David Clifford: GAA clubs of players should benefit financially from AFL moves

Irish Examiner

09-05-2025

David Clifford has suggested the GAA clubs of Gaelic footballers should benefit financially from their moves to the Australian Football League (AFL).
Two-time footballer of the year Clifford rejected interest from AFL clubs in 2017 and '18 but he appreciates there is an allure having seen his fellow Kerrymen Mark O'Connor and Cillian Burke join Geelong.
Clifford is not fully sure what can be done to incentivise players to stay around, but believes clubs at the very least should be compensated.
'Let's say if you take five of the up-and-coming players in your county, and you want to say to them, 'I'm going to fund your way through college. I'm going to give you a weekly food bill. You can have your lunch in this restaurant every week. And I'm going to help you with your college projects. I'm going to get you a tutor. Pay for your accommodation in college.'
'But who's to say that any of the five of them will still be the top inter-county players in three years's time? Do you know what I mean? So, it's just tricky. And where does that stop and who do you select for that?
'I suppose something that you'd like to see anyway if it was happening, whatever about the person's county, the person's club would be maybe reimbursed in some way.
Mark O'Connor of the Cats in action. Pic:'You see the stories in Celtic, Adam Idah's club in Cork (College Corinthians) is still benefitting from that. Hopefully, Caoimhín Kelleher will get his move this summer. And then you see that his club, is it Ringmahon, are looking to benefit from that and what that is going to do for the young people in that club.
"Something along the lines of that. I know the money is nothing like that stratosphere, but maybe that's the one thing.'
Clifford recounted how AFL clubs courted him. 'I was never approached until probably after that minor year and then I was called in with Kerry a couple of weeks later, so I really just wasn't replying to the people.
'It was Éamonn Fitzmaurice who brought me in at the time. I just felt it would have been kind of disrespectful to him then to be meeting people and discussing these kind of things.'
Fossa and East Kerry will come first but Clifford has expressed his interest in playing for Ireland if the International Rules is renewed in Ireland this October as is expected. 'Yeah, I think I'd definitely be delighted to be part of it.
'I just remember often talking to Seamus Moynihan about it and how much he enjoyed it, and he nearly sees it as one of the highlights of his career. So I think getting to experience that would be great. I suppose it would be a bit of a bonus if it was a couple of weeks in Australia.'
In the week Kerry retained a Munster minor title, the 26-year-old would like to see minor deciders return to their billing as the curtain-raiser to senior deciders. Clifford graced two minor showdowns on All-Ireland final day in September and believes the experience should be shared by more teenagers.
'Watching the Kerry minors play on Monday night, I think that has to get back being played before the senior game. I just think, as a minor player, that was what it was all about, like, getting to play.
'By the time the second half of the minor game would come on, the crowd would start to come in for the senior game and that was special, I thought. I just said if I had a chance to say that somewhere because I just think we're losing out there big time.'
With the grade dropping to U17 and more pressure on younger shoulders, the games were moved to different stagings after the pandemic.
Clifford continued: 'It was a great way for people to see the next generation. Like, that (Kerry v Cork) game was played on Bank Holiday Monday. It was streamed on YouTube, but I don't know if the same audience gets to see it then.'
*David Clifford was promoting SuperValu's five-year extension of their partnership with the GAA, marking a 29-year commitment to communities across Ireland and making SuperValu the longest standing sponsor of the GAA All-Ireland senior football championship.