David Clifford welcomes ‘fresh blood’ in Kerry ranks

It was a different Kerry dressing room that David Clifford stepped back into in March. Gone were Kieran Donaghy, Anthony Maher, Darran O’Sullivan, and Donnchadh Walsh. Thirteen All-Ireland senior medals departing, just 17 remaining, now down to 16 after Peter Crowley’s season-ending cruciate injury.

In the team that took to the field in Ennis on Saturday, there were only six: David Moran (two), Shane Enright, Stephen O’Brien, Paul Geaney and James O’Donoghue. Three more one-time medallists came on in the shape of Mark Griffin, Tommy Walsh, and Jonathan Lyne, but the numbers have dwindled.