McGuinness may price in 1-10 from Clifford

Former Donegal star Kevin Cassidy believes that Donegal manager Jim McGuinness may opt against producing a special tactical plan to stop David Clifford in Sunday's All-Ireland final against Kerry - instead pricing in his usual high tally and trying to kill their other scoring threats instead.

Much of the build-up to Sunday’s decider has been around how the Ulster champions stop Clifford but for two-time All-Star Cassidy, everyone may be looking at the wrong blueprint.

"Everyone’s talking about how we’re going to close down David Clifford, I think Jim will make peace that David Clifford is going to do what he’s going to do and I think Jim is really going to go after the likes of Seán O’Shea, your Gavin Whites, your Joe O’Connors," the Gaoth Dobhair man told the RTÉ GAA podcast.

"If we can nullify out there - just say David Clifford kicks 1-10, I’m comfortable Donegal are going to kick way more than that.

"Jim might take that sort of approach because you can’t go after them all, you can’t try and tie down David Clifford, Seánie O’Shea, Gavin White, Joe O’Connor because it will disrupt our zonal system too much.

"David’s going to do what he’s going to do but if we can keep everyone else quiet, I think that’s the approach Jim might take."

A 1-10 tally would be enough to at least draw six of the last 20 All-Ireland finals, but with the new rules leading to a surge in scoring, expectations are that it could be one of the highest final scores in decades.

Kerry’s scoring average going into the final is 27.3 points per game from seven matches, Donegal sit at 26.8 from 10. When the sides met in the 2014 decider, their combined total was just 27 points.

While not agreeing entirely with Cassidy’s view that Clifford will be allowed almost free rein, fellow pundit Dessie Dolan does anticipate an attackers’ final.

"I still don’t think defenders are good enough to defend individually," said the former Westmeath player and manager.

"I can remember being marked by Anthony Lynch (Cork) and Sean Marty Lockhart (Derry) and players like that, you couldn’t get away from them.

"The one v one is causing a lot of problems to defenders nowadays because they’ve gotten so used to numbers coming back.

"Let’s be honest, Pádraig Hampsey (in Tyrone's semi-final defeat to Kerry) was left hung out to dry, in terms of the space that David Clifford was afforded, they couldn’t get the people back.

"That’s the difficulty with the tactics."

Listen to the RTÉ GAA Podcast on the RTÉ Radio Player, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship final, Donegal v Kerry, on Sunday from 2.15pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player

Click here to read article