‘With Kerry having so many injuries at the moment, it gives Donegal a bit of license to go all-in on their plan to neutralise David Clifford’
The tweaked format of the All-Ireland series could see things play out a little differently in Killarney as Donegal take on Kerry in Killarney.
In the old group format, especially in the first game, I think Jim McGuinness and Jack O’Connor would have been keeping something in their back pocket in case they meet again further down the road.
While it is not a do-or-die game, it does present for Donegal a serious opportunity to put the All-Ireland Kerry the last chance-saloon (also known as Round 2B).
This opportunity cannot be turned down and I’m expecting Jim to throw all his cards on the table. That includes whatever plan he’s concocted to deal with the biggest challenge in Gaelic football right now- stopping David Clifford.
Of course, one of the main problems of devising and executing a “stop David Clifford” plan is, as Donegal found to their demise last year, the damage his supporting cast will do if they are not properly accounted for.
However with Paudie Clifford, Joe O’Connor and others highly doubtful for Saturday’s game it gives Donegal a bit of license to go all-in on their plan to neutralise the best player in the game.
The reality is, marking Clifford is a damage limitation exercise, no single defender can stop him in a one-v-one situation consistently, especially in the modern game with the amount of space that now exists.
If I was setting up against him, I wouldn’t even be looking at this as a question of getting match-ups right.
There are great athletes in the GAA right now, but I don’t see many 6″3 corner-backs with great speed and change of direction. The best approach therefore has been and will continue to be devising a full defensive strategy.
So what should this entail? Well, firstly your team must know how to react once he’s in possession and for me the default response for a team when he gets the ball is for a second defender to immediately engage and support. That will mean leaving a Kerry shirt free somewhere on the pitch, but that is a risk that must be accepted.
Secondly there would need to be a very clear understanding for any player zonally defending or “sweeping” in that left sided area of the defence. You cannot have players conservatively defending space in this area as would have been done in years gone by.
If Clifford is not getting space inside he will move out, where he arguably poses more danger. There is a sweet spot around the outside of the arc where he is extremely comfortable kicking from.
It may have been sensible to let him try that when a shot from distance was worth one point, but not now.
As a defensive unit, your aim is to stay as compact as possible through the middle and force him into lower-percentage shots from wider or more awkward angles. That is a huge task for any team with the new rules.
There’s more space than before, more frequent isolation situations, and if the top forwards get even half a yard on the loop, you are suddenly on the back foot.
The two-point reward is encouraging these super-talented forwards to roll the dice, as we witnessed again last Sunday.
Armagh for example at one point pushed out aggressively to Jack McCarron in the second half of the Ulster final. His response was to motion backwards a few steps in the direction of his own goals and then proceed to kick the most outrageous shot over his shoulder to nail a two-pointer.
It will be interesting to see who McGuinness wants to have man-marking Clifford. Caolan McColgan received plaudits for the job he did in the League final, but I think Donegal will rotate a bit more with regards to who is tagging him at different stages of the match.
Individually, his marker has to be touch-tight, aggressive and physically committed from the first minute. Clifford is so composed and so complete as a footballer that he generally handles that attention very well, but my approach here would be to get under someone’s skin anyway you legally can.
Collectively and tactically the focus for me would be defensive rotations and double-ups which I would be drilling in the weeks prior in training.
Your defenders need to trust the chain completely, knowing if one player steps out aggressively, somebody else has to seamlessly fill the space behind him. Communication in-play and collective defending become absolutely critical.
What does a good job look like here then Donegal? I’d have three targets, which would be, one, stop Clifford scoring a goal or slicing through your defence to set up a goal.
Two, limit him to one two-pointer and, three, aim to keep him under 0-8 in total.
If that can be achieved it would give Donegal the platform to go and put Kerry to the sword.
They are a wounded animal and I think they can go down to Killarney and put two goals and 20-plus points on the board. That might ultimately be enough if they can contain the GOAT. A big if.
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