Éamonn Fitzmaurice: We are blessed that David Clifford isn’t doing his stuff on foreign soil
SHOWING THEIR TEETH: Kerry talisman David Clifford shows his delight after grabbing their opening goal at a key first half juncture against Armagh at Fitzgerald Stadium. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Jack O’Connor must have had a nice leisurely nine holes of golf in Waterville on Sunday evening.
In the controllable column, after their win on Saturday, his Kerry team are coming nicely at the right time and, outside his remit both Armagh and Donegal are gone in one weekend.
He is too wily to let anyone get ahead of themselves in the Kerry camp and there is a long way to go but the All-Ireland champions are nicely poised. When Armagh ran onto the field at the start of the match Saturday in Fitzgerald Stadium, they sprinted up in front of the O’Sullivan stand to a rapturous reception from their considerable support.
Kerry were mid warm-up and a long kick missed its target and bounced into the middle of the Armagh gang. Ross McQuillan seized it, examined it for a split second, to confirm that it was indeed a Kerry ball and then proceeded to kick it out over the stand. I laughed to myself and thought Armagh have come to play, but unfortunately for them, so had Kerry.
Suddenly the All-Ireland champions are in a great place. They were never really gone away but there was an element of looking out the door for some returnees, especially post-Donegal. A superb team performance, adorned with countless individual displays, too many to mention, Seánie O’Shea back on grass and more minutes for Gavin White all augurs well.
I really enjoyed so many aspects of their performance. Before outlining some of the detail I want to acknowledge David Clifford’s display. I have mentioned this here before that we have to appreciate his pre-eminence, as it would be so easy to take his brilliance for granted. I keep telling my kids Faye and Rian this. What he is consistently doing is not normal. It reminds me of when Messi and Ronaldo were at their peaks in Spain and were scoring hat tricks every other weekend. Their rivalry drove each other. David drives himself.
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As Kerry people we are privileged that he is one of our own but as a sport we are all blessed that’s he isn’t plying his trade on a foreign shore in a professional sport, any professional sport. Thankfully, his and the family’s love of Kerry meant that was never on the agenda.
On Saturday he scored 1-10, including a one, two and three. The effect his scores have on the home crowd is something to behold. He had plenty of assistance from the Geaney cousins, his compadres in the full forward line. As a trio they were exhilarating, combining for 2-16, 2-13 from play. The balance, chemistry and scoring power that they bring to bear is exhilarating to watch, and frightening to defend.
As has always been traditional to Kerry they have gone back to kicking the ball more and it is paying dividends. Three consecutive kicks led to David’s goal. As I mentioned here Saturday, Ethan Rafferty flirts with the sideline on his restarts, and from a Kerry sideline ball, first Mike Breen took it quickly to Graham O’Sullivan who had his head up and kicked to Dylan Geaney as Armagh scrambled back. Dylan’s kick pass inside was a perfect through ball.
It almost surprised David when it arrived perfectly in his stride as he cut towards goal. As well as having the willingness to kick, Dylan’s movement is very clever on the kickouts. His corner back is often wide as a receiver for a kickout, in the two corner, especially for the left-footed Rafferty. For the kickout, Dylan covers his zone but as soon as the ball goes long he moves centrally as a receiver option if they win it. His direct marker has a lot of ground to make up and as a defence they are scurrying to get back in shape.
Once he got the ball David was deep, and the pass was perfect. All three were also well set up for kicks off their own kickout, usually in a spine but with good spacing and a presence in each line. In general terms Kerry are continuing to get their head around the new game, adding, polishing and are exploiting it better than most.
There was also clear signs of a mature side that can think on their feet themselves on the pitch, the dream for any management team. They pressed aggressively on Ethan Rafferty’s kickout as expected early. Rafferty surprised them all by managing to bomb one over everyone for Tiernan Kelly’s point. Without a word from the sideline the danger was appreciated and the last line of the press adjusted and went 10 metres further out to make sure they weren’t going to get caught over the top again, which can lead to goal chances. It may seem insignificant but it's the opposite.
A further indicator of the detailed prep that had gone into the game was the way they defended Rafferty just before half-time for the game-killing goal. There was some cloak and daggers chicanery from the Ulster champions as they set up a two point buzzer beater effort for their keeper. Initially Rafferty stayed on his side of halfway until Andrew Murnin craftily crept back to release him, as the clock ticked down. Kerry were ready for it though and were waiting for him and pounced centrally to force him to pass off rather than shoot and eventually the ball was turned over, after Jarly Óg Burns’ loose pass. Graham O’Sullivan’s toe poke into Jason Foleys arms was as crucial as his kick forward.
David contested it, without touching it, his mere presence causing consternation and Paul Geaney did the rest. It couldn’t have dropped to a better person from the Kerry perspective. I was amazed that one of the Armagh defenders didn't make for the goals to deputise for Rafferty as soon as the ball was turned over.
From an Armagh perspective they will do what they have always done under Kieran McGeeney - bounce back. To be within touching distance of Croke Park in Inniskeen and then to be finished a week later will take some processing. It has felt all year as if they have been extremely close, there at times by winning the Ulster championship, but still not quite really there.
After such a brilliant display from Kerry the only question mark I have going forward is in relation to their zonal switch defence against a team in Croke Park that have multiple players that can kick twos, a Galway for example. That is for another day, though.
Donegal played four championship games in 2026. They lost three of them. The one they won? Away to Kerry in Killarney. Make sense of that. From the off in Croke Park on Sunday they didn’t have the same energy about them that they had in Killarney a short four weeks ago, or indeed their previous game in Croke Park for the league final when it looked like the world was their oyster. They looked out of juice and ideas at headquarters. There wasn’t the customary pace in their counter attacks, or slickness in attack. To be fair to them they fought until the end and forced Dublin to win it twice, but they have a lot of thinking to do.
For Dublin to win I felt they would have to sort their own kickout, be harder to break down at the back and kick two pointers. They showed marked improvements in all three areas. While Evan Comerford got caught for the Shea Malone goal in the first half, he looked at his steadiest in a long time. Over the course of the game, Dublin retained a respectable 68% of their kickout. For context in the Leinster final that number stood at 44%.
This was especially impressive when he couldn’t target his primary target Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne who was well marshalled by Jason McGee. Comerford only went short twice in the Leinster final - this time he went short nine times and only lost one, for that goal. Crucially he didn’t allow that to rattle him and stayed the course. Dublin scored 12 points off their own kickout. Additionally, they were excellent on breaking ball off Gavin Mulreany’s kickouts. They scored 2-8 off it. They managed two pointers from Con, Colm Basquel and Seán Guiden, thus ticking another box of improvement.
Critically, they were really impressive in how they defended. The excellent Niall Scully was central to this in the first half. As Donegal built set attacks he constantly sprinted from one side to the centre to release another defender to go the other way. It took from his offensive game but it helped set the tone and hamper Donegal preventing them from getting into their attacking flow. Scully got more and more involved offensively as the game went on and was a major factor in the win. A manager’s importance can be and often is overstated but Ger Brennan being back on the line made a visible difference to the home side. There was a vocal presence about him on the sideline. They were at there most organised and structured that I have seen from them so far this year.
He will be delighted his team are in the bowl for the draw. Who knows where it will take this wonderful crazy championship?
