David Clifford: ‘You just have to plough on, simple as”

In footballing terms, Kerry’s 5-14 to 0-15 win in last year’s Munster SFC final wasn’t one of the more memorable games played last summer.

In human terms, the image of David Clifford disconsolately lifting the silverware one day after the death of his mother Ellen was both poignant and striking, coming at the end of 70 minutes in which he and brother Paudie combined to score 3-6.

Now, with the first anniversary looming, not to mention another Munster final clash with the Banner county, the memory of his biggest fan is understandably once again at the forefront of the brilliant attacker’s thoughts.

“It was Mam’s birthday a couple of weeks back,” he said.

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“The first of everything is very tough, Christmas and all of that. Probably, subconsciously you’re going through the different phases.

“You don’t want to think about it and then you’re in a place now where you can think about it a bit more.

“You think about the good times, as opposed to trying to put it out of your head. There’s just different phases you go through. It’s strange all right but you just have to plough on, simple as.”

Despite the backdrop, both David and Paudie were imperious in that final.

Coincidentally or not, it was also an occasion when he felt as if there was no pressure on his shoulders, and when football was an escape from reality, rather than a testing environment in which he had the responsibility to carry the hopes of a county.

“The game that day wasn’t the end of the world. While we wanted to play and we wanted to win, we were still conscious of where we were at in the season,” he said.

“In a weird way, you were nearly like invincible for a few weeks because it didn’t really matter what happened. You were at the bottom, so whatever else happened...

“It was difficult, but we were delighted for the distraction of the games too. It’s on the downtime that maybe thoughts can creep in.”

In general, managing public expectations is a huge part of Clifford’s footballing world.

The Fossa phenomenon burst onto the national stage with his 4-4 haul in the 2017 All-Ireland minor final against Derry, and now he finds he has to shut out a lot of talk about what the Kerry supporters expect to see every time he takes the field.

“Genuinely, by just not thinking of them,” he said, when asked how he deals with expectations.

“We have our own individual targets that you want to hit, percentages of shots you want to get, percentage of attacks that you want to get shots out of, all that kind of stuff.

“Being focused on that does make it a bit easier, it takes the occasion out of the game. I’m always hearing that ‘process’ and ‘target’ word, but that’s kind of the way to do it.

“You always hear [Manchester City manager] Pep [Guardiola] saying about taking the emotion out of the game, so that’s probably the way we try to manage it.”

Not an easy thing in Kerry, the biggest goldfish bowl in the Gaelic football world.

“Look, Kerry people are football people. I have no problem talking about football, but I’d sooner talk about how Fossa got on in the county league at the weekend, or how [Dr] Croke’s got on at the weekend or how Spa or Legion are playing, rather than Kerry,” said Clifford.

“People ask you how is training going and of course you say training is going well or whatever, but there’s only so much you can say. People in Kerry are football mad, but they are very respectful as well of that fact.

“And, the other side of it is, there’s so many football legends in Kerry, you could walk down the streets of Killarney and you could meet four or five of the Kerry greats so people don’t tend to get too carried away with it.”

Any danger of Derry and Dublin playing out a classic League final quelling the pressure?

“As a GAA fan, the League final was a serious game. I didn’t really think too much about who were the contenders – there’s probably 10 contenders at the moment if we were being realistic,” said Clifford.

“It’s very easy to be negative about football because it has changed. But we just have to embrace the new style of football, the amount of analysis that goes into it, the power and pace of the players.

“So while we don’t always see a kickout to the middle and a high field and maybe he delivers it long, but to see the running power of fellas… “It’s changing. We just have to embrace it.”