Paudie Clifford hits out at disrespect of 'one-man team' label

The Fossa man was full of praise for his brother David in the wake of the All-Ireland decider. 

FAMILY TIES: Kerry's David Clifford and his son Ogie, left, and brother Paudie Clifford celebrate with family. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

In the wake of his second All-Ireland SFC success, Paudie Clifford has hit out at the critics who labelled Kerry “a one-man team”.

As gushing as Paudie was in his praise for brother David, he felt the over-emphasis on his influence didn’t do justice to the rest of the group.

“I suppose as a team we would feel disrespected because we were in three of the last four All-Irelands, have won two of them now,” said Clifford. “And to be called a one-man team when I see myself some of the work that our lads put in, like Joe O'Connor, the turnovers, winning balls, scoring, Jason Foley, Brian Begley, Gavin White and I'm going to name a few.

“It's the work that they put in every day and to be called a one-man team then is, it's nearly like it's disrespectful. It's personal kind of, so that's the angle we were coming from.

“We were close against Armagh last year and we'd be our own worst critics as well. We admitted that we've underperformed definitely as a team over some of the years but with the work we put in and the players we have there, for them things to be said it's probably not, it's not nice to hear.” 

At the same time, Clifford couldn’t but acknowledge his brother’s heroics for the team. “Unbelievable, yeah. Obviously, he is a top, top player and one of the greatest players ever. The new rules have probably given him a new lease of life but he's had an unbelievable year.” After an injury-impacted championship, Clifford was delighted to turn a corner after coming at half-time against Armagh in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Armagh. “Myself, I had a good league but just couldn't get a hamstring injury right for a while.

“And even the lead-up to the Armagh game, just didn't feel great that week, so I suppose just delighted really that everything worked out for myself and us obviously. I put a lot of work into it all year so just delighted that it worked out for us but the lads deserve all the credit to be fair to them.” 

Clifford was surprised to learn he had 76 possessions in the game. “Was it? Yeah, 76? Yeah, I didn't feel that no but I was just happy to kind of just be able to try and play make and create as many chances as I can for the other lads. But yeah it was an enjoyable game to play because everything did work out for us.” 

Taking the hides of Armagh, Tyrone and Donegal in succession makes this one of the sweetest All-Irelands in recent history for Kerry. Clifford felt they had been road-tested before arriving in Croke Park last month.

“I suppose there's a worry that you wouldn't be battle-tested. Usually, that's the talk about us but we were definitely battle-tested with a lot of injuries. Losing to Meath probably ended up being the best thing that ever happened to us because obviously with the new rules we had basically the same kick-out strategy, we had basically the same defensive strategy since we won the league but everyone was only figuring things out.

“After the Meath game, we realised structurally in a few areas we probably weren't where we should be so once we fixed that and once we saw Croke Park and started getting bodies back all the time, it led from there.” Donegal were expected to drive into Kerry in the second half, which Kerry anticipated, but they were able to match them with scores. 

“They came out strong in the second half and won a lot of ball around the middle and got it back to four, could have got it back to three. After the Monaghan game, we were no way resting on our laurels, we just said we have to keep going and just keep being the he aggressors, keep taking our scores and thankfully we did.” 

Scorer of three points, Clifford felt this was more of a complete performance than any of their recent victories in Croke Park. “Even in ’22 when we won the All-Ireland we played well against Dublin for maybe 45-50 minutes but didn't finish well and probably fell over the line thanks to Seánie’s (O’Shea) free.

“Even against Galway (in the 2022 final), we probably didn't start great. Definitely wasn't a 70-minute performance. In Armagh second half, we still played well. Tyrone, we played well but it wasn't an out-and-out 70-minute performance like that against a top, top team.”