Sheehan not believing yet

TIME WILL TELL

DAVID CLIFFORD will join an illustrious list of Kingdom alumni when he makes his Championship debut tomorrow.

Over the past 30 years, only Maurice Fitzgerald, Darragh O’SE, Seamus Moynihan and Colm Cooper went straight into the senior Kerry side for Championship from the minor ranks.

Clifford, 19, will join that revered group when he lines out against Clare.

And he will by no means be the only nod to the future when the Kingdom get their summer campaign underway in Killarney.

Jason Foley, Ronan Shanahan, Micheál Burns and Sean O’shea are making their Championship bow, as Éamonn Fitzmaurice aims to reap the reward of a boom at underage level.

The Kerry boss gave youth a good fling during the League – with mixed results – but, for former star Bryan Sheehan, the jury remains out.

He said: “The League was stop-start. They barely beat Kildare. For me, the only thing to take out of it was that they got to blood a lot of new players – Micheál Burns, David Clifford, Seán O’shea

“What I’m looking for is when the senior players come in and how Éamonn is going to gel the two together. Is he going to go with youth and the legs or go with the experience?

“I’d expect them to beat Clare and look forward to going to Páirc Uí Chaoimh and that will tell an awful lot.”

The five-time All-ireland winner (inset) added: “Experience can pay for an awful lot, especially when you come to Croke Park. In Championship games, you need experience, you need old heads on shoulders.

“You also do need fresh legs the way the game has gone. This is the whole thing about how Kerry go about amalgamating the two.

“If they get the balance right, we’ll have a lot of youth, legs and pace, and the experienced players to see them over the line.

“It’s something Kerry need to be very careful about because they could get caught out putting in a lot of young fellas in the one go.”