KERRY’S ABILITY TO keep David Clifford’s absence from the Kerry team for last Saturday’s Munster final quiet until they announced their panel reflects a strong culture, according to key forward Paudie Clifford.
His young brother was a notable omission for the provincial decider when Jack O’Connor named a 26-man panel on Friday night. The Kerry boss said post-match that they “weren’t being clever or anything” and it was simply a case of a knock picked up against Cork that lingered longer than anticipated.
“It shows we have a tight-knit panel, tight-knit backroom team,” said Paudie Clifford, speaking at the GAA Football All-Ireland Series National Launch.
“It’s his calf. He got a dead calf at the end of the Cork game. He was close to being ready, but they just said they’d wait another week. So I think he’s back training now. He’ll be back training tomorrow, I think.”
It mattered little. Killian Spillane started the game in Fitzgerald Stadium and was awarded man of the match for his efforts. All six starting forwards scored while substitutions Mícheál Burns and Adrian Spillane kicked three points between them.
“It is very competitive,” said Clifford of the current squad.
“There is a lot of strength in depth and whoever is in the spot on any given day we know can perform because you can pick up injuries and things like that.
“We probably will pick up an injury or two like every team does so it’s great to have the strength in depth and it’s down to the lads coming in then to stake their claims like Killian did.”
The Kingdom now face a four-week gap until the All-Ireland quarter-finals at the end of June. Squad players are likely to be told at training this week if they will be released to play county league with their clubs. Prior to Saturday’s fixture, Kerry faced Roscommon in a challenge game.
For Clifford, players simply want to play games. 2023′s new structure will offer that. Yet for now, the focus is purely on the second half of 2022.
“For any player, it’s great to be playing games. Four weeks is a bit longer than you’d want alright. We’ll have to see what next year brings. It probably could help alright, the shorter time before games. I think two or three weeks is perfect.
“We’ll get it at tomorrow night and put in a good training. We just have to make sure the training is as competitive as possible to get ourselves for what we know is going to be a very competitive quarter-final whoever it is against.
“It is just back to the heads down now and getting ready for what is basically the second half of the season, the All-Ireland series.”
