Jim McGuinness: David Clifford seems to be very driven this year. He's carrying the fight

Irish Examiner

5 days ago

When Jim McGuinness was a student in Tralee IT, he noticed that Kerry were doing the exact same thing, just in their own way. Donegal had the same drill with different tools.
"Kerry look to do that through the hand and then through the foot and dink balls, longer balls inside,' he said, speaking at the Donegal All-Ireland final press event.
'I think they're the best team in the country, to be honest with you, for third man runs.'
Under Val Andrews, McGuinness was one jewel in a star-studded side. Seamus Moynihan, Padraic Joyce, Michael Donnellan and Mike Frank Russell were team-mates.
"I spent two years down there myself and I've been part of many training sessions from a Kerry point of view and I used to laugh sometimes because, when I was starting out with Tralee, we had a lot of players that played for Kerry and won the All-Ireland in 1997, the year that I arrived.
'A lot of the drills that we were doing from a handling point of view and a fist pass drill, it was the exact same drill, but it was over 40 metres by 50 metres and it was a kick pass drill.
"Everything was sort of a dink ball and third man runs are basically, if we talk about our DNA being a running game, third man runs off a kick pass is probably Kerry's DNA. They love to kick the ball and they love to get a natural support runner coming off that can carry the fight.
"So yeah, I have good experience of how they want to play because I was part of that process myself and I was also part of the process of the confidence that they bring to games and bring to finals because I was lucky enough to win two Sigersons down there and there was never any doubt that we were going to win them.
"You're going into those games and you're fully believing that you're going to do it.'
That is the biggest task ahead of Sunday. The green and gold's innate expectation that they belong on the big stage. This is their history and their destiny.
"I think that's the biggest barrier that you have to overcome as a team that's around the periphery, if you like, and I would say ourselves would be in that bracket,' said McGuinness.
"Tyrone would be in that bracket. Armagh would be in that bracket. Good teams and good sides, but trying to make a breakthrough.
"We wake up on the 1st of January and you're hoping things will go well and you're hoping you can get momentum and you can build a team and build an energy.
"Kerry and Dublin wake up on the 1st of January and if they don't win the All-Ireland, they'll be disappointed. So that mindset is going to be difficult for our lads to overcome because that's what they're going to be facing as soon as the ball's thrown in.'
He knows what is coming. They've seen the sheer football brilliance up close. On the Tuesday after their semi-final triumph over Meath, McGuinness trained with the players who weren't involved in the fixture. On the way to their Convoy base, there was only one topic of conversation between himself and his son, Mark Anthony.
They spoke about David Clifford. They spoke about a 26-year-old who could be the best player that has ever played the game.
"You can never make that assertion until somebody hangs up the boots but certainly he's an exceptional football player.
"He seems to be very driven this year. He's carrying the fight I would almost say with a determination and aggressiveness like an attacking aggressiveness - when he sees a gap he's just really going for that gap.
"Even some of the scores even in Croke Park, he's not kicking it over, he's firing it over. It's almost putting down markers and I think he's leading from the front literally. It's a huge challenge but obviously there's a number of what you would call marquee forwards in the Kerry team.'
Much has changed since his first reign, the joy of the 2012 victory and the despair of the 2014 defeat. McGuinness experienced professional sport. He knows what good looks like. Their Centre of Excellence is as good a facility as any he saw in the Scottish Premiership, outside of the big two.
S&C coach Pat Flanagan opened his eyes to that side of the game in Tralee. He went to China, America and expanded his mind even further.
But all the while, 2014 lingered like a ghost. How often did he think about it?
'I would say until I got back involved, I would say there wasn't a day I didn't think about it. I can remember walking about the hotel after we lost in a daze. I didn't know what happened, didn't know where I was, didn't know what actually had gone wrong there and taking a step back from that and trying to work that out.
'It's very, very painful. You're in a banquet and there's 1,200 people and you don't want to see anybody. That's not a nice place to be.
'All of that factors into it but I think when you get back on the horse, then you're not thinking about the past, you're thinking about what you need to do.
'You're thinking about moving forward and we have moved forward and we've created this opportunity. As I say, if everything works well and everything goes to plan, the only thing that it guarantees you is to be competitive.'