For a few years Paudie Clifford was like one of those indie bands hoping to catch the eye of a major label. The A&R people had heard the word on the street and they’d been to the gigs, but they didn’t hear a single. David Clifford’s brother? Yeah, yeah, they knew.Was it him or was it them? Different people came to the same conclusion. He wasn’t ignored or unconsidered or unseen, he was overlooked: first by the Kerry minors, then by the Kerry under-21s. The Kerry juniors invited him for a trial in 2017 and let him go, though they had second thoughts a year later. In St Brendan’s College he didn’t always make the team. Clifford was stuck in traffic behind a rolling consensus and in that position, there is no fast lane. “A lot of it came from the fact that he hadn’t played minor or under-21 for Kerry,” says Mike Quirke, who worked with Clifford for three years as part of Jack O’Connor’s management. “So, people were looking at it and saying there must be something wrong. ‘Well, why didn’t he make it?’ Somebody must have seen something that’s not at the level. That carries its own bias for people.“Looking back, his football was probably always there, but not as refined as it is now. The physicality and athleticism wasn’t at the same level that it is now either. All of that has come together.”In those years when he was on the outside the case for Clifford developed into a local cause celebre. Committed advocates took to the hustings on his behalf. Jerry O’Sullivan was manager of the East Kerry team that won four Kerry county titles in five years and he pleaded for Clifford at every opportunity. Paudie had been terrific in the 2019 county final and in an interview afterwards David joined the campaign. “It’s hard to know what Peter Keane [Kerry manager] is thinking, but you can’t do much more besides getting man of the match in the county final,” said his brother. There were no charges of nepotism. Earlier that year, Paudie had won a Sigerson Cup with UCC. Billy Morgan was the manager but Tomás Ó Sé was the coach and he was smitten too. “Tomás was always championing him,” says Dara Ó Cinnéide, the broadcaster and former Kerry captain. Kerry's David Clifford and Paudie Clifford. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho When he finally made a breakthrough as a starter for Kerry in 2021, Ó Sé went on a long riff after the Munster final, live on TV. This was the chorus. “He was by far and away the best player on the pitch today ... I do think he had been overlooked for the last three years [by Kerry].” It rhymed with everything he had said before. That wasn’t strictly true, though. Keane had blooded him during the pandemic-ravaged league of 2020 and on the stormy evening in Páirc Uí Chaoimh when Cork eliminated them from the championship with a goal at the death, he came on as the eighth sub, in the final minute of extra-time. Four other forwards had been introduced before him. That was where he stood. [ Stephen Rochford: Kerry’s prolific Dylan Geaney yet another attacking problem for rivals DublinOpens in new window ]How good was he when he couldn’t break in? Not nearly as good as he is now. Not good enough. “Seamus Moynihan would have been involved with Fossa [Clifford’s club] before I was involved,” says Éamonn Fitzmaurice, the former Kerry player and manager, who spent four years with Fossa. “Paudie said himself that Seamus was a big influence on him, pushing him to realise his potential. Paudie maybe at the time wasn’t as focused on making it or as hungry as he became in terms of making it.“Probably looking at David [making the breakthrough with Kerry] might have given him a jolt, or a realisation that he’s a fantastic footballer in his own right and if David was doing it at that level, he could as well. Paudie did a lot of work himself. He did a lot of work in the gym. He did a lot of work on his mentality, privately.”Kerry's Paudie Clifford. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Under Jack O’Connor he blossomed. Clifford became a souped-up version of Paul Galvin: more gears, more vision, more finesse on the ball. But edgy too, just like Galvin had been. In Kerry, there would have been questions about Clifford’s temperament and in the years before his breakthrough that might have been held against him. He was described by one local commentator as a “firebrand.” In club games, he was liable to be drawn into flare-ups and disciplinary scrapes. There was one such incident in the 2018 county semi-final between East Kerry and Dingle which descended into a free-for-all and reached national headlines: “When Paudie Clifford appeared to react to rough treatment being dished out to his brother David, a mass brawl that ended up on the sideline ensued,” reported the Irish Independent. “This resulted in a red card for Paudie Clifford.” In a separate incident David was sent off later, also on a straight red. Over the years, though, he has reached a working accommodation with that side of his personality. The number of incidents thinned out. He was sent off against Cork in the Munster semi-final last year, and in Croke Park when Fossa won the junior All-Ireland three years ago. But that was an ugly match in which six players were red-carded, and his infringement came right at the end.He ran into turbulence, though, for a tone-deaf rebuke of the referee in his victory speech. Would his brother have made that misstep? Paudie is more direct, David more diplomatic.Off the field, they’re close; on the pitch, their relationship occupies a frequency that is not open to hackers. “You saw it again the last day [against Tyrone],” says Ó Cinnéide, “where David holds the ball and waits for Paudie. It’s just the eyes, ‘You go, I’ll stay.’ At one stage, David drew two fellas and just popped it in front of Paudie who fisted it over the bar. That’s always going to be there.Kerry's Paudie Clifford celebrates with Seán O’Shea at the final whistle after Kerry’s victory over Tyrone in the All-Ireland quarter-final. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho “You see it at club level all the time. We played them in the county final last year [An Ghaeltacht against Fossa]. In Paudie’s mind it’s always, ‘Where is David running?’ They’re telepathic at club level because Paudie can do more of those outside-of-the-left floated passes to David. We put our best man marker on him and our instruction was don’t get too close to him because he’ll fancy himself physically. He’s like a bull in possession, he wants to horse you out of the way, get past you and then you have to foul him.”Nobody got close to him in the All-Ireland final last year. Donegal elected to mark him by remote control. RTÉ’s live tagging clocked him on the ball a staggering 76 times, and according to Maurice Brosnan’s analysis, he parlayed that possession into 67 passes. “I want assists probably more than scores,” Clifford said in an interview with GAA Now a couple of years ago. Against Donegal, his relentless prompting led to six points, and another three that he kicked himself. “If you look at 100 photographs of Paudie in possession, you’ll see no photograph of him with his eyes looking down at the ball as he’s soloing,” says Quirke. “His head is up all the time because he wants to advance the ball, and primarily he wants to do that with a kick pass – that really penetrative kick pass. “Every Kerry player’s first option [for a pass] when they get up the pitch is David, but David’s movement is extremely economical. He’ll spend a lot of time walking or jogging, whereas Paul Geaney’s movement is far more dynamic, far more electric. He’s looking to give those options far more than David is whereas David will come alive when the kicking opportunity is really developed.Kerry’s Paudie Clifford and Maurice Shanley of Cork. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho “So Paudie has no problem delivering the [first] kick pass to Paul Geaney because a lot of the time, he’ll be the guy who has forced himself into about 10 yards of space.”When he was growing up Clifford played a lot of soccer, golf and snooker. He’s one of those people for whom any sport could be a stage. In golf, he brought his handicap down to low single figures, which could only be achieved by massive amounts of conscious practice. In the end, he invested that attitude in Kerry. “Every year Paudie would go after something different in his game,” says Quirke. “Five years ago, his right foot wasn’t as accurate or lethal as it is now. He went after that.”Fitzmaurice has played golf with him, schooled one day in Ballybunion. “I can see the golf side in him with how precise he can be with his skills,” says Fitzmaurice. “It materialised recently that he’s kicking 50s [45s] and kicking long range frees and that wouldn’t have been seen with Kerry before because Sean O’Shea would have been doing it. “I think part of that technical excellence in his game comes from the golf. He’s very precise in what he does. If he miscues, he’s almost like a golfer in that he knows why straight away.”Kerry did without him for long enough. Not now.[ ‘Jack was born to manage teams and win things’: Paul Galvin ranks Jack O’Connor among Kerry’s greatsOpens in new window ]