who led Kerry to two of the four titles).
“Very satisfying,” he said.
“I think if I’ve done anything in the two years I’ve been here I’ve put a tremendous management team around me... I think we’ve done a lot of good work with them [the players]. We wouldn’t want to be getting carried away. I think we did a lot of good work, but obviously they’ve got talent, they’ve come through development squads, they’ve come through good clubs and good schools, but they’ve got to go and deliver.”