Joe Brolly responds after Jack O'Connor's fury over David Clifford comments

Irish Daily Mirror

02-07-2025

Joe Brolly was in Jack O'Connor's firing line after Kerry's hugely impressive All-Ireland quarter-final victory over Armagh.
The Kingdom ran out winners by 0-32 to 1-21 against the reigning All-Ireland champions after a dominant second-half performance at Croke Park. They will now face Tyrone in the last four of the Championship.
After Sunday's game, O'Connor hit out at critics of his side, accusing ex-Kerry players turned pundits of 'lacking loyalty to the team.
The Kingdom manager also referenced Brolly's Sunday Independent column from the morning of the game, which had the headline: 'Joe Brolly: David Clifford is the only Kerry footballer worthy of the name'.
'One of the great motivators in life is trying to prove people wrong. We were being portrayed as a one man team," said O'Connor.
'I saw somebody writing this morning that the only Kerry player worthy of being called a Kerry player was David Clifford. David is a great player but David would tell you that there was a fair support cast out there today."
Brolly responded to O'Connor's comments on his Free State Podcast, saying: "That was the headline put on the piece. But it was about that requirement for perfection in Kerry and how they look at everything through the prism of the greatest team of all - Spillane, Sheehy, Egan etc.
"And that's why I started the piece with the definition of a Kerry inferiority complex. A man with two All-Irelands.
"I rang my good friend Marc Ó Sé and I texted him. I said, look, will you beat Armagh. He said, 'not a hope Joe'."
However, Brolly stated that he actually backed Kerry to beat Armagh before clarifying his comments on Clifford.
He explained: "Clifford is going to, if he hasn't already, break all scoring records now. And I don't care what anybody says.
"It's not fanciful to say that the difference between Kerry and the other teams, essentially, is that Kerry have got David Clifford. What do you do with him?"
The former Sunday Game pundit added: "Nobody's suggesting, for example, that David Clifford should turn out on his own. It's a very, very skilled team. The Kerry team has, see what I wrote, excellent skills and excellent pedigree. They're a skilled team with excellent pedigree."
Brolly also credited Jim Gavin for "releasing the game" through the new rules introduced this year.
"The weekend for me, more than anything, exemplified the extraordinary achievement of Jim Gavin in releasing the game," stated Brolly. "I'm sure there must have been times that David Clifford thought to himself, like, 'Jesus, am I just going to have to wade through this sort of double, triple marking for the rest of my career? Boy, do I wish I was born during the Kerry-Golden Era'."
Brolly believes if Kerry play like they did for their awesome spell in the second half of the Armagh game for the rest of the Championship, they will be lifting the Sam Maguire later this month.
"It was an electrifying and satisfying second half from Kerry," said the All-Ireland winner. "You couldn't but be delighted watching it.
"They had a virtually perfect spell of football for ten minutes. I mean, virtually perfect. And everyone was in the mood all of a sudden. Their tackling was pristine without fouling.
"Their fetching in the middle of the field. For that ten minutes, they were sensational. And then, whenever you're dominating midfield, and you're getting the ball to David Clifford quickly, hello, goodbye. It's like the Roadrunner.
"And that for Kerry poses the question now, that ten-minute spell which will be in their psyche now, is that who they are? Is that what this team is? Because if it is, they'll be the All-Ireland Champions."