'Everything they do is on the button' - David Clifford and Seanie O'Shea up close
BROTHERS IN ARMS: David Clifford, right, and Seán O'Shea of Kerry celebrate after the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Final match between Kerry and Galway at Croke Park. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
It didn’t work out like he’d have wanted but when Darran O’Sullivan thinks back now on his last year with Kerry he has both the consolation and lifelong claim that it coincided with Seánie O’Shea’s and David Clifford’s first, as starters anyway.
They’re hardly the only household names he shared a field or dressing room with in the cause of Kerry. For a decade or more he played alongside Declan O’Sullivan and Colm Cooper, the original other-worldly tandem.
But his three-year-old daughter Kaedyn Grace will only know of their greatness from tales and YouTube. At some stage she’ll be a witness to O’Shea’s and Clifford’s, seeing them in the flesh, their latest trick going viral on TikTok. And so it’ll be pretty near for more than one party when her Dad can say: Well I saw them particularly close up, where and when hardly anyone else could. And even back then in 2018 there was something about them.
“Everyone in the country already knew about Clifford before he came into the senior setup but it was still remarkable the level of maturity and the sense of ease he had coming into that Kerry dressing room," O'Sullivan says. "Usually it takes a while to get a feel for the place and get your feet under the table but he came in right away as if he belonged, that this was where he was supposed to be.
“Seánie came in a bit lower under the radar but again there was this maturity about him. In my last five or six years I noticed there was an extra swagger about young fellas coming in and sometimes it could be an unmerited arrogance. But with the two boys they had a level of respect for all the senior players without being overawed by them.
“There’s a difference between having a cocky swagger and a confident swagger. James O’Donoghue was the one guy who could do both and it suited him and his personality. The two lads had this confidence, being big men, shoulders back, but they weren’t trying to prove a point to anyone. They were just themselves. It was like they had been waiting all their lives to come into the Kerry set-up and now here they were, ready to soak up every bit of information going and explode.
“For some people, about the hardest thing you can do is public speaking. And a dressing room can be a particularly intimidating place for a young fella. But from the start David had the courage and maturity to stand up and speak his mind before a room full of seasoned players. There are even veterans that you might sometimes tune out from what they’re saying because they might be throwing out clichés but with David everyone listened because it was obvious he wasn’t speaking for the sake of it. It was because it was something that had to be said and had to be done.”
Their actions spoke even louder.
“Everything they did was on the button," O'Sullivan relays. "Everything they do is on the button. They’re always on time. Their gear is on point. Their drills are perfect. The big difference going back from county to club football is how often drills can break down: a ball goes wayward, there’s a lapse in concentration. Sometimes you’ll get it at county too but with the two boys there was this laser focus: I have a job to do here and I’m doing it.
“I’m still putting myself through torture following [Manchester United] and every now and then Rio Ferdinand will still talk about Ravel Morrison: how talent isn’t enough. And that’s all the more the case now with social media and all the different things that can lure you now. But if you look at the two lads, they don’t engage with or care about that side of things. They might get their bits [sponsorship gigs] here and there but they are obsessed with their craft and winning with Kerry. I think the fact they came in when Kerry were having a barren spell when it came to winning All Irelands has hugely shaped them: how the likes of a Paul Geaney had to wait nearly their whole careers for a second medal; how a James only won the one. They just have that focus, want, vision.”
Another decorated O’Sullivan is now seeing that focus at close quarters. Mickey Ned, who also won All Irelands from the half-forward line, is a coach this season with his and O’Shea’s native Kenmare Shamrocks. It has been his job this week to prepare a team for the challenge that is David Clifford and East Kerry (“a once-in-a-generation talent, impossible to mark, but hopefully we can make the impossible possible”) but his privilege this year to collaborate with O’Shea.
“I’d have obviously known Seánie through the years. In the school [St Gobnait’s Ballyvourney] we’d have played Kenmare in a Munster B final. His father Seánie would have been chairman of the club up to this year and is still heavily involved. So you’d have always been looking out for him and seen that he was special but I suppose I’ve got to know him very well this year and what’s striking about him is his humility and commitment," says Mickey Ned.
“He treats every club game like it’s an All Ireland final. The Friday after Kerry won the All Ireland he was back training with us. And since that day he’s the first onto the pitch, last to leave. He’s still always practising his shooting and his frees, always looking to improve, extend his range.”
For Darran O’Sullivan, the comparisons the two draw with Declan and Gooch are valid as they are inevitable. With the positions they play. Their respective skillsets, even personalities.
“Declan was the greatest leader I’ve come across in a dressing room. Just his obsession for Kerry football and doing everything right. Like I was 18 when I came into the Kerry set-up, Declan was 21 but he was already captain and commanded such respect. Even now if he was to say to me ‘Jump!’, I’d still say ‘How high?’ Seánie seems to have that same toughness, that same thirst for self-improvement. I mean, the physical transformation he’s undergone since he went into the Kerry setup is massive.
“David then is like Gooch in that he’s primarily about his speed of thought and what he can do with a ball, although he’s obviously a bigger man than Colm.”
Naturally so he understands why the TG4 cameras and so many others have been drawn to tomorrow’s county quarter-final in Fitzgerald Stadium. For one day only possibly the best tandem in football will be opponents; instead of feeding each other bullets, firing them at each other instead.
To O’Sullivan though it’s not exactly a straight Bird-versus-Magic shootout, or even a fair fight.
“There’s a one-sided look to the championship this year. I’m a Mid-Kerry man and to me it’s the most exciting Mid-Kerry team I’ve seen but East Kerry look too strong for everyone, they’d put it up to the majority of county teams, while the bigger clubs like Stacks and Crokes seem to have gone back with the injuries and retirements they’ve had.
“To me East Kerry are a bit like Man City with David as their Haaland. Kenmare will need Seánie being very much front and centre, dictating everything from an aggression point of view, defensive point of view, carrying ball, getting on the scoresheet from play, being near perfect from frees. David doesn’t have that pressure. Maybe with Fossa but not with East Kerry. He might only get nine or ten touches of the ball but finish with 1-4 and a couple of assists.”
He’ll take watching, as they say. Though you won’t want to miss what O’Shea is at either.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
