Kerry beat Cork there last Sunday yet when the players glanced down at the final whistle, found no garlands at their feet.
One period grated with just about everyone who threw an eye over the game.
Four minutes and 42 seconds. That was the length of time Kerry kept the ball in their possession last Sunday before guaranteeing their win.
Not so much teasing Cork as trying to coax them out of their hard defensive shell. Over and back and over and back again on that heavily sanded sod in Killarney.
It started in the 66th minute. Eventually, 66 passes later, David Clifford was fouled. Seán O’Shea popped the free over in the 72nd minute. Kerry were both home and indeed hosed.
Yet when he says the murmur of discontent that built in the stands in Fitzgerald Stadium during that patch might have been from either, or both sets of supporters, Clifford is only half-joking.
“The boos were probably coming from Cork and Kerry fans at one stage,” smiles Clifford, speaking at Supervalu’s launch of their sponsorship of this year’s All-Ireland SFC.
“But it’s just not what the football traditionalist is used to seeing.”
Clifford afforded himself a little indulgence after the point. A fist pump.
“When you are able to take the sting out of a game like that and bring something that you’ve worked on to the pitch, it’s very satisfying,” he explains.
“I suppose when you are playing you just want to do what you can to get over the line.
“I suppose you can see the other side of it and if you are watching the game, it’s not exactly exhilarating stuff but that’s just the way it is, I suppose.”
Clifford might be the purest purist’s poster boy but he is also the first to note that football is changing. Constantly.
After a period of stasis, suddenly it feels like we’re in that freewheeling part of the cycle that turns freakishly quickly, that nobody is quite sure when or where it might stop.
You adapt or die. Angles and edges. Everyone is checking under rocks for fresh ones.
There are teams of analysts using hardware and software, programmes designed to chop up and dice games into fragments; to filter it all into the trends and tendencies and tactics, to devise antidotes.
This week’s innovation is next week’s folly.
Exhibit A: Derry versus Donegal last week. It didn’t matter that Derry had won back-to-back Ulster titles playing with Odhrán Lynch as a fly ‘keeper who routinely joined their kick-out press.
Once Donegal ran in those three goals, the whole gambit was dumb and Derry, stubborn.
“It’s very interesting though,” Clifford points out, “because there are games where it feels like both goalkeepers are doing it and the keepers are having the most possessions.
“It’s exciting, and people are looking for excitement. It’s always remarked that the long kick-out is going out of the game and that people are afraid to take risks, but this is like full circle, this is a huge risk.
“So it’s interesting and it will be interesting to see how it evolves for the rest of the summer. Look, people are always trying to move forward but its dependent on your approach and your goalie’s outfield skill then.”
Careful what you wish for. After a decade when control and predictability and an absence of variation has made the sport a tough watch, this kind of anarchy should probably be encouraged.
“It’s very easy to be negative about football because it has changed,” Clifford stresses.
“But we just have to embrace the new style of football, the amount of analysis that goes into it, the power and pace of the players.
“So while we don’t always see a kick out to the middle and a high field and maybe he delivers it long but to see the running power of fellas…”
“It’s changing. We just have to embrace it. While that might be harder for someone who has watched football a certain way, you’d often see how positive everyone is about hurling and then you look at the football and it’s all seems to be so negative. You’re nearly saying “leave it alone” in one sense.”
Next week will be a strange one for Clifford. He’s prepared for that. Their Munster final with Clare takes place a day before the first anniversary of the death of his mother, Ellen.
Last year, both David and Paudie played in the provincial decider, also against Clare, two days after her passing.
“It was mom’s birthday a couple of weeks back. The first of everything is very tough – Christmas and all of that,” he said.
“You’re just trying to… probably subconsciously you’re going through the different phases of it where you don’t want to think about it and then you’re in a place now where well you can think about it with a bit more… you think about the good times, as opposed to trying to put it out of your head. There’s just different phases you go through.
“The game that day wasn’t the end of the world,” he admits. “While we wanted to play and we wanted to win, we were still conscious of where we were at in the season.
“In a weird way you were nearly like invincible for a few weeks because it didn’t really matter what happened. You were at the bottom, so whatever else happened…
“So yeah it was difficult. But we were delighted for the distraction of the games too. It’s on the downtime that maybe thoughts can creep in.”
