Christy O'Connor's talking points: Wisdom of elder Clifford provides the key to Kingdom
OUT OF LIMELIGHT: Paudie Clifford of Kerry is taken to receive his man of the match award after the Allianz Football League Division 1 final match between Kerry and Mayo at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile
The game was effectively over but Paudie Clifford was still looking for work, still hunting for possession, still trying to make something happen. Clifford was on the halfway line as goalkeeper Shane Ryan stood over a kickout, but as soon as Jason Foley cleared out the space to right of the 2-point arc, Clifford sprinted into that pocket to receive Ryan’s pinpoint restart.
Within 40 seconds, his brother David had put the ball over the bar but it was fitting that Kerry’s final score of the day originated from Paudie Clifford’s willingness to continue to make things happen for Kerry.
Clifford started as he meant to go on. Of Kerry’s first five scores, he had direct assists for three, a secondary assist for a fourth, as well as converting a ’45. It didn’t matter where he was on the field, Clifford was constantly eyeing opportunity, continuously making Kerry tick, no matter where he was on the field.
For Kerry’s fourth point, Clifford received possession inside his own D before sprinting straight up the middle of the field and clipping a perfect ball into his brother, who was fouled for another free.
By the end of the match, Clifford had direct assists for 1-4, a secondary assist for another point, along with scoring a point and nailing two ‘45s. Outside of the 0-3 he scored, Clifford was involved in eight other Kerry scores.
David Clifford is the best player in the game but this match again underlined how his older brother is just as important to Kerry.
On the opening night of the 2024 league, as the Monaghan players and management gathered in a huddle in the middle of Croke Park, the shouts and cheers of their delirious supporters were still ringing in their ears after the final whistle.
By that stage, they had the place to themselves as all the Dublin players had left the field. With Dublin having only beaten Monaghan in one of their six previous matches, that game 14 months ago was another one of those nights when Monaghan strutted around Croke Park like they owned the place.
After that match, Monaghan only won one of their next 11 league and championship games during the 2024 season. They were still expected to emerge from Division 2 this year but when Monaghan returned to Croke Park on Saturday for the first time since January 2024, they showed how their love affair with the venue is so strong that they instantly looked at home there again.
Monaghan played with the confidence and brashness of a visitor that has their own key. They’ve been so used to doing this in Division One against the Dubs that a run-out in a Division Two final against Roscommon looked like a luxury. Playing with style and panache, Monaghan defended brilliantly and attacked with lighting pace and intent, especially in the second half when scoring 1-15.
Everything about Monaghan was more polished than Roscommon. They did inflate their scoring total with orange flags but Monaghan still nailed six 2-pointers from seven attempts, with Roscommon only kicking one from three.
Three of those Monaghan 2-pointers were scored by goalkeeper Rory Beggan, which took his total of 2-pointers in this campaign to 17. Yet Beggan’s kicking class was also smeared across their kickout stats, with Monaghan mining 0-13 from their own restarts.
Although they trailed by one point at half-time, Monaghan’s conversion rate of 75 per cent in that half offered a glimpse of why they always looked that bit slicker. And once they began to turn Roscommon over more in possession in the second half, especially in the last quarter, Monaghan went to town with that possession.
The longer the game went on, the more Monaghan looked at home.
Looking at the Down team-sheet ahead of Saturday’s Division 2 hurling final, the list was full of names that echoed down the generations of Down hurling; Keith, Savage, Hughes, Sands, McGrattan, McCrickard, Sheehan.
Although the hurling base has widened now, with representation from clubs in Newry to Bredagh just south of Belfast, the vast bulk of the team still comes from within an eight-mile radius hewn from the three traditional clubs – Ballygalget, Ballycran and Portaferry – at the tip of the Ards peninsula.
When the pool is so small, the generation game needs to be deeper again for a county to thrive. And Saturday again provided more evidence that when it comes to the generation game at inter-county level, no county plays it better than the Down hurlers.
When Down produced their greatest team in the 1990s, winning Ulster titles in 1992, 1995 and 1997, five of their best players were Noel Sands, Gerard McGrattan, Noel Keith, Danny Hughes and Gary Savage.
McGrattan was Down’s first hurling All-Star in 1992. Keith is still considered one of Ulster hurling’s greatest goalkeepers. Sands was a three-time All-Star nominee. Savage played with the county with distinction for almost two decades. Hughes was another key player on that Down team.
On Saturday, their sons all played on the side that won a first trophy for Down in 21 years. But they weren’t the only ones as 11 of the squad are sons of former Down hurlers; Stephen (son)/Noel (father) Keith, Tom/Anthony Murray, Liam and Phelim/Gary Savage, Donal/Danny Hughes, Eoghan and Daithi/Noel Sands, Tom/Ger McGrattan, Pearse Óg/Pearse McCrickard, Paul/Eoin Sheehan, Shea/Michael Pucci.
That’s some legacy but it’s not a surprise when it comes to Down hurlers. Because nobody plays the generation game better.
Before Kildare met Clare in the 2016 Division 3 final, they were heavily fancied to win for more than just reasons of status and pedigree; Kildare finished four points ahead of Clare in the table, while they’d comprehensively beaten Clare when the sides met in Round 7 three weeks before that final.
Even with their inexperience in Croke Park compared to Kildare’s, Clare turned Kildare over in that final. Kildare did go on to beat Wexford in a Leinster quarter-final a month after that 2016 league final, by one point, on a scoreline of 0-9 to 0-8. Yet a clear pattern was still emerging by then – Kildare’s record in Croke Park was becoming atrocious.
The only games they have won at the venue in the last eight years were successive Leinster semi-finals against Westmeath in 2021 and 2022. They were solid wins but Westmeath had been relegated from Division 2 in 2021, while they couldn’t get promoted from Division 3 the following year.
Kildare haven’t managed to win a game in Croke Park since but that’s just become part of the pattern now; since beating Louth in a Leinster quarter-final in 2014, Westmeath have won just three of 23 games in Croke Park.
Some of those results in that timespan were horror shows; Dublin annihilated them on more than just one occasion, while Kerry put seven goals past them in the 2015 All-Ireland quarter-final. Even Meath managed to drill five goals past Kildare in the 2020 Leinster semi-final.
Those were days when Kildare were just wiped out. Yesterday was far from one of those days. A 41 per cent conversion rate from play, in comparison to Offaly’s 66 per cent, was key to the result.
But it was still another defeat for Kildare in Croke Park.
