David Clifford’s greatest feat is fulfilling the expectation that has always followed him
MASTER MARKSMAN: Kerry's David Clifford. ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne
LIFE lessons. The biggest disappointment of David Clifford’s career was last year’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Tyrone. Clifford had given a masterclass during normal time but injury ruled him out of extra time. The helplessness of not being able to affect the game cut deep but Clifford had little or no time to dwell on the disappointment. His son, Ógie, was born to him and his partner Shauna O’Connor the following day.
"Becoming a father was a welcome distraction,” Clifford said on ‘Off the Ball’ in May. “It helped me to take my mind off football a small bit. It wasn’t hard to focus at all and if anything, the arrival of Ógie made me more focused because I was playing for someone else and not just myself. Being a father has given me a new perspective on things. There is lots of fun attached to fatherhood. I am loving it."
Life lessons. Getting older, wiser, more experienced, but still waiting to win that coveted All-Ireland medal. The expectation which has accompanied Clifford from childhood has only increased as his career has progressed. Already in his fifth season, Clifford is still carrying the same burdens as the lineage of special Kerry forward talents that went before him.
The ability to carry that pressure lightly was a great strength shared by them all, but the pressure has become all the greater again for Clifford with Kerry’s wait for an All-Ireland now the third longest in the county’s storied history.
Maurice Fitzgerald had to carry that burden for longer because he played throughout Kerry’s most barren period between 1986-97, but Clifford’s career has been documented in far more microscopic detail and dispersed to a far wider audience from when he first began tearing up Croke Park for St Brendan’s and the Kerry minors as a 17-year old.
The pressure is all the more intense again with the demands to meet those expectations measured through the glory of his genius. Clifford is now one of those sportspeople who gets people excited, one of those rare talents who gives supporters a legitimate reason to watch a game, which is a unique status for a GAA player to command.
From the very beginning, Clifford belonged centre-stage. In the last 30 years, only Joe Canning and Eoin Kelly (Tipperary) had triggered as much debate as to their anticipated ascension to senior level. Clifford already had a huge target on his back at just 19, but age was immaterial. His class was ageless.
Even back then, every one of Clifford’s possessions close to goal was like a shot of amphetamine to the Kerry crowd; something good was on; something good had to be on. The onus has always been on Clifford to make a difference, to provide that something special when the need was greatest. When it really matters, it’s on Clifford’s shoulders to matter the most.
What’s that like? “There is pressure associated with any day you go and play but trying to be as relaxed as you can in that state is very important,” Clifford said to Joe Molloy in that OTB interview. “I do need to be relaxed but not relaxed in the sense of not caring what the outcome is. With skill execution, you need to have that flow. You won’t always be in that state of flow but to execute a skill, you do need to be in a relaxed state.
“I try and keep it on an even keel, not get too high or too low. There are certain days you feel you’re never going to miss, and other days when you have to fight for it a bit more. I would never say that I let my confidence affect me, or affect a decision on whether I’d take on a shot or not. Of course there are some days when you’re more confident than others.”
The great players have presence and a strong mind to allow their outlandish talents to meet such high demands, even when the standards by which they are judged are mercilessly high. Despite all their class and talent, Kerry have still been so dependent on Clifford’s genius that a disproportionate level of responsibility is hitched to his back.
That status always makes him the first target for public frustration when Kerry lose but Clifford’s brilliance has invariably insulated him from that criticism. Conceding three goals and getting hammered on turnovers was decisive against Tyrone last year but, ultimately, the game came down to Clifford’s injury-withdrawal for extra-time.
In three of his first four seasons, Clifford was an All-Star. Securing Kerry’s only All-Star nomination in 2020 drew criticism from some quarters but Clifford’s numbers that season backed up his right to inclusion in the long-list. Across eight league and championship games, Clifford scored 2-36, with just 0-11 coming from frees. He contributed at least 0-3 from play in every game.
Clifford was uncharacteristically profligate from a couple of key placed balls in that 2020 defeat to Cork. Kerry have exacted absolute retribution in their two subsequent championship games, but Cork’s biggest success in those two outings was how they limited Clifford’s influence from disciplined man-marking jobs by Seán Meehan and Kevin Flahive. From a combined 36 possessions, Clifford scored one point from play and had four assists.
Keeping Clifford at bay enabled others to cut loose in those games but a dominant theme and thread of Clifford’s career, from his time with St Brendan’s and the Kerry minors, is the brilliance of his performances once he hits Croke Park.
He has only played there on four occasions since the 2019 All-Ireland final replay but Clifford has lit the place up with an outrageous goal in three of those matches – against Dublin in the 2020 league, and twice against Mayo this year.
The best goal Clifford has scored in the last year though, was off Broadway. After dancing his way past three DCU defenders last November in a league semi-final for UL, Clifford jinked to his right before hammering the ball to the roof of the net. Clifford also bagged another goal in that game.
“The stuff he can do, I have never seen anybody else do,” says Stephen Lavin, the former Limerick footballer who was coaching UL. “It’s outrageous. He got scores for us that nobody else would have even thought to shoot, never mind convert.
“His movement is savage. His ability to find space is off the charts. David can literally do anything. We played a challenge game against Cork and David slipped as the ball was coming into him. He was landing on his ass but he somehow managed to catch the ball as it hopped. I never saw anything like it in my life.”
Coaching the elite players can be an intimidating prospect for any coach, especially when contact time is so limited at Sigerson level. But Lavin always found Clifford coachable and willing to learn.
“We played Queens and they had been getting huge numbers behind the ball,” says Lavin. “I said to David that he might get some joy out on the wing and coming off the loop. I just didn’t explain it well enough to David because I meant him to drift out and play most of the game in the centre.
“He spent a lot of time out on the wing and I said it to him at half-time that he should play more central. He did in the second half. David listens. He takes stuff on board. There is no such thing as this attitude of, ‘This is what I do and I’m going to do it my way.’”
Clifford had limited contact with the UL squad away from match days because he was on teaching placement in Killarney between September and December last year, before being heavily involved with Kerry in January and February. But he was heavily invested in a project that saw UL reach the Sigerson final, which they narrowly lost to NUIG.
“We had a Zoom call early in the year and David said at the very outset of the call that we should all give the competition a right go,” says Lavin. “Coming from him, it was a massive moment in our season.
“On the same call, Ciaran Donnelly, our vice-captain from Offaly said something and David immediately backed him. I’d say it meant the world to Ciaran but David just doesn’t say stuff for the sake of it. He holds players accountable. If you don’t make what he considers to be the right decision, he would not be long in letting players know on the field.”
What stood out most for Lavin though, was Clifford’s enormous frame and physique. “You cannot comprehend just how big he is,” says Lavin. “Wow. I played alongside John Galvin but, Jeez, Clifford is some size of a man. He is so strong. He has clearly put a huge emphasis on S&C.”
Bulking up over the last few years was an acquired requisite because of the increased pace of the hunt. Like any creature chased in the wild, Clifford’s survival in the jungle had to become more dependent on just speed and evasion; he needed the power to shake off the pack.
Life lessons. When Clifford was young, Bryan Sheehan came to Fossa once and he soaked up whatever Sheehan had to say on kicking technique, especially around free-taking. When Maurice Fitzgerald was a selector under Peter Keane, Clifford learned even more again around the mechanics of the trade. A score was never good enough for Fitzgerald - the ball had to go over the black spot on the crossbar.
Milliseconds after he connects with the ball on a free-kick from his hands, Clifford’s kicking foot is a couple of inches above his head. That process largely governs Clifford’s kicking style for points in open play too where the elongated and exaggerated follow-through is a more measured means of controlling technique and ensuring the correct curl and accuracy in the strike.
Clifford has still refined that technique even more in recent years in the way he strokes the ball over the bar. He doesn’t shoot as hard as he used to from distance, having tried to reduce the power on the strike to make sure he is no longer getting a high miss sometimes to his left.
When he was younger, Clifford was more inclined to go to the field on his own to kick. Now, he prefers to get his kicking done before and after training sessions. More bodies around means more scope to try different moves but one night less in the pitch is also less taxing. Clifford will only take in that extra session if he feels Kerry haven’t done much kicking in training.
Clifford hones his game intelligence from being a student of all sports. He unwinds by watching other sports and still attends a huge amount of games. He was spotted in the terrace on Páirc Uí Chaoimh for the Cork-Limerick hurling game in April.
He’s a huge Celtic fan. He likes golf, often popping over the road to play one of the courses in Killarney, using a buggy to reduce the legwork. Clifford has a pool table at home but he has a passion for snooker. Ronnie O’Sullivan is his favourite player but the tension around the safety battles fascinates him.
Everything is distilled into trying to become a better player. Clifford has always been destined to lead and inspire the next generation in Kerry, but he has handled that pressure well, remaining grounded and humble and giving off his time. That’s evident in the huge crowds which flock around him after games. If Clifford can’t respond to the large volume of letters and messages that continually flow through his letterbox like a river, he makes sure that his father will.
That quest for an All-Ireland medal has become a defining theme of Clifford and Kerry’s collective journey but the joy for everyone else is being enthralled by his sorcery and magic as he and Kerry go about trying to end that manic search. His moments of intuitive brilliance continue to dominate the highlights reels, but Clifford’s greatest feats are merely fulfilling the expectations that have always followed him.
: Has always been a wand and his greatest weapon. His style is so distinct that as soon as the ball leaves his boot, his kicking foot is a couple of inches above his head, with that elongated and exaggerated follow-through a more measured means of controlling technique and accuracy.
Was left footed growing up but began to work harder on his right foot when he was 14-15. Clifford has refined that technique even more in recent years in the way he strokes the ball over the bar, not shooting as hard as he used to from distance, especially off that right boot.
A hugely powerful and big man, Clifford’s aerial ability is under-rated. In the last three championship matches in Croke Park over the last 10 months, Clifford has scored 0-5 from marks.
Has that unique soloing style where the ball travels such a short distance between his foot and hands in full flow. His goal in the league final was the ultimate expression of that fusion of balance and skill, strength and power, where Clifford had the ball in the net seven seconds after he won possession over 35 yards from goal.
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