Going into Sunday's All-Ireland final between Dublin and Kerry, there is one question on every Gaelic football fan's lips - how on Earth do you stop David Clifford?
Can he be stopped? The 2022 season seemed to suggest that the answer to that was no, as the full forward won a National League title, the Munster senior championship, the All-Ireland senior championship, Kerry, Munster, and All-Ireland junior club championships, and a Kerry senior championship title.
He was pivotal to each of those triumphs, and has kicked on to be influential yet again, cementing his position as the best forward player in the game.
With Clifford kicking 5-39 in just seven championship games this season, it is clear how dangerous he will be, even against an impressive Dublin defence.
Ahead of Sunday's massive showdown, one legend of the Kingdom has nailed down the only way that Kerry's superpower could possibly be stopped.
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Dublin v Kerry: Pat Spillane compares David Clifford to Ronaldo and Messi
The expectation ahead of Sunday's All-Ireland football final is that Mick Fitzsimons will be tasked with marking Kerry full-forward David Clifford, as he did in Dublin's defeat in last year's semi-final.
Fitzsimons is one of the finest full backs in the game, and did an impressive job on stifling Clifford somewhat, but one of Kerry's finest ever players believes he may be fighting a losing battle on Sunday.
10 July 2022; David Clifford of Kerry in action against Michael Fitzsimons of Dublin during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Dublin and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
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Quoted in the Irish Mirror on Friday ahead of the blockbuster All-Ireland football final, eight-time All-Ireland winner Pat Spillane said that the man-marking approach teams favour on David Clifford has its pitfalls.
Comparing Clifford to soccer's Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, Spillane posed the question: "How would you stop David Clifford? You know a gunslinger is only good if he has bullets."
Spillane was adamant that there was no defender in the country who could manage to sufficiently man-mark Clifford out of the game, and said that opponents should focus instead on cutting off supply lines to the Fossa man:
If David Clifford doesn't get the ball and the supply line is cut you can’t score much without the ball. So that's the key.
The key is cutting off supply. You can talk about a sweeper and you can talk about who's going to man mark him but there is no one individually on a one to one basis capable in that Dublin team or in this country of man marking David Clifford one-on-one.
You will have to have a sweeper but the key is winning centre field, dominating possession and cutting off the supply.
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Last year's All-Ireland semi-final, in which Fitzsimons again was tasked with marking David Clifford, saw Clifford's influence stifled but not nullified - even on a quiet day, the Fossa man still managed 0-6, 0-4 of which came from play.
It's hard to see how Dublin can handle Clifford if they allow the ball to get to him, and there may be sense in the approach suggested by Pat Spillane.
Spillane's record of eight All-Ireland winners' medals will be surpassed by Fitzsimons, James McCarthy, and Stephen Cluxton if Dublin are triumphant on Sunday - but he is narrowly tipping the Kingdom to come out on top.
Throw-in at Croke Park on Sunday is at 3:30pm.
Featured image: Sportsfile
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