Clifford can bear weighty expectations
GIVEN the queue of suitors lining up at David Clifford’s door, the only thing left is for the Rose of Tralee to be linked with the hottest young ticket in Gaelic football right now. The teenager is in demand, from being linked with an AFL career to local talk of how the county board should give him his first start, through a scholarship or a foot on the business ladder.
That’s how good he is. If it seems like an unfair weight of expectation on such young shoulders, the blossoming Fossa player has shown the leadership qualities that makes him an obvious choice as team captain. The graceful kicking style exhibited to such effect in the All-Ireland semi-final against Cavan is a throwback to Bryan Sheehan or the same player’s mentor, Maurice Fitzgerald. Cavan tried a number of different markers on him yet he always seemed to have time and space on the ball. In Derry’s favour, they have a defence that showed it’s worth in their semi-final with Dublin.
Conor McCluskey and Padraig McGrogan form a strong central spine in a team whose first instinct is to go at the opposition. Get in early: the formguide suggests it could be a cracker.
You have two teams who like to kick the ball and get forward in numbers. Derry’s attacking options are obvious in the scoring threat of Patrick Quigg, Ben McCarron and man-of-the-match against Dublin Lorcan McWilliams, the trio combining for 0-13 of Derry’s 0-17 total, 10 of which came from frees.
Kudos to the Derry county board too for having the foresight to appoint minor manager Damian McErlain to the senior post in advance of this contest, lending Derry football a sense of direction looking ahead to 2018.
Kerry need this just as much to salve the painful manner of the senior team’s exit at the hands of Mayo and the doubt cast over their short-term future. A historic four-in-a-row at this grade would lighten the winter talk.