Back to business for David and Paudie Clifford as Fossa shock Gaeltacht in Kerry
PLAYMAKER EXTRAORDINAIRE: Paudie Clifford, Fossa being challenged by Steven O Conchuir of Gaeltacht in a Kerry IFC clash in Tralee.
RE-ENTRY to football’s more sedate rhythms came in Tralee, on a soft, damp Saturday in Kerry’s Intermediate Championship.
It’s only been a fortnight since the country’s cognoscenti interrogated the warping of David Clifford’s left foot and questioned his season’s body of work. He smiled, went away and decompressed for the two weeks. He rocked up to training Thursday night.
Probably searching for a compass.
By the close of business at Austin Stack Park Saturday evening, he had worked another seven points into the ledger as Fossa surprised – some would say shocked - Gaeltacht in this group opener.
At the final whistle, appeals from the public announcer for young fans to stay off the pitch in advance of the next game were joyfully ignored. They had a Pied Piper or two to surround. Their Fossa colleagues were half-washed by the time David and Paudie Clifford got to the dressing room.
“They’re absolutely buzzing in there,” manager Adrian Sheehan said of his star turns. “We were not expecting that, this is seen as the group of death (St Mary’s and Glenflesk to come), and this was the club’s first game in the intermediate grade. So everyone is on a high.
"Before the game we were saying everything would have to go right for us, and Gaeltacht would need to have an off day. We did a lot of work on structures and on Gaeltacht, because we obviously haven’t been at a high enough grade to play them before.”
Young fans run to Fossa's David Clifford after his side's Kerry IFC victory over An Ghaeltacht. Match report live on @ExaminerSport. pic.twitter.com/sMSiWZUYfj
— Irish Examiner Sport (@ExaminerSport) August 12, 2023
There is no footballing occasion, much less a championship game, in Kerry featuring David Clifford that is fully off-Broadway. The stand at Austin Stack Park was all but full, though not so full that Kerry manager Jack O’Connor couldn’t be left alone with his thoughts.
Across the field, one of his predecessors as Kerry manager, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, was back in the Fossa dug-out though he had said his farewells after winning the All-Ireland Junior club title earlier in the year. Fossa can be persuasive like that.
Gaeltacht started with the full Clifford press, the impressively built Franz Sauerland behind and Briain O Beaglaoich in front. Maintaining that structure must be demoralising for opposition. Clifford still grabbed four first-half points off limited possession, stroking over a 45 to boot.
Though Paudie only scored a single point, he ran the table between the two 45s. The point he did get came at an important moment. Gaeltacht, who were very disappointing on the day, it must be said - though they were without Eanna O’Conchuir - grabbed a lifeline via a Dara O Se goal in the 53rd minute to make it a five-point game (0-14 to 1-6),but four minutes later Paudie cut in from the covered stand to pop the insurance score.
“When you have forwards of the calibre of ours, you always have a chance,’ added a delighted Sheehan. “And it’s great to be able to say, this is what we need to do out the field, Paudie, can you implement that?’ David can organise us on their kick-out. It’s great to have those voices, and those leaders.
David Clifford’s two compadres in the inside line, Emmett and Tadgh O’Shea were on target on the second quarter to fire Fossa into a 0-7 to 0-4 half time lead, having played into the breeze. Things didn’t look great for Gaeltacht, but a second-half kick seemed inevitable.
Instead, Fossa maintained their shape and poise and kept jeopardy around their own back yard to a minimum. By the 46th minute, they’d stretched the lead to double scores, 0-12 to 0-6 and substitute Killian Buckley added another before Gaeltacht struck for the game’s only goal.
Again, Fossa were impressively unmoved by the upheaval.
Their fairytale surge is Clifford-powered, of course, but the confidence coming from winning the All-Ireland Club JFC final last January in Croke Park is immeasurable.
“The team that won the junior final in Kerry against Listry last year is unrecognisable from what we now have. The confidence from that is massive. We played games in the County League thqt we had no right to win but we come out on top in them. When you are inside in a dressing room, and the last words you hear, before you go out, is ‘We are All-Ireland champions’, it makes you feel ten foot tall.”
D Clifford (0-7, 2f, 1 45), E O’Shea (0-3, 1 f), T O’Shea (0-2), K Buckley, C O’Shea, P Clifford (0-1 each).
C O Beaglaoich (0-3), D O Se (1-1), R O Beaglaoich, R O Se, G O Cinneide (0-1 each).
S O’Sullivan; B Myers, C McCarthy, S Buckley; D O’Keeffe, P Sheehan, R Doyle; R Colleran, M Rennie; H Buckley, P Clifford, H Kelly; D Clifford, E O’Shea, T. O’Shea.
K Buckley for Kelly (39); C O’Shea for T O’Shea (42); F Coffey for Doyle (51); M Dennehy for Rennie (57); K McCarthy for Buckley (59).
S O Luing; B O Bruic, F Sauerland, R O Beaglaoich; B O Beaglaoich, P O Se, PJ MacLaimh; R O Se, C O Beaglaoich; C O Riagain, D O Se, C O Coileain; S O Conchuirm T O Se, Oigi O Se.
M O Goirmain for P Riagain (half time); Tomas O Se for O O Se (37); G O Cinneide for T O Se (43; F O Loinsigh for O Coileain (47); C O Luing for P O Se (52);
P Hayes (Kerins O’Rahillys)
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