Paudie Clifford says Darragh Ó Sé criticism of Kerry was intended to galvanise side
In the noise following their All-Ireland SFC win over Donegal in July, plenty has been said about how Kerry’s players used the naysayers to their advantage.
David Clifford said he was displeased with Donegal manager Jim McGuinness’ hyping him up before the match, and also of the constant praise of McGuinness in the media.
While others have said Donegal underestimated Kerry’s side-show players with their marking of David Clifford at Croke Park.
But one of the stars of final, David’s brother Paudie Clifford, has admitted that negative comments from one of their own former players spurred them on the most.
In June following the defeat by Meath, six-time All-Ireland winner Darragh Ó Sé said there was a sense of “finality” about Kerry in his Irish Times column, something Clifford said galvanised the team.
Clifford even suggested that Ó Sé, knowing the mentality of the Kerry team, may have made the comments on purpose to encourage a response.
Speaking on the Square Ball Pod, Paudie Clifford said: “I know Darragh meant it to get a reaction. I’d never say anything about Darragh. Darragh is the man. He definitely got a reaction.
How good would it have been if Jack O Conor shouted down the mic "what do you think about that? Darragh O Se" 🤣🤣🤣
— Philly Mc Mahon (@PhillyMcMahon) July 27, 2025
“I think it was just that we work so hard as a team, and the management team, and fellas have wanted to play for Kerry all their lives, to be told that we’d be put out of our misery…that’s why we were so hurt about it.
“It motivates you, it motivated us. Again, we’re our own biggest critics, we realised we underperformed as a team in some of the last few years. To only have one All-Ireland for the talent we feel we have, we fully admitted it ourselves.
“But you just use the outside noise as a motivator just to give you another edge. You know none of the comments are personal or anything like that. We knew that a lot of the comments were true, that we have underperformed in some bigger games and lost some games we could have won.
“You can guarantee with some of the former players, they’re saying ‘we’ll throw the knife in here’ and we’ll see the boys coming back. There is nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal. I think it’s a good thing to be honest.”
Sports Joe
