Kingdom see red as Clifford pleads case in sending-off
KERRY manager Peter Keane claimed yesterday that David Clifford was ‘easy pickings’ after his star forward was controversially red-carded. In the closing minutes of yesterday’s one-point defeat to Tyrone, the two-time All-Star was sent off for the first time in his inter-county career when he received a second yellow card after it appeared he was wrestled to the ground by Tyrone substitute Ben McDonnell. Despite an animated Clifford pleading his innocence,
Longford referee Fergal Kelly, acting on the advice of an umpire, sent the Fossa star, who racked up 0-6 in another sublime display, off. Keane claimed afterwards Clifford’s sending off had not been justified. He said, ‘Yeah, that is your read of it and that would be my read of it too,’ when quizzed by a reporter if Clifford had been an innocent party in the 67th-minute
incident. ‘It is easy pickings to say that there are two fellows involved and I will give both of them both yellows and because he had picked up one early in the first half, two yellows make a red,’ added the Kerry boss.
However, it was an afternoon in which Tyrone’s 0-14 to 0-13 win over Kerry, which was moved to Edendork just hours before the throw-in after Healy Park was deemed unplayable, was fully merited.
And, capping a great day for the home team, supports in the small attendance of less than 2,000 gave a rapturous welcome to All-Star full-forward Cathal McShane when he was introduced in the 41st minute in his first appearance since declining a move to the AFL’s Adelaide Crows.
Harte, happy to have his star player back, warned that the GAA should not be in ‘cahoots’ with the AFL. ‘I don’t want to get into political rows with another football organisation but enough to say that I like players playing Gaelic football and there is no payback for us from the AFL. ‘It’s a ‘win-win’ for them,’ he said.
‘We never get anything back from them. I don’t know why we would create a warm market for that drain. I have always said if people choose to go that is their own prerogative but we should not be in cahoots with an organisation that loves our players.’
Harte said that the GAA had to be proactive in fighting to keep their players at home, after McShane secured employment with a construction supply company last week.
But the Tyrone manager also hit out at what he claimed were individuals with GAA ‘backgrounds’ who were scouting for the AFL.
‘Unless there are good people there who offer an alternative to people who have an offer out there to a professional sport, that’s what’s going to happen, we’re going to lose our players.
‘We in the GAA as a whole should be guarding our players to keep them for the public here because that is what we want to see, to see our top Gaelic football athletes playing Gaelic football.
‘The biggest problem is that scouts don’t come from Australia and be anonymous any more. They are actually people who have a GAA background.’
Meanwhile, Keane claimed that James O’Donoghue, who was not part of Kerry’s panel yesterday, was not injured and will return in the coming weeks.
‘He is fine. We would hope to have him in the next game or maybe the game after. He has played two games and he probably did not play two games for us last year.
‘We are juggling and there is a lot of talent there. Killian Spillane came on in Croke Park and against Galway and he did well. Ye keep telling me we have great forwards, how can I find out how good they are if I don’t play them,’ queried the Kerry boss.
Meanwhile, Harte claimed that yesterday’s win – Tyrone’s second of the campaign – was the response he had hoped for after last weekend’s four-point defeat to Monaghan.
‘We could have expected that, we could have told ourselves that we would go out and do that and maybe not be able to achieve it.
‘The fact that they followed through on what they went and asked themselves this week at training and asked of this game today, that’s always very comforting to know that that kind of determination and steel is there among a group of players.
‘It’s only a once off, it doesn’t tell you that you are going to be great across a season. It tells you can be great on any given day,’ added Harte, who hailed his team’s firsthalf defensive effort when they held Kerry to four points after playing against a strong wind.
‘We won the game in the first half. The fact we were able to hold them to four points half-time was critical. It would’ve been easy for them to slip into a six, seven, eight, nine point lead, then it would’ve been very difficult.
‘The four-point lead was something we had to get back as quickly as possible. If you don’t grab a lead like that quickly, the other team gets a point for your point, you’re not really getting on top of the deficit.’