'It allowed me to look back but also look forward': Clifford grateful for break from football treadmill
GRATEFUL: David Clifford was grateful for a break from football.
For David Clifford, it was out with the old rules on October 13 last year and in with the new on February 15.
Eighteen weeks is the longest break he’s had away from action possibly since he first picked up a football. It was, he says, “nice just to be a normal person for a few months”.
The gap also allowed him to complete a full pre-season too.
“It was nice to be able to actually spend a bit of time doing a bit of hard training as well because when you're playing matches so often, the training on top of it maybe falls down a small bit because you're just topping yourself up for the games, you know?”
In the 2022-23 season, Clifford played a whopping 35 times, his brother Paudie just one less as they matched All-Ireland success with Kerry to the junior club crown with Fossa.
There wasn’t much let up in 2023 as he played twice as many championship games with the county.
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Busy times, the 26-year-old agrees, but he stresses, “You know well that they're not going to last. Do you know what I mean? You're not going to be successful every year, so I think it was trying to make that and enjoy it.
"Then there probably comes a time where the body just needs a bit of a break and even mentally you need a bit of a break, so I had to get that.”
The time off gave Clifford an opportunity to take stock.
“I think it just allowed me to look back but also look forward and just to try and take it a bit more day-by-day and game-by-game as opposed to maybe just going into this every year hoping to win everything and then you're kind of wishing your life away in one sense then.
“Maybe it's a part of getting a bit older, I don't know, but you probably just realise that it's not actually healthy to just keep focusing on the one thing and focusing on just winning in All-Ireland.
“Obviously, everyone knows that every inter-county team sets out the year to do that, but I think if you can try and break it down and enjoy the week-by-week stuff, your life is just a bit more enjoyable.”
The experimental rules he returned to certainly filled his sails even if he was sad to see the Football Review Committee jettison their four-point goal. Most, if not everything else, he supports after finding the existing game had become “a bit boring”.
He says: “It's very positive and that's both as a player and as someone watching games and watching club games and other inter-county games and under-age games and stuff. Any opportunity you had in the past to slow a game down or to delay a restart or anything like that, that's obviously all gone.
“And then obviously the structure element of it. I know there's plenty of three-up violations and stuff like that. And people think that maybe you shouldn't get a two-pointer for violating a three-up.”
Analysing teams also requires more effort, says Clifford.
“The fact that it's a full new rule set, it's enjoyable then as a player to be involved in tactical meetings where you're trying to figure out new things and maybe you're watching other games with a bit more interest because you're wondering what they were doing to exploit different areas.
“It's nearly like learning a new sport in one sense. Some teams are pressing, some teams are obviously dropping in to low blocks. Some teams are going after high presses from play, some teams can kick out. So it's enjoyable.”
Last month, Mo Salah revealed he told Arne Slot at the start of Liverpool’s season that his goals and assists stats would rise if he was relieved of some defensive duties.
It's been theorised Clifford would take an early yellow card to avoid the same but now the three-up rule has fallen into his barrow.
Ahead of facing Roscommon in Killarney on Saturday, he is coming off his highest Munster SFC scoring tally with 2-14, besting his previous best of 2-8 recorded in 2021 and ’23.
He's noticed changes alright.
“I would say as a corner-forward, your total distance covered is down a lot. And it's more focused on acceleration and deceleration. So, it's kind of even a different type of fitness.
“When you were growing up, that's the way football was played. And even my first few years senior, you probably didn't go back over the halfway line all the way. And then that obviously changed a bit with the kind of 15 back and 15 attacking over the past few years.
“But there'll be times where you'll just have a corner-back who's railing forward and you'll just have to track them for a lot of the day. And it'll be someone else staying up.”
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