Christy O'Connor: Cliffords prove their genius together on the biggest stage

David Clifford ended the match with 0-9 from eight shots, yet his brother was even more influential

Kerry's David Clifford and Paudie Clifford celebrate with family and friends. Pic: Bryan Keane, Inpho

Just after David Clifford had shaken hands with Brendan McCole before the throw-in, Clifford drove his shoulder into the Donegal man’s chest. McCole immediately caught Clifford by the collar but Clifford grabbed a fistful of McCole’s jersey. 

It was almost Clifford’s way of announcing to McCole, and the whole of Donegal, that he was going to get the first strike in. And that Clifford was going to keep striking all day along.

Clifford ended the match with 0-9 from eight shots, with Conor O’Donnell just clearing a shot off the line for what would have been the biggest scoring haul from play in an All-Ireland final since Eoin ‘The Bomber’ Liston bagged 3-2 against Dublin in the 1978 final.

Clifford was also fouled for a converted two-point free. 

When all of Clifford’s numbers are added together from the All-Ireland series, they’re staggering. 

In the last seven games, Clifford has taken 64 shots from play, 38 more than Kerry’s second highest shooter from play, Seán O’Shea, and 40 more than Kerry’s third highest, Dylan Geaney. When his 22 assists are added to those numbers, Clifford has had a shot involvement in 32% of Kerry’s total scores.

Clifford confirmed his greatness here. And yet, it’s absolutely unique that such an iconic player who is the Footballer-of-the-Year in waiting could effectively be surpassed by his brother in terms of impact and importance to this victory.

It's rare if a player has ever had more possessions in an All-Ireland final than Paudie Clifford had yesterday, with 56. 

Ciarán Kilkenny had 62 possessions in the 2017 semi-final against Tyrone but that was a different game and Dublin did as they pleased in that match. 

Seán O’Shea had a colossal amount of possessions too yesterday with 47, but when Kerry needed to control the match, they put the ball in Paudie’s hands.

Donegal’s defensive system does hand more possessions to the opposition’s key players outside that defensive line, but possessions are irrelevant unless those players make them count. 

And Paudie Clifford constantly did; from those 56 possessions, Clifford scored 0-3 from play, assisted another 0-5 and had a hand in three more scores.

Kerry are blessed to have the greatest footballer of his generation at the peak of his powers. Yet they are also fortunate to have a generational talent in Paudie Clifford. 

Some players. Some talent. Some family.

Donegal’s zonal system never going to hold out 

The scoreline concealed the devil in the detail of the data, especially when it was a 20-point beatdown, but Meath still got off 30 shots in their All-Ireland semi-final against Donegal. Meath got off eight two-point efforts alone in the first half.

Jim McGuinness made a tactical tweak around the right hand side of the two-point arc to shut down that long-range threat from Meath, but those numbers were still revealing in the context of what Kerry would bring. And even more so when Donegal had been coughing up so many shots all year.

Armagh had six more shots than Donegal in the Ulster final. Tyrone had three more scoring attempts in the round robin. Monaghan gave Donegal huge trouble in the first half of the All-Ireland quarter-final when they got off 19 shots. Donegal still trusted their zonal set-up, but a system that worked against all those teams was always going to face the ultimate test against a team with Kerry’s class and ability to find openings in the half-spaces of the attacking channels that Donegal’s defence could only do so much to shut down.

Donegal’s defensive line begins at the 2-point arc but Kerry have the long-range shooters to raise orange flags, especially when Donegal were bound to give up two-point shots to balance the equation around not conceding goals.

In the first half alone, Kerry had nine two-point shots, four of which they converted. In total, Kerry mined 0-10 from orange flags. Donegal were always going to need two-pointers if they were chasing the game but they didn’t attempt their first two-point shot until the 49th minute. They failed to convert any of their three orange flag attempts.

In the end, Kerry had 31 shots from play, eight more than Donegal. And with Kerry’s scoring potential, especially their capacity for orange flags, this game was only going one way from the first quarter.

Kerry get huge joy from turnovers, the Donegal kickout, and the throw-in

Coming into yesterday’s game, when both teams were so effective on opposition kickouts, and on turnovers, every little detail was going to add up. Every number was going to count. And it did. For Kerry.

Both teams had been sourcing almost identical numbers off turnovers. It was similar enough off opposition kickouts. But Kerry turned all of those statistics in their favour here.

Kerry mined 0-8 off the Donegal kickout and 1-6 off turnovers. As a comparison, Donegal sourced 0-4 off the Kerry restart, and just 0-3 off turnovers.

It took Donegal until the 22nd minute to get their hands on one of Shane Ryan’s restarts. Donegal did get a run on Ryan’s kickout in the third quarter, when they mined those 0-4. Jason McGee was outstanding when he came on but Kerry dominated the kickout battle around the middle.

Kerry also minded the ball better, which is inevitable when a player like Paudie Clifford gets so much free possession. Donegal had to gamble late on and drop shots into the square, but turning over the ball seven times in the last quarter, four of which stemmed from shots, is everything against Jim McGuinness’s system.

Kerry just controlled everything. They even mined 0-2 from both throw-ins.

Total control. All day long.

Kerry make sure there is no extra pain 

A couple of weeks after the 2011 All-Ireland final, Jack O’Connor was in Listowel coaching kids when he met an old gentleman in the community centre. O’Connor had a sense of dread as the man approached because he had the look of someone searching for a spark in cooling embers.

The two started talking but the engagement was brief. The man told O’Connor that he had been in a pub the previous evening when a re-run of the All-Ireland final came on. He drank his pint and walked out.

The experience offered O’Connor a measure of his own feelings. An old man from North Kerry, someone with absolutely no connection or contact with the team or management, was still clearly hurting from Kerry’s All-Ireland final defeat. It almost justified the devastation that was still tearing O’Connor apart.

“I’d say there was no emotion ever invented that I didn’t go through afterwards,” he recalled in an interview in April 2012. “It just hurts so much, especially in Kerry. You try and put on a brave face but you’re dying inside. People talk about winning All-Irelands but it’s the one you lose that really stick in the memory.” 

Prior to yesterday, Kerry had had their fill of losing finals, having lost three of their previous four. Prior to 2019, Kerry had only ever been unsuccessful twice in successive final appearances; in 1915 and 1923, when they lost to Wexford and Dublin; in 1964 and 1965 when Kerry lost successive finals to Galway.

Any other time that Kerry lost a final, they always retuned to win the next one until they lost in 2015 and 2019. After losing the 2023 decider to Dublin, they were staring down a similar hole before yesterday. But Kerry made sure they didn’t fall into it.

It just wouldn’t have been bearable.