Joe Brolly Says Donegal Man's Handling Of David Clifford Sums Up Big GAA Issue

A week on from the All-Ireland final between Kerry and Donegal, it's fair to say that plenty of questions have been asked about the Ulster GAA side's approach in that game.

Jim McGuinness' side had been viewed as favourites by many pundits, with it being felt that the Donegal boss would hatch a tactical plan to limit the firepower of his opponents.

The reality was far different. Not only did Kerry seemingly pick off scores at will, but Donegal also looked rather toothless at the other end of the pitch. The likes of David Clifford, Paudie Clifford, and Sean O'Shea all had excellent games for The Kingdom.

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David Clifford would score 0-9 from play in the All-Ireland final, with the Kerry man employing an interesting approach throughout the game. He was content to not be involved in his team's general buildup play, remaining out near the sideline until he could choose his moment and deliver the killer blow.

Donegal defender Brendan McCole was given the unenviable task of man-marking the Fossa man, but he certainly struggled.

Writing in the Irish Independent, Joe Brolly suggested that McCole's approach to stopping Clifford summed up what has become a massive issue in modern GAA.

A striking feature of the game for players from the pre-Jimmy McGuinness era was how shockingly poorly Brendan McCole set about man-marking Clifford...

Worse, it had obviously been rehearsed in training. The checklist of folly: He faced up to Clifford so hadn’t a clue what was going on around him...

This was not man-marking. it was an illusion of man-marking. McCole should have been playing four or five metres off Clifford, keeping him on the sideline side, defending in the V, meaning he could watch the play and Clifford simultaneously, refusing to let him come inside.

Man-marking had become somewhat of a lost art over the last decade or so, with blanket defensive systems meaning that such a skillset had been rendered fairly obsolete at inter-county level.

However, the rule changes introduced by the GAA for the 2025 season has resulted in that trait becoming quite important once again.

After Donegal's struggles against Kerry, it will be interesting to see how teams adapt to the new defensive ecosystem moving forward.