GLIST: David Clifford in All-Ireland finals

Kerry talisman David Clifford is back in another All-Ireland final and Niall Gartland takes a look at his previous outings with national honours up for grabs.

2016 Hogan Cup final

ST Brendan’s Killarney won their first Hogan Cup title since 1992 with a 2-13 to 2-6 victory at Croke Park. Unsurprisingly, a young David Clifford was the star of the show, contributing a massive haul of 2-5 including a sensational individual goal in stoppage time at the end of the game. Also playing that day were future Derry footballers Shane McGuigan and Conor Glass, the latter subject to a hugely controversial sending off.

2016 All-Ireland Minor Championship final

ON a day where he certainly didn’t shoot the lights out, Clifford still pounced for an outrageously brilliant goal deep in the second half in a 3-7 to 0-9 victory over Galway. It was a sucker-punch goal as Galway had been coming on strong at that stage. This was Kerry’s third All-Ireland Minor Championship title in-a-row and they were back for more in 2017.

2017 All-Ireland Minor Championship final

ONE of the best underage performances in the history of the game. The young Kerry star ripped Derry to shreds in a phenomenal individual performance, hitting 4-4 from play in a 6-17 to 1-8 victory. It was exhibition stuff with a touch of class to every score. Unsurprisingly it wasn’t long before he was drafted into the senior set up.

2019 All-Ireland Senior Championship final

CLIFFORD had two outings in a replay saga against five-in-a-row chasing Dublin. Johnny Cooper was given the task of marking Clifford and was sent off for a second yellow with barely 60 seconds of normal time remaining. On the whole, Clifford was quiet by his own high standards, clipping two points from play. Clifford was more productive up front in the replay, scoring five points, four from play, but it wasn’t enough.

2022 All-Ireland Senior Championship final

THIS game turned into something of a shoot-out between Clifford and Galway star Shane Walsh. Walsh had a game for the ages, scoring nine points, including a number of truly spectacular efforts, while Clifford contributed eight points of his side’s overall total. Kerry did enough to land their first All-Ireland since 2014 and Clifford was later named Man of the Match.

2023 All-Ireland Junior Club Championship finall

A BIT of a madcap encounter as Clifford inspired his club, Fossa, to victory over Tyrone side Stewartstown. Six men were sent off in total and that side of procedeedings dominated the post-match headlines, but it was actually a decent contest with 11 points from Clifford proving decisive in a 0-19 to 1-13 victory. Stewartstown did their level best and led by 1-7 to 0-7 at the interval, but Paudie and David Clifford found their groove after the break and that was enough to drag their team over the line.

2023 All-Ireland Senior Championship final

DUBLIN edged Kerry in a hotly contested showdown in 2023, and after the game former Dubs star tweeted that Clifford had been “smoked” by Michael Fitzsimons. In reality, Clifford had been the architect of his own downfall, hitting a number of bad wides late on but you couldn’t fault his efforts and he played in a sublime pass for a first-half goal.

2025 All-Ireland Senior Championship final

AN unbelievable performance. David Clifford scored 0-9 from only 43 seconds worth of possession as Kerry dismantled a vaunted Donegal defence in last year’s All-Ireland final. His two-pointer on the cusp of half-time was seen as a pivotal score in terms of the dynamics of the game, and a number of other scores were real peaches as well as he got his hands on Sam for a second time.