IT IS A measure of both who he is and what Kerry football was that David Clifford’s timeline has a biblical feel to it.
There is a time period BC (Before Clifford), a relatively fallow era sprinkled with the giddiness that a saviour was on the way to take the county back to its rightful place in the heavens and then there is AD (After David’s debut in 2018), also a relatively fallow period even though it is one where their saviour reveals himself to be everything they hoped he would be, but nothing else really has been.
That is where Kerry are right now as they host All-Ireland champions Armagh in Tralee on Saturday: a game which if they lose will leave them ever closer to torching their record as the only permanent members of the league’s top flight since the competition was streamlined into four divisions in 2008.
But let’s not amplify the significance of that: when Kerry have not been of a mind to contend for the league, they have generally flirted with a dance-off at the other end, but when the music stops, they tend to stay on the floor.
That might suffice in the spring, but making up the numbers as dance partners for others has never been their thing in the summer. However, they are in danger of getting used to it.
Two All-Irelands in 15 years, Kerry’s strike rate is that of a contender rather than the serial champion they, and pretty much everyone else, perceive them to be.
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Since winning their first in 1903, it is their lowest ever return over a decade and a half.
It is also likely to become a new reality; Kerry football was never immune to sport’s cyclical whims but the democracy that has blown through the game in the modern era, particularly in Ulster, weaponised by a championship structure that makes it a fairer, more equal test, means that Kerry’s down time is no longer a matter of a few failed harvests on their own fields.
There should be nothing surprising in any of that, but what had made this reality such a sickening punch to the gut in Kerry is that they were – and again so was everyone else -sold on the lie that Dublin’s fallen dynasty would beget Kerry’s rising one. Same as it ever was.
That was primarily based on an unprecedented run of those five All-Ireland minor titles from 2014-18, in which Clifford was the obvious headline talent, but now on reflection, some take the view that hope was based on a false premise.
In truth, it wasn’t. When Clifford got Kerry over the All-Ireland line in 2022, there were nine graduates from those minor teams starting.
David Clifford in action for Kerry against Armagh last year. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
No study has ever been conducted as to what would constitute an acceptable dividend in talent from five All-Ireland winning minor teams, but on the accepted wisdom that if you get a couple of players off any minor team you are doing well, nine would be pretty much on the money.
The minors served their purpose – albeit the quality was frontloaded on the earlier teams – but it has been the repeated failure to evolve from that point that has been damning.
In the aftermath of Clifford’s debut season in 2018, 20 players have made their championship bow.
That tells us nothing other than the capacity of statistics to lie.
Strip that down to players who have seen meaningful gametime, as in made double digit starts over the past seven seasons, and that number falls to five – Adrian Spillane, Diarmuid O’Connor, Graham O’Sullivan, Dara Moynihan and Clifford’s older brother Paudie.
Strip that back as to how many of that quintet have been game changers for Kerry in that time, and the truth is that Clifford would not have to leave his breakfast table to finger the one and only.
In fairness, Diarmuid O’Connor has excelled this spring and had he not been hobbled by an ankle injury in 2021 would have made a championship-winning difference, while O’Sullivan has developed into a quality player.
But three impactful players and none since 2020 is not evidence of an evolving group but of a static one.
When it comes to laying the blame as to why that is so, there is plentiful room.
The prioritising of results over development by team managements, the condensed nature of the season not allowing the breathing room to do so and, of course, there is the Down Under issue that has already snaffled the talents of Mark O’Connor, Rob Monahan and last season’s great white hope, Cillian Burke.
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Cillian Burke, who featured for Kerry last season, has moved to play AFL. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
The word is that three more are likely to follow inside the next 12 months, and the profile of those players, strong, athletic and skilful, fit the profile of where the county team has an obvious deficit.
More than anything, those leaving indicated a changed value system, one in which playing for Kerry is not right at the top.
The net effect of all this in the short term is that in standing still, the load is cranked up on those left behind, none more so than on Clifford.
When he first came into the team, he had to face the burden of being the most hyped talent ever and now that he has survived that, he has to face the burden of being the most overloaded player ever. Everything hangs off him. If Kerry are to exploit the new rules, he has to become a two-point kicking machine; if Kerry are to become champions again, he is going to have become a three-time Footballer of the Year.
There is no respite in the age of Clifford, just a ticking clock that demands more and more until it becomes impossible.
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As Kerry struggle to evolve, the load on David Clifford is cranked up more and more
IT IS A measure of both who he is and what Kerry football was that David Clifford’s timeline has a biblical feel to it.
There is a time period BC (Before Clifford), a relatively fallow era sprinkled with the giddiness that a saviour was on the way to take the county back to its rightful place in the heavens and then there is AD (After David’s debut in 2018), also a relatively fallow period even though it is one where their saviour reveals himself to be everything they hoped he would be, but nothing else really has been.
That is where Kerry are right now as they host All-Ireland champions Armagh in Tralee on Saturday: a game which if they lose will leave them ever closer to torching their record as the only permanent members of the league’s top flight since the competition was streamlined into four divisions in 2008.
But let’s not amplify the significance of that: when Kerry have not been of a mind to contend for the league, they have generally flirted with a dance-off at the other end, but when the music stops, they tend to stay on the floor.
That might suffice in the spring, but making up the numbers as dance partners for others has never been their thing in the summer. However, they are in danger of getting used to it.
Two All-Irelands in 15 years, Kerry’s strike rate is that of a contender rather than the serial champion they, and pretty much everyone else, perceive them to be.
Since winning their first in 1903, it is their lowest ever return over a decade and a half.
It is also likely to become a new reality; Kerry football was never immune to sport’s cyclical whims but the democracy that has blown through the game in the modern era, particularly in Ulster, weaponised by a championship structure that makes it a fairer, more equal test, means that Kerry’s down time is no longer a matter of a few failed harvests on their own fields.
There should be nothing surprising in any of that, but what had made this reality such a sickening punch to the gut in Kerry is that they were – and again so was everyone else -sold on the lie that Dublin’s fallen dynasty would beget Kerry’s rising one. Same as it ever was.
That was primarily based on an unprecedented run of those five All-Ireland minor titles from 2014-18, in which Clifford was the obvious headline talent, but now on reflection, some take the view that hope was based on a false premise.
In truth, it wasn’t. When Clifford got Kerry over the All-Ireland line in 2022, there were nine graduates from those minor teams starting.
No study has ever been conducted as to what would constitute an acceptable dividend in talent from five All-Ireland winning minor teams, but on the accepted wisdom that if you get a couple of players off any minor team you are doing well, nine would be pretty much on the money.
The minors served their purpose – albeit the quality was frontloaded on the earlier teams – but it has been the repeated failure to evolve from that point that has been damning.
In the aftermath of Clifford’s debut season in 2018, 20 players have made their championship bow.
That tells us nothing other than the capacity of statistics to lie.
Strip that down to players who have seen meaningful gametime, as in made double digit starts over the past seven seasons, and that number falls to five – Adrian Spillane, Diarmuid O’Connor, Graham O’Sullivan, Dara Moynihan and Clifford’s older brother Paudie.
Strip that back as to how many of that quintet have been game changers for Kerry in that time, and the truth is that Clifford would not have to leave his breakfast table to finger the one and only.
In fairness, Diarmuid O’Connor has excelled this spring and had he not been hobbled by an ankle injury in 2021 would have made a championship-winning difference, while O’Sullivan has developed into a quality player.
But three impactful players and none since 2020 is not evidence of an evolving group but of a static one.
When it comes to laying the blame as to why that is so, there is plentiful room.
The prioritising of results over development by team managements, the condensed nature of the season not allowing the breathing room to do so and, of course, there is the Down Under issue that has already snaffled the talents of Mark O’Connor, Rob Monahan and last season’s great white hope, Cillian Burke.
The word is that three more are likely to follow inside the next 12 months, and the profile of those players, strong, athletic and skilful, fit the profile of where the county team has an obvious deficit.
More than anything, those leaving indicated a changed value system, one in which playing for Kerry is not right at the top.
The net effect of all this in the short term is that in standing still, the load is cranked up on those left behind, none more so than on Clifford.
When he first came into the team, he had to face the burden of being the most hyped talent ever and now that he has survived that, he has to face the burden of being the most overloaded player ever. Everything hangs off him. If Kerry are to exploit the new rules, he has to become a two-point kicking machine; if Kerry are to become champions again, he is going to have become a three-time Footballer of the Year.
There is no respite in the age of Clifford, just a ticking clock that demands more and more until it becomes impossible.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
GAA Gaelic Football Kerry Star Man