KERRY SUPERSTAR David Clifford has thrown his significant weight behind efforts to revive the International Rules series later this year.

The five-time All-Star has never played in the hybrid game, which was last staged in 2017, a few months before his senior debut with Kerry.

AFL scouts were more interested back then in snapping the Fossa phenom up for oval ball duty after watching him hit 4-4 for Kerry weeks earlier in an All-Ireland minor final.

Clifford, now 26 and a father of one, said he ignored AFL approaches at the time, or ‘wasn’t replying’ to them, as he felt it would be disrespectful to Kerry senior manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice, who had called him up.

If talks around reviving the hybrid game later this year, potentially at Croke Park in October, come to fruition, he could yet get the opportunity to play against Australia’s finest for Ireland.

Speaking at the announcement that SuperValu has extended its sponsorship of the All-Ireland SFC by five years, Clifford gave a firm thumbs up to the idea of representing Ireland.

“Yeah, I think I’d definitely be delighted to be part of it,” said attacker Clifford, regarded by many as the footballer of his generation.

“I remember talking to Seamus Moynihan about it and how much he enjoyed it, how he nearly sees it as one of the highlights of his career. So I think getting to experience that would be great. I suppose it would be a bit of a bonus if it was a couple of weeks in Australia!”

Clifford, who won his seventh Munster SFC medal last weekend, also opened up about having a ‘couple of conversations’ with AFL scouts as a teenager.

He didn’t fancy switching codes at the time, so he didn’t pursue it, but has revealed that he sometimes wonders what the experience of even a trial would have been like.

“I suppose as you look back on it, maybe sometimes there are times you think maybe should I have, I won’t say used the (AFL) club, but should I have maybe went to have a look at these clubs for a month, or went out for a trial, do you know what I mean, just to have that experience,” he said. “At the time, I suppose I just wasn’t thinking like that.”

AFL recruitment of GAA players is a hot topic in Kerry after losing rising stars Cillian Burke and Rob Monahan to the Geelong and Carlton clubs. Dingle’s Mark O’Connor is already established with Geelong.

Kerry U20 manager Tomas O Se claimed earlier this year that one of his players was actively ‘tapped up’ by an AFL club.

“It’s very tricky because I think a fella goes at 17, 18, the majority of times,” said the Fossa man. “They might still be three years away from ever playing with the senior county team.

“So I don’t know what you do. Let’s say if you take five of the up-and-coming players in your county and you want to say to them: ‘I’m going to fund your way through college. I’m going to give you a weekly food bill. You can have your lunch in this restaurant every week. And I’m going to help you with your college projects, I’m going to get you a tutor and pay for your accommodation in college.’

“But who’s to say that any of the five of them will still be the top inter-county players in three years’ time? So it’s just tricky. And where does that stop, and who do you select for that?

“It’s tricky, I suppose it’s something that you’d like to see anyway, if it was happening, where the person’s club would be, whatever about the person’s county, the person’s club would be maybe reimbursed in some way. You see the stories in Celtic, Adam Idah’s club in Cork is still benefiting from that.”

Gifted Clifford was in a contemplative mood after helping to propel Kerry through to the All-Ireland SFC series as provincial winners.

He also made a plea to the GAA to restore big minor games to the undercard of big senior matches, like it was when he won All-Ireland minor titles in 2016 and 2017.

“I just said that if I had a chance to say that somewhere, I think it had to be said, because I just think we’re losing out big time,” said Clifford. “Like, that (Kerry v Cork) game was played on Bank Holiday Monday. It was streamed on YouTube, but I don’t know if the same audience gets to see it then, I don’t know.”

Clifford wasn’t convinced by the argument that expecting U17s to perform in front of tens of thousands in large stadiums is unfair on them.

“I think they’d relish that,” he said of teenagers. “And maybe if there was a bit of pressure, you’d be over it after 10 minutes, or you’d be over it after your first day out. I could be totally wrong, but I just think that was a massive part of the minor thing. It was a great way for people to see the next generation.”