KIERAN DONAGHY SAYS Kerry captain David Clifford has the maturity of a 30-year-old and has a skill for reading plays that is superior to other players on the field.
The four-time All-Ireland winner got an insight into the Fossa youngster’s skillset while serving as part of the management team in IT Tralee this year.
Donaghy was appointed to the role which he shared with Liam Brosnan last September, while his former Kerry team-mate Aidan O’Mahony was added to the backroom unit.
Clifford has garnered praise across the wider GAA community since making his breakthrough to the senior stage, and Donaghy says he is a composed leader who needs little instruction from the sideline.
While he’s not particularly vocal on the field, Donaghy has been impressed by the strength of his vision in games.
“Myself, O’Mahony and the lads on the management team were sitting back kind of going that’s why this kid is what he is,” Donaghy reflects, following a season in which the Tralee outfit edged out Athlone IT in a Sigerson Cup relegation final.
“He’s not banging and shouting but when he does speak it’s like pin-drop stuff and everybody zones in to what he’s saying. he has that influence on groups. And he had that when he came in with us with Kerry as an 18-year-old.
When he’d a point to make there’d be silence because like Colm Cooper when he was young, they’re just years ahead of themselves you know? David is like a 30-year-old really, he’s a 30-year-old in his headspace anyway. He’s that smart, he sees that far ahead of everybody else.
“He sees two or three passes ahead.”
Indeed, the star forward is still progressing and growing as a player. As a former servant of the Kingdom cause, Donaghy is certainly on hand to give him a steer about the different areas he needs to focus on to keep evolving his game.
They’ve had conversations about making use of the advanced mark to fetch balls and maximise Clifford’s towering height. Taking the time to rest and pace himself for a long season on the inter-county road has been mentioned as well.
And it seems that Clifford is soaking up all the advice to reach new levels of greatness in a Kerry jersey.
“He certainly doesn’t see himself as some kind of finished article where it’s all done up and made for him here,” Donaghy says.
“It’s an awful long year and I told him I wanted him to take two or three weeks off and I didn’t want to see him. He took 10 days and then he was back in with us and yeah he was there every night and when Kerry started up, he was doing one night with Kerry and one night with us.
He was just trying to kind of do everything really. Out of all the inter-county lads I had, he was unbelievable really in his application.”
Dipping his toes into management was a learning curve for Donaghy. He had the inter-county schedules of his players to be mindful of, along with fluctuating numbers at training, and various casualties and injuries that cropped up during the campaign. One player was even struck down with the mumps.
“It’s hard with the college team, because you don’t have all the guys, all the time. Some nights you’ve nine at training because there’s county training going on.”
The other big sporting love in Donaghy’s life is basketball. He reached a pivotal moment in his career last year, as he helped his club Tralee Warriors to a national Super League title.
Earlier in 2020, Basketball Ireland hit out at the Government over the rescue package worth €30 million that was issued to the FAI. Basketball Ireland claimed there was a “double standard” in place and referred to their own financial difficulties in 2008 when they were fined for unexpected debts of €1.5m.
“They were probably right really,” says Donaghy about Basketball Ireland’s decision to speak out.
They had to let people go from their jobs and go the long route, get people to fundraise and get their own legs back under them. We couldn’t host Irish teams or send Irish teams abroad. There was a whole six or seven years of people’s careers effectively damaged by it for a very small amount.
“Three or four million, I’m sure it could have been better dealt with by the Government. We’re not saying that the FAI shouldn’t be looked after and bailed out. It’s too important to the country to not.
“But we see basketball as very important to us in the basketball community as a game that can be played all year round. It can be played indoors, there’s never anything called off. It’s a very important game to people. They were rightly, not annoyed that the FAI got the bailout, but that they didn’t get the bailout.
Kieran Donaghy was speaking at the launch of the GAA Super Games National Blitz Day in partnership with Sky Sports
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
