Cubs become leaders to hot-wire Kerry’s cause
THEY say goals win games. It didn’t quite do that for David Clifford in Clones last Sunday, but the 19year-old Kerry superstar certainly saved Kerry’s season and probably Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s job while also extending the career of a few ageing stars — for a couple more weeks, at least. That goal could prove to be a game-changer in Kerry’s season. If, as expected, they trump Kildare in Killarney and Galway send Monaghan packing in Salthill, it will set up the clash with Dublin in the semi-final, when everyone thought it would be the final. The big sweetener put into the Super 8s proposals by Páraic Duffy was that it would get Dublin out of Croke Park for one game. But it was just as important to get Kerry out of there, as Croker has become their second home, and into cauldrons like Clones. This could be the result that hot-wires Kerry’s summer. Sometimes, character is only shown when stakes are at their highest and backs are against the wall. And it was all the sweeter because the leadership came from the cubs in the team — those that are supposed to follow rather than lead. Clifford’s finish was magical, a now-or-never shot through a forest of bodies two minutes into injury-time. And there was only one place it could end up. Besides the heroic Clifford, there were other kids becoming leaders all over the pitch. Gavin White, Tom O’Sullivan and Sean O’Shea all made crucial contributions and it was the young guns who dragged the veterans into the game. The question now is whether Kerry will sneak into a semi-final. That will probably be more determined by what happens in Salthill, rather than Killarney but it was all made possible by a split-second of magic in Clones.