Stopping the inevitable: Lessons in handling David Clifford

RTÉ News​

6 days ago

The first time David Clifford's name was committed to print, it appears, was in the Fossa notes on P65 of the Kerryman in May 2005.
The club's Under-10 mixed panel had competed in the Community Games at Dr Croke's and the players had included the duo of David Clifford, only six at the time, and older brother 'Padraig' Clifford, Dingle ending their hopes of advancing to the county final later in the week.
Twenty years on from that snippet in the corner of a local newspaper, Clifford's name is dominating the media build-up to Sunday's All-Ireland final between Kerry and Donegal.
Rarely - if ever - has there been such focus on one player going into an All-Ireland final. Even Michael Murphy, who retired, changed the rules, and came back to test them out is playing second fiddle to the Kingdom ace.
The question in every article has been the same too - and it's no different here - just how do you defang one of the greatest forwards to ever play the game?
RTÉ Sport has spoken to former Derry minor manager Damian McErlain, who watched the Fossa genius score 4-04 against his side in an All-Ireland minor final, and Armagh defender Barry McCambridge, who held him to a single point from play in the Orchard County's famous 2024 All-Ireland semi-final win.
In the 2017 All-Ireland Minor final, David Clifford provided one of the best underage performances ever witnessed at Croke Park as he hit 4-04 from play as Kerry beat an incredibly strong Derry side by 24 points.
Just 16 seconds had passed when he turned brilliantly to get away from Conor McCluskey - a future All-Star - and finished expertly past Oran Hartin. The second saw him show incredible strength to get off the ground, side-step a couple of players and finish to an empty net.
The third goal saw him leap high into the air to fetch, breaking out his trademark bounce dummy to create the space to fire home, with his final goal also seeing the bounce unleashed to bamboozle the players around him.
Going through the four points from play would exceed the word count but the performance can't be truly analysed without mentioning his defence-splitting pass to set up Fiachara Clifford for Kerry's third goal of six. Seeing the pass was one thing, executing it to such perfection was genius.
But here's the thing, if presented with a do-over, McErlain admits he probably wouldn't change too much.
The year before, McCluskey had blunted Clifford's blade in an All-Ireland quarter-final before being moved to put out another fire, but for the manager, amid a note of caution for Donegal this weekend, looking at the individual battle is pointless.
"What had clouded our thoughts is that we had played the year before and Conor marked him for 25 minutes and kept him to a point and we were in no doubt that Conor was the best full-back in the competition," said McErlain, who twice led the Oakleaf County to All-Ireland glory at the minor grade.
"The calculation was that if we keep this man to five or six points – Donegal are probably thinking the same – we're in with a shout.
"Our biggest issue was that we were getting blown away all over the place and that meant the supply was just constant and relentless. With Clifford on the end of that supply, we were just hit with the reality of the situation in the worst possible place.
"With Clifford on the end of that supply, we were just hit with the reality of the situation in the worst possible place."
"We looked back at the video and it was 22 minutes before there was a ball put in that a sweeper would have been any use for, even if you had went that way.
"What sort of sweeper would you have had to have been to have stopped that at minor level?
"There's a lesson there maybe because minor football then is maybe akin to what senior football is now with the new rules.
"New game, new rules, whatever, but it is all about the whole management of the situation across the pitch.
"The Cork hurling full-forward line were lauded last week, you can't mark them, then Tipperary said 'sorry, we can mark them.'
"The Donegal push will have to come from all over the pitch, it's about the rest of the team and the system further out the field. That's how you stop him."
It was an eye-opener for sure for the Derry management team, especially as the previous year had been all about trying to stop a different Kerry forward even though Clifford's name was on the team-sheet.
"In 2016, we had to move 'Clucky' (McCluskey) off Clifford to put him on Seánie O'Shea because he was kicking points from the Hogan Stand, the Cusack Stand, I've never seen anything like it.
"Clifford had kicked on a lot between those two seasons, he was more like a man the second day.
"In 2016, Seánie was the man. Seánie had played against us in 2015 so we knew about him whereas we didn't really know about Clifford. Then in 2017 we knew about David but Seánie had been the man the year before.
"I can't rate the two of them highly enough."
For McErlain, Donegal probably have the best defensive set-up in the country to deal with Clifford's threat – but that style also carries a warning.
"I think Donegal's style leans itself to adapting to dealing with the threat, there's a fierce intensity in defence, a fierce sharpness. That defending in zones.
"Twos and threes, doubling up and Jim McGuinness no doubt will have to tweak the shape to make sure Clifford isn't getting the freedom of Croke Park.
"Donegal's defenders like to bomb on but if they're turned over there will be space there; Kerry might have to replicate their 2014 All-Ireland final win over Donegal, suck a bit of play up, turn the ball over and break.
"If they do that, the room will be there for Clifford."
Few players have ever come away from a duel with David Clifford and, without any shadow of a doubt, earned the spoils.
Dublin's Mick Fitzsimons is the most obvious example having kept the Kerry man to two points from play in the 2023 final, but Armagh defender Barry McCambridge was lauded for his performance in the 2024 semi-final.
The Lurgan man took on the job again in this year's quarter-final and looked on track for a repeat as Clifford managed to nab just a single point in the first half, but Jack O'Connor's men destroyed the Orchard kick-out in the second half and Clifford made the most of it with an eventual 0-07 tally to help dethrone the champions.
Tactically, Armagh were different when facing Kerry in 2024 compared to 2025 but personnel also played a part.
In the '24 semi-final and final against Galway, Aaron McKay had operated as a 'plus one' to offer cover having been more focussed on opposition threats in different games. Injury ruled him out of this year's quarter-final.
McCambridge and McKay had established a fine partnership throughout 2024 when shutting down opposition dangermen - and although the former had a reputation for regularly getting up for a goal, it was actually the latter - a man with no such reputation - that ultimately brought Sam to Armagh for a second time with a goal in the final.
When all was said and done in the 2024 semi-final, apart from frees and a mark, Clifford had scored just a point and McCambridge had out-scored him from play with a goal at the other end.
The Irish Examiner post-match player rating of McCambridge read: "Handed the David Clifford brief. Acquitted himself as well as anyone who has held this brief previously."
Key for McCambridge, he believes, is that the challenge presented to him brought excitement rather that trepidation.
"I end up marking the best players and that's where you want to be as a man-marking, putting yourself up against the best.
"I was listening to James O'Donoghue during the week there and he was talking about how Clifford plays like a 5' 9" player, his movement and agility, but I found he also plays like he's 6' 4", how aggressive he is, how strong he is and he's so good in the air too.
"It's more about reducing his influence rather than stopping him out. Those top forwards, you can't snuff them out, you can only reduce their impact - especially with these new rules.
"With that space, it doesn't matter how well you mark them, there's a good chance they're going to score.
"I didn't defend too poorly against Clifford this year and he still ended up with seven points.
"When David Clifford gets a score I find it almost counts as double because their fans get such a buzz out of it, so do their players."
"When David Clifford gets a score I find it almost counts as double because their fans get such a buzz out of it, so do their players."
Verbal warfare is a prominent unseen – or unheard, to be specific – part of the game with casualties limited to those players in close proximity.
McCambridge said that there was nothing like that with Clifford, even when Kerry got a run on them this year, and said that anyone trying to use it against him would be just poking the bear.
"I wouldn't be into it, if someone was doing it to me it'd just make me want to try harder, really go after it. We were just chatting about the match, bits and pieces, no abuse anyway!"
Clifford's championship tallies in 2025 have been 0-09, 2-05, 1-03, 1-08, 0-05, 3-07, 0-07 and 1-09.
If McCambridge had one piece of advice for Donegal man-marker Brendan McCole and his support team who will be there to help it would be: concentration.
"The new rules changed everything," he said.
"Looking at movement patterns, he's so good on the backdoor cut and scoring goals so you don't want to get caught. But if you step off slightly to block out that backdoor cut that's when he starts going into the space in front and scoring, and there's one-point and two-point options there. It's about weighing that up.
"I watched him against Tyrone in the semi and he did four or five backdoor cuts and all he needs is for one or two of those to come off.
"You just have to defend as well as you can, have good footwork and you need your team-mates to come down and close the space too.
"The biggest thing coming up against top forwards like that, not just Clifford, is that you have to be concentrating for every second of the game.
"You can't take a second off, that's all it takes for someone like him."