42 plays, responsible for 1-8: How Kerry's playmaker has gone to another level
The elder Clifford brother is emerging as the best attacking talent in the game.
1.50pm, 31 Mar 2025
Declan Bogue
SOMEWHERE BURIED WITHIN those eye-catching quotes by Kevin McStay around David Clifford in Croke Park yesterday and how he is treated by referees, was a reference to his brother, Paudie.
“I think Enda Hession did a great job on Paudie,” McStay began.
“Enda’s marked him twice or three times now. He’s busy, he’s very, very busy and he’s a top player as well, he’s really grown into it the last few seasons. He’s a national standard player, for sure.”
As a manager, what was he going to say? Not the truth, anyway.
McStay was protecting his players and the tactics they had chosen on the day. You’d imagine given the phony nature of the league final anyway, that they would be cooking away at something different should they meet later in the championship.
The brilliance of Paudie Clifford however, has gone mainstream.
On the League Sunday highlights show, Peter Canavan listed all the contributions Clifford made and then said, “It’s as if Jack (O’Connor) said, ‘Is there nothing else you can do?’
“In terms of their key player at the minute, I think he’s overtaken David as the most valuable player to this Kerry team at the minute.”
“Wow,” show host Joanne Cantwell was heard to say at that remark.
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The other analyst, Paul Flynn added his thoughts then.
“At times it’s like he is playing a different game… he literally can create space when he is being man-marked. Hession was trying his best to shut him down today and he just couldn’t. But it doesn’t matter if you are right on top of him, he will create a pocket of space, and he’s soloing the ball with his head up so he can already see where the danger is.”
The love-in spilled over into Monday morning. Former Mayo manager James Horan, speaking on the Irish Examiner podcast, said, “He’s out in front by a mile. I would say arguably at the moment as the best footballer in the country.”
Lured by the eye-catching statistic from Sylvester Hennessey of the Kerry’s Eye newspaper, holding that Paudie Clifford had a fairly amazing 55 possessions in Kerry’s win over Tyrone in the win at Pomeroy, we sat down to record all his possessions in Croke Park yesterday.
The Kerry footballing public do not elevate Gods above his brother David as the figurehead of the attack. But the figurehead needs service.
There is growing evidence that Paudie responds superbly to pressure.
Being captain of Fossa and playing at centre back seems to have added another layer to his footballing intelligence. With Seán O’Shea missing through a knee injury since the Dublin league game, his absence has barely been noticed.
Right now, he has the best all-round skillset in the game. His steady and unerring improvement from season to season is remarkable.
In the first half against Mayo, he made 20 plays. For all but a few, he had his head up looking downfield unless in heavy traffic.
After taking a couple of minutes to ease himself in, he had made just two plays before his third on 11 minutes, which was to kick over a ’45.’
From the resulting kickout, Mayo goalkeeper Colm Reape chanced a high-risk short pass. But as it was creeping towards the arc, David Clifford nipped in to win possession. A quick transfer to brother Paudie later and he was racing in on goal at the Hill 16 end.
It finished with him taking the sensible option, handpassing to the unmarked Paul Geaney to guarantee the goal.
Paul Geaney accepts his tap-in goal. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Three more minutes pass and three more plays. His seventh touch was a kickpass to David, who was fouled by Donnacha McHugh for a tap-over free.
His twelfth was to win a break from a Mayo kickout that ended up as a point for Barry Dan O’Sullivan.
Possession number 16 was the type that wins games. He had the ball on the left wing and ambled inside across the line, being tracked all the way by David McBrien. Once he got across to slightly right of the goals, he opened up the body to kick over with his right foot.
In the second half, a rare blemish with his second possession when his two-point effort tailed wide, with Hawkeye delivering the verdict.
With his 25th he set up Joe O’Connor for a point. His 28th play was to drill another ‘45’ over. His 31st was a shot dropped short.
His 39th was to set up Tony Brosnan for his point. And for his 40th play in the 66th minute he came short to take a kickout off Shane Ryan that eventually ended up as a point from play for brother David.
In all, he made 42 – hey, what a cool number – plays.
No, it’s still short of the 55 against Tyrone, but that came on a day when Tyrone lay very deep and there was a lot more knitting together passes to take a team out of their defensive shape. And playing Mayo with a dry ball in Croke Park means the game is going to move more endline to endline, than sideline to sideline.
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Obvious point here, but let us develop it; the best attackers are not clumsy. The best attackers move with grace and balance.
That’s basic enough but let’s appreciate the balance and grace of the likes of Maurice Fitzgerald, Ciaran McDonald, Peter Canavan, Stevie McDonnell, Colm Cooper, Declan Brown, Marty Clarke, Pádraic Joyce and further back to Mickey Linden, Mikey Sheehy, Matt Connor and Colm O’Rourke.
While the likes of Colin Corkery and Jimmy Keaveney may not have had the same athletic profile as the aforementioned, they had the balance of Rudolf Nureyev.
You don’t get away with that now. Athletically, the game is light years ahead of where it was even a decade ago. Paudie Clifford is at the very Apex of that.
Two gifts grant him that status; his complete mastery of the ball that allows him to solo run while keeping his head up and scanning the horizon. And when he is running, his hip flexibility means he is constantly swivelling and poised to change direction.
Take a good look at it the next time he plays. It’s almost an optical illusion. It scares the wits out of those marking him and leaves them unwilling to commit to the tackle.
Hard to believe he was 22 before he received his first call up to Peter Keane’s Kerry panel in December 2019.
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42 plays, responsible for 1-8: How Kerry's playmaker has gone to another level
SOMEWHERE BURIED WITHIN those eye-catching quotes by Kevin McStay around David Clifford in Croke Park yesterday and how he is treated by referees, was a reference to his brother, Paudie.
“I think Enda Hession did a great job on Paudie,” McStay began.
“Enda’s marked him twice or three times now. He’s busy, he’s very, very busy and he’s a top player as well, he’s really grown into it the last few seasons. He’s a national standard player, for sure.”
As a manager, what was he going to say? Not the truth, anyway.
McStay was protecting his players and the tactics they had chosen on the day. You’d imagine given the phony nature of the league final anyway, that they would be cooking away at something different should they meet later in the championship.
The brilliance of Paudie Clifford however, has gone mainstream.
On the League Sunday highlights show, Peter Canavan listed all the contributions Clifford made and then said, “It’s as if Jack (O’Connor) said, ‘Is there nothing else you can do?’
“In terms of their key player at the minute, I think he’s overtaken David as the most valuable player to this Kerry team at the minute.”
“Wow,” show host Joanne Cantwell was heard to say at that remark.
The other analyst, Paul Flynn added his thoughts then.
“At times it’s like he is playing a different game… he literally can create space when he is being man-marked. Hession was trying his best to shut him down today and he just couldn’t. But it doesn’t matter if you are right on top of him, he will create a pocket of space, and he’s soloing the ball with his head up so he can already see where the danger is.”
The love-in spilled over into Monday morning. Former Mayo manager James Horan, speaking on the Irish Examiner podcast, said, “He’s out in front by a mile. I would say arguably at the moment as the best footballer in the country.”
Lured by the eye-catching statistic from Sylvester Hennessey of the Kerry’s Eye newspaper, holding that Paudie Clifford had a fairly amazing 55 possessions in Kerry’s win over Tyrone in the win at Pomeroy, we sat down to record all his possessions in Croke Park yesterday.
The Kerry footballing public do not elevate Gods above his brother David as the figurehead of the attack. But the figurehead needs service.
There is growing evidence that Paudie responds superbly to pressure.
Being captain of Fossa and playing at centre back seems to have added another layer to his footballing intelligence. With Seán O’Shea missing through a knee injury since the Dublin league game, his absence has barely been noticed.
Right now, he has the best all-round skillset in the game. His steady and unerring improvement from season to season is remarkable.
In the first half against Mayo, he made 20 plays. For all but a few, he had his head up looking downfield unless in heavy traffic.
After taking a couple of minutes to ease himself in, he had made just two plays before his third on 11 minutes, which was to kick over a ’45.’
From the resulting kickout, Mayo goalkeeper Colm Reape chanced a high-risk short pass. But as it was creeping towards the arc, David Clifford nipped in to win possession. A quick transfer to brother Paudie later and he was racing in on goal at the Hill 16 end.
It finished with him taking the sensible option, handpassing to the unmarked Paul Geaney to guarantee the goal.
Three more minutes pass and three more plays. His seventh touch was a kickpass to David, who was fouled by Donnacha McHugh for a tap-over free.
His twelfth was to win a break from a Mayo kickout that ended up as a point for Barry Dan O’Sullivan.
Possession number 16 was the type that wins games. He had the ball on the left wing and ambled inside across the line, being tracked all the way by David McBrien. Once he got across to slightly right of the goals, he opened up the body to kick over with his right foot.
In the second half, a rare blemish with his second possession when his two-point effort tailed wide, with Hawkeye delivering the verdict.
With his 25th he set up Joe O’Connor for a point. His 28th play was to drill another ‘45’ over. His 31st was a shot dropped short.
His 39th was to set up Tony Brosnan for his point. And for his 40th play in the 66th minute he came short to take a kickout off Shane Ryan that eventually ended up as a point from play for brother David.
In all, he made 42 – hey, what a cool number – plays.
No, it’s still short of the 55 against Tyrone, but that came on a day when Tyrone lay very deep and there was a lot more knitting together passes to take a team out of their defensive shape. And playing Mayo with a dry ball in Croke Park means the game is going to move more endline to endline, than sideline to sideline.
Obvious point here, but let us develop it; the best attackers are not clumsy. The best attackers move with grace and balance.
That’s basic enough but let’s appreciate the balance and grace of the likes of Maurice Fitzgerald, Ciaran McDonald, Peter Canavan, Stevie McDonnell, Colm Cooper, Declan Brown, Marty Clarke, Pádraic Joyce and further back to Mickey Linden, Mikey Sheehy, Matt Connor and Colm O’Rourke.
You don’t get away with that now. Athletically, the game is light years ahead of where it was even a decade ago. Paudie Clifford is at the very Apex of that.
Two gifts grant him that status; his complete mastery of the ball that allows him to solo run while keeping his head up and scanning the horizon. And when he is running, his hip flexibility means he is constantly swivelling and poised to change direction.
Take a good look at it the next time he plays. It’s almost an optical illusion. It scares the wits out of those marking him and leaves them unwilling to commit to the tackle.
Hard to believe he was 22 before he received his first call up to Peter Keane’s Kerry panel in December 2019.
Elegance GAA Gaelic Football Kerry Kingdom Come Numbers Game Paudie Clifford playmaker