Different class: David Clifford and Shane Walsh deliver displays for the ages

Paul Keane tracked the movement of two of the most outrageously talented forwards in the game as they dazzled on All-Ireland final day.

Sun, 24 Jul, 2022 - 17:48

David Clifford

Back in February on a God awful evening in Carlow with the rain spilling down, David Clifford came up agonisingly short with UL in the Sigerson Cup final. Sean Kelly was playing in defence for victors NUI Galway that evening and, five months later, the pair faced off again in another All-Ireland decider.

The weather was perfect this time and the pitch like a snooker table and Kelly, wearing the captain's armband, was thrown the task of man-marking Clifford. It was a battle that lasted the duration and which Clifford this time came out the right side of, helping himself to eight points. Just like the Fossa phenom's ability to score off either foot, it was a perfectly balanced return with four points in each half.

Three of them were converted frees, two came from 'marks' and the other three from open play. Just the sort of return to frank his claims for the Footballer of the Year award.

Kelly got an indicator for what lay ahead as early as the ninth minute when Clifford fielded above his head for an advanced mark that he converted. His second mark, in the 24th minute, was more impressive, this time leaping several feet into the air to make the fetch and then convert. Early in the second-half, Clifford displayed his power when he shrugged off Kelly to win a ball he had no right to before dissecting the posts.

The high point of Clifford's day - aside from bear-hugging Sean O'Shea at the final whistle - was surely his sixth point in the 42nd minute. After booting the ball over from play he lost himself in celebration for a moment, punching the air in delight.

There was to be plenty more of that afterwards as Clifford finally rid himself of the tag of greatest current player never to have won a senior All-Ireland medal.

Shane Walsh

We anticipated that Kerry's go-to man marker Tom O'Sullivan would pick up Shane Walsh, their similar high skills sets and pace appearing to match up well.

Corner-back O'Sullivan has a knack of putting his man on the back foot and picked up three points in both the Munster final and the All-Ireland quarter-final win over Mayo, as well as a point against Dublin. So the suspicion was that O'Sullivan may just get to grips with the former Galway captain relatively quickly and then turn him around and get him working as much defensively as offensively.

Walsh, of course, had other ideas and while he was relatively quiet since a brilliant 1-6 against Roscommon in the Connacht final, returning just a point from open play in the subsequent two games, the Kilkerrin-Clonberne man was highly influential from the start.

Just four minutes had gone when he was handed the opportunity to open the scoring from a '45 and while it wasn't his sweetest kick ever, it split the posts. John Daly, enjoying plenty of possession early on, picked Walsh out in the 10th minute with an accurate pass and the scoreboard ticked over again.

O'Sullivan already looked in deep trouble and was caught again in the 13th minute when Walsh burst out to collect a pass and was fouled by a combination of O'Sullivan and David Moran.

A medic applied an ice-pack to Walsh's left leg but he came around quickly and stroked over the free, this time off his left foot. It turned out Walsh was only getting going and he showed O'Sullivan a clean pair of heels in the 17th minute when darting infield from the left wing before booting over a sizzling score, this time off his right foot.

It was back to his trusty left foot for his fifth score in the 23rd minute, another converted free after Moran's foul on Matthew Tierney. It left Walsh with five points for the half though with Galway leading by just a point at that stage, the task was clear - do it all over again in the second-half.

Walsh did a decent job of making it happen, elevating his conversion rate with three more points by the 45th minute.

O'Sullivan briefly got clear at the other end to try for a 60th minute point which was ruled out by Hawk-Eye. Walsh's ninth point of the day came from a 64th minute free but, unfortunately for him and Galway, he didn't score again as Kerry rallied.