THE Sam Maguire weighed heavily on Tyrone in 2022 but Paudie Clifford believes Kerry will thrive on being All-Ireland champions.
Blood dripped from the wound on the bridge of his nose as he spoke but it was a small price to play for a Celtic Cross said who Clifford spoke of the relief and joy he felt after becoming an All-Ireland winner on Sunday.
Committed Galway defending had restricted his influence in the first half but the Fossa clubman registered two points in the second meaning that the Cliffords contributed half of Kerry’s tally of 0-20 between them. Younger brother David stole the show with eight points but Paudie’s impact, while not as spectacular, was vital to the Kingdom cause.
“It’s relief more than anything really,” he said.
“There was a lot of pressure on us this year and it’s great to get over the line. We knew how tough the game was going to be and we’re just delighted to get through it.
“It’ll be easier to go back to training in January as All-Ireland champions than trying to lift it again.”
Kerry manager Jack O’Connor said he hoped Sunday’s four-point success was only the start of the journey for the Kingdom who had to wait eight long years for their 38th title.
“Hopefully it is,” said Clifford.
“Look, All-Irelands are not easily won and we just had to get over the line this year. We hope we win a few more but we'll have to wait and see.
"We know Dublin are going to be very strong again and Galway are young as well, Tyrone will be back and there are other teams like that. It remains to be seen but obviously we hope so, we do hope that.”
Among the delighted Kerry natives on Sunday were three Ulster men – Tyrone’s Paddy Tally and Armagh’s Jason McGahan (strength and conditioning coach) and Colin Trainor (stats expert) who celebrated the success with representatives from their native Tullysarran club.
"They've added a lot to us,” said Clifford.
“Jason's been with us a few years and he's top class at what he does. Paddy as well, he's an unbelievable coach, so we're delighted to have him, and Colin Trainor is unbelievable at his job as well, the detail he goes into is insane, so they're a massive addition to us as well.
"The management team has given us great belief all year and, in fairness, Peter (Keane) before that because we were very close last year.”
For an hour last Sunday the sides locked horns in an open, entertaining games that was punctuated by superb scores from the Cliffords and Galway’s Shane Walsh and Cillian McDaid.
It was 16 points each before Kerry finally broke for the line and the Tribesmen were unable to force the goal they needed at the death.
“Their kicking was very good, they hardly missed and they were long-range kicks that they were scoring,” said Clifford.
“We knew we had to battle on and try and get scores at the other end and that’s what we did. We didn’t play that well in the first half and the wide count was 7-1 so obviously if we had scored our chances it would have been different. They (the wides) weren’t actually difficult chances, they were easy enough but at the same time we did have to improve and we did.
“We just stuck to what we’ve been doing all year. We know it’s a 75-minute game and we know to stick to the process, we have done a lot of work on all the facets of the game and we knew that if we were there or thereabouts with 15-20 minutes to go we would have a good chance of coming out on the right side of it.”
