GAA supporters have been lucky enough to watch some incredible players down through the years, but few of them could rival the talents of David Clifford.
The Kerry man was a prodigy in his youth, coming into senior inter-county football shouldering some massive expectations. While that can quite often result in disappointment, he has already surpassed what most expected him to become.
Clifford was once again the star attraction in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon, as he and Kerry took on their nemeses Tyrone in the All-Ireland football quarter-final.
The Fossa full forward scored 0-5 in the quarter-final, as Kerry laid waste to Tyrone with an eventual 12 point winning margin, with the final score 2-18 to 0-12.
It was a spectacular pass in the second-half, however, that was the highlight of Clifford's afternoon.
With Kerry looking to push on after their first goal from Diarmuid O'Connor, Clifford received the ball on the touchline under the Hogan Stand. Without even taking the ball into his hands, Clifford let it drop before looping a spectacular pass over his shoulder to find teammate Tony Brosnan.
The pass would ultimately lead to Seán O'Shea scoring Kerry's second goal, and putting them out of sight.
An absolutely incredible pass from David Clifford here 🐐pic.twitter.com/Hu8Hz3NOto
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) July 1, 2023
After the game, David Clifford spoke to GAAGO's team of pundits, who lavished him with praise for his audacious skill - but the Kerry star seemed almost embarrassed by receiving such fulsome plaudits.
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Kerry v Tyrone: David Clifford brushes off high praise from GAAGO panel
Speaking to Marc Ó Sé, Paddy Andrews, and Michael Murphy on GAAGO post-match, David Clifford was asked about his sensational pass to find Tony Brosnan in the second half.
As the panel applauded Clifford's execution of a hugely challenging skill, the 2022 footballer of the year almost blushed and brushed off the pass:
I don't know, I didn't have a great day with the kicking, so it was nice for something to come off. I had a fair idea [that Brosnan was inside].
It was wholesome to see Clifford so taken aback by the praise of his performance, and epitomised the character of a man who has become Gaelic football's finest player in recent years.
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Kerry may have been surprised by how easy they had it on Saturday, as Tyrone disappointed many with their performance. By contrast, however, Kerry's step up in form is an ominous statement to the other six teams involved in the championship.
They enjoyed a week off ahead of this game, having topped their round robin in dramatic fashion thanks to rivals Cork defeating Mayo. Clifford explained the importance of the break for team morale, and said that they were not getting ahead of themselves after Saturday's win:
Luckily with Kerry, we have scoring forwards. It's something we've put a big emphasis on as the year has gone on - getting scores from elsewhere on the field. It becomes very hard then for defences to load up on certain attackers.
We were mentally preparing ourselves, trying to convince ourselves that maybe we needed the three weeks together to get a bit of momentum going. To hear the Cork result against Mayo as our game was coming to a finish, it felt like a massive bonus, to be honest.
We just felt that having a week off to do a bit of work, as opposed to Tyrone having a tough game last week...it worked out very well for us.
We're only back in a semi-final, there's no guarantees.
Featured image: GAAGO/Sportsfile
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