IN THE CHEERS

Subhead subhead subhead subhead Clifford says winning is all that counts for Kingdom

DAVID Clifford and his Kerry teammates celebrated after scoring against Cork at the weekend following a 66-pass sequence.

It was far removed from traditional Kerry football, but Clifford says that’s the modern way and it’s here to stay.

“The boos were probably coming from Cork and Kerry fans at one stage, but it’s just not what the football traditionalist is used to seeing,” said the Fossa superstar.

“But when you are able to take the sting out of a game like that and bring something that you’ve worked on to the pitch, it’s very satisfying.

“I suppose when you are playing, you just want to do what you can to get over the line.

“I suppose you can see the other side of it and if you are watching the game, it’s not exactly exhilarating stuff but that’s just the way it is, I suppose.”

Clifford doesn’t do social media, but he watches the Sunday Game highlights show.

At 25 and constantly in the public glare, he says he doesn’t get ‘pissed off’ by other people’s opinions of him.

“I wouldn’t go and pick up the paper but if something came up on the phone I’d read it without taking too much notice of it,”he says.

Interesting

“It’s interesting. When you’re inside of a bubble, it’s probably no harm to see what the opinions are. I wouldn’t be getting pissed off if someone said something negative. People have to do their job, write about games.

“I don’t exactly watch a lot of the Gaelic football media but I’d watch a lot of the soccer stuff or the other sports.”

The one-year anniversary of the death of Clifford’s mother, Ellen, is coming up in less than a fortnight.

“It was mom’s birthday a couple of weeks back,” he says.

“The first of everything is very tough — Christmas and all of that. You’re just trying to... probably subconsciously you’re going through the different phases of it where you don’t want to think about it.

“Then you’re in a place now where you can think about it with a bit more (and) you think about the good times, as opposed to trying to put it out of your head. There’s just different phases you go through. It’s strange alright but you just have to plough on, simple as.”

Summer

Clifford and older brother Paudie (below, inset), who he handed the Kerry skipper’s armband over to this year, were on autopilot last summer when they played against Clare in the Munster final the day after their mother passed away.

“Yeah, totally,” says David (25). “The game that day wasn’t the end of the world. While we wanted to play and we wanted to win, we were still conscious of where we were at in the season.

“In a weird way you were nearly invincible for a few weeks because it didn’t really matter what happened. “You were at the bottom so whatever else happened…

“So yeah it was difficult. But we were delighted for the distraction of the games too. It’s on the downtime that maybe thoughts can creep in.”

Clifford says that preparing for matches in general is almost easier when he is busy with his work as a teacher in his old school, St. Brendan’s College, Killarney.

He deals with the pressure of games by “genuinely just not thinking of them.”

“We have our own individual targets, that you want to hit, percentages of shots you want to get. “Percentage of attacks that you want to get shots out of, all that kind of stuff.

“Being focused on

DOING WHAT WAS NEEDED: Tom O’Sullivan taking on Chris Og Jones of Cork as Kerry saw off their neighbours in Saturday’s Munster semi-final in Killarney that does make it a bit easier, takes the occasion out of the game. I’m always hearing that process, and target word, but that’s kind of the way to do it.

“You always hear Pep (Guardiola) saying if you take the emotion out of the game...so that’s probably the way we try to manage it.

“It’s tricky, like. Last week was ideal. We were in school all week.

“The (Cork) game was Saturday. We’d a full day of work on the Friday.

“Suddenly it’s Friday evening. Quick gym session. Then it’s a normal Friday night. It can be trickier in the summer when you’re off, there are only so many ways you can pass the day. But it would be important, trying to be as busy as possible.

“I don’t think Kerry have lost in Killarney to Cork since 1995, something like that. You’d be trying to get better at that, that you don’t let the result from the weekend affect the rest of your week.

“Or else it’s a slog of a life for the 15 years you’re playing inter-county football. You have to try to distance yourself away from it a small bit.

Possible

“Everything else outside the pitch has to be going as well as possible, with so much else going on, otherwise things become over-consuming, and it would be too much.”

Football is at the epicentre of life in Kerry.

“Look, in Kerry people are footballmad, and I have no problem talking about football,” continues Clifford.

“But I’d sooner talk about how Fossa got on in the County League at the weekend or how Crokes got on at the weekend or how Spa or Legion are playing rather than Kerry.”

“People in Kerry are football mad, but they are very respectful as well of that fact.”