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Irish Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Kerry's hopes rest on the shoulders of a giant, but can David Clifford bear the weight?
About 15 minutes after the 2023 All-Ireland final, Tony Griffin made his way on to the pitch and sat next to David Clifford, just the two of them. The golden streamers had risen and fallen, and the Dublin players were larking with the Sam Maguire. The pat line trotted out is that every team wins together and loses together. It is not true. Clifford lives on the equator between winning and losing. He is never estranged from the outcome. Dublin had won the All-Ireland partly because of what Clifford had failed to do. Well-meaning people could implore him not to see it that way, and to forgive himself, but greatness is a hall of screaming mirrors. Sitting on the pitch, the outcome was spray-painted on his face, like graffiti. Griffin was the Kerry performance coach. In his playing career, and at a different altitude, he had experienced failure in an All-Ireland final with the Clare hurlers; that day, by his own reckoning, he had fallen short. 'I remember standing there and watching this,' Griffin says now. 'In the role I had with Kerry my dance constantly was not becoming attached to the outcome. That's very easy to say but when you're so involved and you're so close, that can fray a little bit. READ MORE 'I had this flashback to the All-Ireland final in 2002 when Kilkenny beat us and sitting on the pitch knowing that I hadn't played to my potential. I think I scored two points, but Peter Barry had outfoxed me completely and I remember the feeling of wanting the ground to open up. 'I could see David was going to have a winter of regret. I didn't even think about it. Before I knew it, I was sitting beside him. I just remember saying to myself, 'Don't put your arm around him. That's too much. David doesn't want that.'' A dejected David Clifford and Kerry performance coach Tony Griffin after the 2023 final. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo In the 2023 final, Clifford kicked two points from play and one from a free. He also kicked four wides, had a shot drop short and missed another when the referee was playing an advantage. Two of his wides came in quick succession in the middle of the second half when the scores were level and the game was open to the highest bidder. Clifford's conversion rate in the championship had been 62 per cent; in the final it was half that. In the other column of the ledger, he had made Kerry's goal with a pass borne of heightened imagination. He had assisted two points as well, but he couldn't balance the books, even if breaking even would have been enough. [ The obvious way Donegal can be beaten by Kerry is ... David Clifford Opens in new window ] In the press conference afterwards, Jack O'Connor was asked a question about Clifford's contribution that was both unspecific and loaded. 'I'm not sure what the premise of the question is,' O'Connor snapped. He understood the premise. The Kerry manager wasn't asked about the performance of any other Kerry player. No other Kerry player mattered as much to the outcome. This will be Clifford's fourth All-Ireland final, or fifth if you include the replay in 2019. For great forwards especially, All-Ireland finals are days of reckoning. Other games are too easily forgotten, or too easily reduced. All-Ireland finals have a permanence, a matter of public notice and collective recall. Kerry's David Clifford celebrates scoring against Tyrone in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final on July 12th. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho In Kerry football, everything has a line of succession. If Clifford is the high king of forwards, he is not the first from the kingdom to wear the crown. The overbearing difference for him is the weight of expectation. On most All-Ireland winning Kerry teams of the last 50 years, the pressure to score was shared more widely, and sometimes generously. There was more than one tip to the spear. In the eight finals that Kerry won under Mick O'Dwyer, for example, five different players were either top scorer or joint top scorer from play: Mikey Sheehy, Eoin 'Bomber' Liston, John Egan, Pat Spillane and Jack O'Shea. Sheehy held that distinction three times, but so did Spillane. In those years, it was never enough to spike one or two of Kerry's guns. 'There was no particular forward that we were depending on any day,' says Jack O'Shea. 'There was always somebody going to do it. You weren't dependent on one player.' For well over a decade Colm Cooper's brilliance illuminated the Kerry attack and excited all kinds of defensive manoeuvres. He won four All-Irelands on the field and another as an unused sub in 2014 when he had just recovered from a serious knee injury. Cooper was top scorer from play in the first All-Ireland final he won in 2004, but he shared that distinction with Declan O'Sullivan and Kieran Donaghy two years after that, and with Donaghy in 2007. In 2009, when Kerry beat Cork in the final, Cooper failed to score from play. It didn't matter. Tommy Walsh kicked four points and others picked up the slack. Kerry's captain Colm Cooper leads out his team against Tipperary in 2012. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho 'Gooch was surrounded by Declan O'Sullivan, who was a great player,' says Dara Ó Cinnéide, 'and then by Kieran Donaghy in a lot of years. In his early years, there was myself or John Crowley or Mike Frank [Russell] – we'd always chip in. 'But there was an even spread. As exceptional as Gooch was the gap between Gooch and the rest of the forwards wouldn't have been as big as the gap, say, between Maurice Fitzgerald and the rest of the forwards in 1997.' The burden that Fitzgerald carried is the nearest thing to the weight on Clifford's shoulders now. By 1997, Kerry hadn't won an All-Ireland in 11 years, the longest hiatus in their history. Throughout the 1990s, though, Fitzgerald was the only chance they had of winning. 'We got lucky in '97 that he had the day of days,' says Ó Cinnéide. 'He kicked nine points, [four from play]. If that doesn't happen, we don't win the All-Ireland. There's one point he gets, I remember watching it after, but I'm actually running towards the corner flag out of his way. It wasn't even a tactic that time. I was running to the corner flag so that he has a one-on-one. He was that good.' There have always been marked men. Donaghy was different from the others because scoring wasn't his primary role – even though he had a poacher's flair. There were years, though, when Kerry's opponents were obsessed with keeping the ball out of his hands. In the Kerry attack, Donaghy was the oxygen valve. 'To be honest,' Donaghy says, 'I quite enjoyed it. I won't lie. I enjoyed that bit of pressure because I knew it would potentially bring out the best in me. I would have looked forward to it. I liked the idea of that bit of weight on the shoulders and having to perform – knowing that I had to perform.' [ Donegal v Kerry: Breakdown of the 2025 All-Ireland football final by numbers Opens in new window ] Clifford is in that space, except that in Clifford's case the pressure to perform is not mediated by scenarios in which Kerry could win without his influence. He cannot deflect that, even if he had a mind to. 'I asked the question when I got involved,' says Griffin. ''How does he carry the burden?' He was always the easiest narrative. The easiest story for everyone was David. I asked one of the lads and he said, 'Yeah, but he's been David Clifford since he was 13.' Lads would come down from the north to a Kerry under-14 match or under-16 match to watch him. He was just used to it. 'He doesn't think about it in terms of, 'I'm carrying the weight.' He's like a lot of high-performers, he can manage a dual process. He can feel the nerves and have a certain amount of trust in himself.' Clifford was only 20 when he played in his first senior All-Ireland against Dublin in 2019. Jonny Cooper, his marker, was sent off before half-time on two yellow cards. In the aftermath Jim Gavin was asked if he regretted not moving Cooper after his first booking. 'No,' Gavin said, oddly, without a word of elaboration. Maybe 'no' sometimes means 'yes.' Kerry's David Clifford celebrates scoring against Tyrone on July 12th. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho In the replay Mick Fitzsimons picked him up, just as he did in 2023. But Clifford burned him for three points in the first half, and Fitzsimons finished the game marking Paul Geaney. Three Dublin players kicked four points from play that day; on a beaten team, Clifford matched them. Clifford's next final, against Galway in 2022, was a tour de force. From nine shots he landed eight points. In the first half, when Kerry's shooting was atrocious, he kept them in the game and when the teams were level after 67 minutes, he kicked a clutch free from a prohibitive angle. Clifford had won the All-Ireland for Kerry, just as Maurice Fitzgerald had done in 1997. This was his mission. The following year was tough. By January 2023, he had played 34 championship matches in six different competitions over the previous 12 months. His form was depressed by fatigue and then in May, on the weekend of the Munster final, his mother passed away. By the time Kerry reached the All-Ireland final against Dublin, he was a shadow of the player who had taken the fight to Galway a year earlier. 'That year was a big, big mental load for any human being,' said Griffin a few months after the final. 'I don't care who you are, you can only push things away so much and try to perform. The All-Ireland final probably showed that David has areas of his game that need work. Everyone says he's the complete player. He knows he's not. And he knows his 'complete' is different to most other people's complete. But that's what he's after. It's Michael Jordan-esque.' Clifford is still on that road. Better now than he was before his worst final two years ago and his best final three years ago. 'There was never as much pressure on a player going into an All-Ireland final,' says Ó Cinnéide, 'but I'm not concerned about it. The zone that he's in at the moment, the body shape that he's in, I'm not concerned he'll have a bad game.' Clifford made the pressure too. It couldn't exist without all the things he has done. These are the terms. He agreed.
Irish Independent
4 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Clare hurling great Tony Griffin is back in the game with Western Gaels
2006 All Star scored 1-3 from play on debut with Wicklow Intermediate side Wicklow People Today at 07:30 Former Clare star Tony Griffin has found a new home to play his club hurling after a five-year absence from the game he loves, and it is a somewhat surprising destination for the 2006 All Star! The Ballyhea legend made his debut in the Wicklow Intermediate hurling championship last weekend, firing home 1-3 from play for his adopted club Western Gaels in a fine victory over Arklow Rock Parnells in Echelon Centre of Excellence in Ballinakill on Saturday evening, his goal an absolute peach.
Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Clare legend Tony Griffin back in hurling action in Wicklow
Former Clare star Tony Griffin has found a new home to play his club hurling after a five-year absence from the game he loves, and it is a somewhat surprising destination for the 2006 All-Star. The Ballyhea legend made his debut in the Wicklow Intermediate hurling championship last weekend, firing home 1-3 from play for his adopted club Western Gaels in a fine victory over Arklow Rock Parnells in Echelon Centre of Excellence in Ballinakill on Saturday evening, his goal an absolute peach. "I married a girl from Ballymore Eustace whose father is from Hollywood. I was playing at home about five or six years ago, I was still travelling up and down to play with Ballyhea," said Griffin, before explaining why he had finished up playing with Ballyhea. 'I had an injury when I was 19, I had a collapsed lung from a tackle. And around five years ago, I was playing in a game and (the lung) spontaneously collapsed – which does happen – and so I ended up in hospital. "And then with small kids, I just got out of the habit of playing. I didn't think there was any hurling (around the area he lives in), and I didn't particularly want to play in Naas. "But then last summer, I heard about Western Gaels, and I went up one evening for a puck, and I saw the lads and how eager they were, and I thought it was good craic. So, over the winter I did some training and tried to get the body woken back up again, and it's very enjoyable." It's the underdog status of his new club that really appeals to the Clare legend, which reminds him of that place that gave him the tools that helped him create a wonderful legacy in the game of hurling. Tony Griffin with his children, Jerome and Jess, after the former All-Star helped his new club Western Gaels to victory in the Wicklow IHC in Ballinakill. "That's where I come from. Ballyhea is the last hurling club before west Clare, and that's football. So, we were always a junior club, then intermediate and then senior. We've won four of the last eight county senior championships, so I know what it's like to be an underdog club. "And that's partly what I enjoy about it. The lads that are here are here because they really enjoy playing the game. No matter what age you are, I think if you're half fit, hurling is a game where it's about positioning and decision making and knowing when to run and stuff. "I think it's a great game. One of the other reasons (why he hadn't played for five years) was that I was involved with the Kerry footballers doing their psychology, so I didn't have time. But this summer, I have a bit of time. "I'm glad to be a part of that. I've always loved the underdog. These are great lads. They're improving all the time. We'll probably run into a team that is bigger and better than us, but I don't think these lads will give in too easily," During this hard hitting and hotly contested match last weekend, the Clare native took no prisoners on the field, including engaging in a war of words with one particular Rocks player. "He was telling me that I was 50 and to go back to the retirement home. But the great thing about hurling is we all get hot-headed and get into it, but we all walk off the field and shake hands. "My thing is to try and play for as long as you can. I retired from the intercounty when I was 29. I was young. The cycle (charity cycle across Canada in memory of his late father, Jerome) kind of ruined me in a way. It changed my ability to play the game at the top level. "If I had had the conditioning that the guys have now, I'd probably have played until I was 35. So, in a way, I kind of feel like I have unfinished business with hurling, and I suppose that's why I'm here." A battle against Wicklow hurling kingpins Glenealy awaits in the next round but Griffin is confident that his new hurling family at Western Gaels will continue to improve with each game. "Who knows (how things will go). There are some very good teams out there from what I've heard. For these lads, this is a young club. And it's just to start to play the game in a certain way where we are looking up, and we are linking, and we are tackling well, hooking well, blocking well, enjoying your game and getting better every day. And that's what it's all about. I still get nervous before games. I woke up this morning and I was nervous. And that's a good thing. "It's great to be playing; the lads are brilliant. And they slag me something terrible," he said. And what about that goal? A high ball, attacker against defender, one on one, man on man, warrior against warrior. A battle made for a hurler like Tony Griffin. "The goal was just lucky. The ball was sitting in the air, and the man I was on went to bat it. I kind of said to myself, I can't miss this if I get it in my hand, so when I got it, I turned and, in fairness, I just had to not hit the goalkeeper. "The ball was amazing. It fizzed in the air. I was actually delighted with it. Because as I turned away, I said, 'Jaysus, I haven't scored a goal in a championship game in around 10 years'"
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Two charged with murdering 83-year-old man
Two men have been charged with murder following the death of a man who was assaulted with a screwdriver in Birmingham. Police said Neil O'Donnell was approached by a man who demanded his watch and phone before assaulting him with a screwdriver in Cateswell Road, Hall Green, at about 14:30 BST on 14 May. Mr O'Donnell, 83, was taken to hospital with an arm injury and was later discharged, but was readmitted on 17 May and died on 21 May, West Midlands Police said. Wesley McDonnell, 46, and Tony Griffin, 54, were charged with murder and conspiracy to rob, the force said. The pair have been remanded in custody and are due to appear before Birmingham Magistrates' Court on Saturday. Det Insp Nigel Box, from the force, said: "Our thoughts are with Mr O'Donnell's family today, and we are continuing to offer them all the support we can. "They have asked for their privacy to be respected as they come to terms with their loss." Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. West Midlands Police
BBC News
24-05-2025
- BBC News
Birmingham: Two charged with murder of 83-year-old man
Two men have been charged with murder following the death of a man who was assaulted with a screwdriver in said Neil O'Donnell was approached by a man who demanded his watch and phone before assaulting him with a screwdriver in Cateswell Road, Hall Green, at about 14:30 BST on 14 O'Donnell, 83, was taken to hospital with an arm injury and was later discharged, but was readmitted on 17 May and died on 21 May, West Midlands Police McDonnell, 46, and Tony Griffin, 54, were charged with murder and conspiracy to rob, the force said. The pair have been remanded in custody and are due to appear before Birmingham Magistrates' Court on Insp Nigel Box, from the force, said: "Our thoughts are with Mr O'Donnell's family today, and we are continuing to offer them all the support we can."They have asked for their privacy to be respected as they come to terms with their loss." Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
