Lining out at the opposite end of Croke Park this afternoon will be another generational left foot in Shane McGuigan, just over eight years since they clashed at the same venue in the Hogan Cup final.
In that encounter – Clifford and his St Brendan’s classmates were too good for McGuigan’s St Patrick’s College as the duo scored 3-08 between them out of a total of 4-19. Last year they both top scored for their teams in the All-Ireland semi-final, and 12 months on they carry the bulk of the scoring burden for Kerry and Derry once more.
Albeit, Clifford comes into this game after scoring 2-09 in his last two matches while McGuigan has managed just 0-04, two points of which from play. Derry have scored 2-67 in five games while Kerry have 4-97 in the same number.
McGuigan alone has accounted for just under 30% of Derry’s total with their next top scorer being Lachlan Murray on 0-11. While Clifford has scored 25% of Kerry’s total with Sean O’Shea slotting 0-24.
Of Clifford’s nine points against Derry last year, five were from play or marks with one coming off his right boot. Against Dublin in the final he also kicked one off his weaker foot. But while the ability to kick off his right allows him to sidestep both ways and force defenders to commit, Clifford has only scored one mark outside the 13m line on the left hand side of the field in this championship. So 1-20 of his total of 2-22 has arrived on the right side of the pitch which is without doubt still his stronger and preferred zone.
