Kieran Donaghy left Armagh’s backroom team after five seasons to link up with Jack O’Connor and his native county ahead of the 2026 campaign
For a man who has scaled almost every peak Gaelic football can offer, David Clifford still talks with the freshness of someone who loves the climb.
The newly crowned footballer of the year has endured the dips and savoured the highs, and when he looks back on 2025, he sees a season that refreshed and ultimately rewarded him.
“It’s been a strange one,” he begins. “We thought we were going well, and then we got rocked back on our heels when we lost to Meath (in the group stages).
“To be able to pick it back up for the final three games (against Armagh, Tyrone and Donegal) was special — just the way it all came together.”
By the end of 2025, the Fossa man was once again an All Star, Footballer of the Year, All-Ireland winner, and a player who seemed to have rediscovered the joy that comes when football is played on instinct.
Yet his success, as he points out, was built on the hurt of 2024.
The disappointment of that previous campaign lingered through the winter. Kerry had stumbled when it mattered most, and Clifford knew the entire set-up needed a reset. The league became the platform.
“We had no other choice but to put a massive focus on the league,” he says. “We’d been poor the year before and lost to Armagh in the semi-final, so naturally we wanted to put down a few markers. Winning the league wasn’t the main thing — it was about performances and getting our form back.”
Kerry did all that. The League victory mattered less than the sense of renewal that came with it — and with the arrival of a new backroom team.
“It’s no slight on the previous group — we were lucky enough to win an All-Ireland with them too,” Clifford says. “But the new lads brought great freshness. People couldn’t wait to get back to training, to see what was new. It was massively refreshing.”
If there was a word that defined 2025, it was “freshness.” Even the sport itself was reborn under the new rule changes — designed to speed up play, discourage time-wasting and reward attacking intent. For forwards like Clifford, it was liberation.
“I’ve nothing but positive things to say,” he smiles. “It brought people back talking about the game. There’s no scope for messing or slowing it down — teams just go for it. That’s all we want to see.”
It made the game more dynamic, and crucially, more enjoyable. “Probably when you see it this year, you realise you weren’t enjoying it as much as you thought before,” he admits. “When you’re in the old system, you don’t know any different. Looking back now, this is definitely more enjoyable.”
That sense of enjoyment owed something to rest as well as rules. After a relentless few years balancing club glory with Fossa and divisional duties with East Kerry, Clifford finally took a proper break at the end of 2024.
“It was a help,” he nods. “Jack and myself sat down at the end of the year and put it all on the table — why it didn’t go well for Kerry or for me. We decided a break was the best thing. It gave me seven or eight weeks to train properly, to change my body a bit. I hadn’t had a real pre-season in years.”
The renewed energy was evident by the time Kerry reached Croke Park. The Kingdom had wobbled earlier in Tullamore, but when the big stage called, the big players answered.
There’s something about the wide spaces and summer sun of Jones’s Road that stirs Kerry blood. “Maybe the scientific people would tell you we were primed for that,” Clifford laughs, “but as players, all we know is we get a massive lift when there’s a Croke Park game coming.
“It’s where you want to play — good weather, good pitch. There’s probably a science behind it, but for us it’s the excitement you feel when you know there’s a Croke Park game ahead.”
That excitement turned to ruthless efficiency in the final, when Kerry dismantled Donegal with a precision that bordered on clinical. Clifford’s finishing was faultless, his link-play sharp, and his brother Paudie’s influence telling.
“We’d put a massive amount of time into the game plan,” he says. “That brought calm. We had huge confidence in what we were doing, so it was just about execution. Sometimes you’re not sure how a plan will go, and that can make you shaky. This time, everyone knew their role — it took the pressure off.”
Adding to the sense of continuity and renewal is a familiar face in a new role. Kieran Donaghy — Clifford’s former team-mate and a boyhood hero — has joined Kerry’s backroom set-up for 2026.
“I was lucky enough to play alongside him in my first year,” Clifford says. “Then I had him as a coach in IT Tralee. We’re looking forward to working with him again. He was a massive hero for all of us growing up — and he knows what it means to be a Kerryman.”
If there’s a theme to Clifford’s reflections, it’s the balance between satisfaction and hunger. He talks with appreciation for what’s been achieved but never with complacency. There’s always another level to reach.
“You just try to enjoy it,” he says quietly. “When you’re young, you think these chances come every year. You learn they don’t. So you try to make the most of them.”
For Kerry, 2025 was about rediscovering rhythm and joy. For Clifford, it was proof that even the best can get better.
At 26, he is possibly at his peak. Worryingly for everyone else, though, he still feels he can improve.
The warning shot has been fired.
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