Indo GAA
Philly McMahon in studio | David Clifford's temper, Donegal's mental warfare, Dublin's missing manager 🏐
30 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What insights does Philly McMahon share about David Clifford's temperament?
This week on the Indo Daily. On a cold winter night in December 2000, Sandra Collins went missing from a small fishing village in Mayo. The knives are out in the race to be the next British Prime Minister and one of the men who wants to occupy Number 10 Downing Street has put Brexit back on the table. Find and follow us at all the usual spots and over on the Irish Independent website.
Hey there, we are Indosport with me, Joe Malloy. We cover sport and we have things like this.
If you ask Arsenal's defenders, Gabriel and Saliba, to play in that PSG team or that Bayern team, they would be exposed as much as those centre-backs were last night. Because effectively, the attackers were on top. Then you ask the question, how many defenders were actually on the pitch last night? Because none of the full-backs have no interest in defending. They're like wingers.
And I've seen Saliba and Gabriel in an open game in that League Cup semi-final doubleheader against Newcastle last season get torn apart by Izak. I won't have anyone convince me that they can defend in that space.
Hello everybody and welcome to the Indoor Sport Podcast. The All-Ireland Football Championship continues to crank into gear. Last weekend we had the Barney and Killarney between Donegal and Kerry, as well as wins for Cork, Galway and Tyrone. And this weekend we have a couple of games to look forward to as well. Armagh dirty on Saturday evening, Westmead calving as well on Saturday.
Dublin loud, a rematch of their Leinster Championship clash on Sunday. Dublin obviously hoping to bounce back from that Leinster final defeat to Westmead. And then Monaghan Mayo rounding. out the weekend. Delighted to be joined to go through all the talking points by Philly McMahon. Philly, how are you? I'm good, good. Lots to discuss.
Before we kick off, our GA podcast coverage is sponsored by AIB. Proud sponsors of club and county, AIB proudly celebrates the joy, dedication and support that lies at the heart of Gaelic games in every community and player across the nation. Before we get into this weekend, just have to get your thoughts on Kerry Donegal. I don't know if the Barney and Clanny has caught on yet.
I hope I came up with that. Maybe I just heard someone else say it and just nicked it, but... I wanted to ask you, if you were playing last weekend and Jim McGuinness came onto the pitch and shoved you, how do you think you would have reacted?
Does that thing where you have a bit more respect as a player to react to a manager? I don't think you'd react in a way that would be physical. Yeah. But I would just brush her off, to be honest. I think we're talking a huge amount about this incident today. on the basis of the mess that we've incurred from Ger Brennan's situation and how severe that punishment was.
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Chapter 2: How does Donegal employ mental tactics against Kerry?
But you generally think... maybe in preparation, Kerry are saying, listen, like, we want to, we're in Killarney here, we owe these one, you know, and maybe that was taken out of context to going too physical. Like, Micheál Bourne's throwing a dick. Like, I've never seen him throw a dick in his career. Like, you know, throwing a dick that splits, splits McHugh open, like, you know.
I just, I just think that's not in his character.
that I know of maybe Kerry people know him more than I do but I wouldn't see him throwing digs that often like you know he's a very good player important player for Kerry and he was getting a good run of games this year like so I think that's a distraction thing that's an emotional thing that I wouldn't see particular those type of players getting involved in like you know these two teams really hate each other
They're beginning to hate each other, I think.
It looks like it.
Over the last couple of seasons and it's great. It's great for, it's what we need. Probably since Dublin Mayo.
I was about to say that. Is this the biggest rivalry? Yeah, they kind of.
Yeah, I do. I think, I think it's, it's definitely, and even when I'm just thinking about this, like, when would you ever have seen over years and years and years, Donegal carry rivalry like this? I don't think there's ever been.
Yeah, they haven't played that many times. I think when they played in 2014 or 2012 in McGuinness' All-Ireland season, I think it was the first time they ever played in the championship. So they haven't played that many times.
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Chapter 3: What challenges does Dublin face without a manager?
He seems to be.
and he's a big big personality like he's a huge personality em and that would be spoken about to the players so much that would distract them from what actually they're trying to trying to achieve like you know and particularly the time of em
like this is isn't this his third season Martin saying this is his third season so I'd say he's he's saying to himself right first year we had a really good crack a second year get to a final third year this is it let's go do you know to have something like that in the way would be disastrous
And say when Desi Farr wasn't there, would the other coaches have been trying to coach the team as best they could? Or were they like, oh, I was talking to Desi and Desi said we should be doing X or Y? Or was Desi just kind of gone, not mentioned, and it was about whatever selectors were doing?
Yeah, it's hard to know. The management team that Desi trusted in, they were good lads. Their roles... probably didn't change huge amount, but they had to add the added layer of, you know, I don't think there was anybody particularly that stood up as I'm now the manager. They kind of all stood up. I'd say Mick Galvin probably was Desi's number two at that stage.
And he would have been like kind of maybe the one that would link in with the management team. But they all stepped up in fairness. And we all had to step up as well. But it was difficult. There's no doubt about it. There's no hiding it. It wasn't normal.
It's kind of crazy, jumping around a bit, but Dean Rock has just been managing the Dublin team for the last however many weeks. It's pretty crazy.
It is, it is. And I don't know what Dian's capabilities are as a manager. I don't know what Stephen and Dennis' roles would be if they were a manager.
They weren't expecting to be managing the team, obviously.
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Chapter 4: How do Armagh's recent wins impact their confidence?
Or now it's press up and really try to eliminate him and just go man to man on him. So, whether that worked or not, in clarity, now they've two ways of looking at it, right? So, that's the best thing about it. Now, McGuinness can say, right, now we know it's worked, that's what we do when we meet him again. If it didn't work, we tried that. but here's maybe the way we'll do it the next time.
Maybe it's like stay in your zone and when Paddy Cliff gets on the ball, we'll press out to him. But Rorty is such a good player and he's at an infancy stage of his career and energy that I'd say he's a young lad looking at that going, I'm going to feel great after doing a man-making job in Paddy Cliff and keeping him quiet.
so that's not to say that Paddy Clifford next time to me isn't going to light it up but it was a good move from my point of view because he now has two different ways of looking at it it looked more effective than just letting him solo the ball untouched Well, I would have thought the opposite to be honest in the All-Ireland final last year.
I looked at all of Paddy Clifford's clips to see how effective he was in that game. And I think out of all the touches he had, he was only involved in 20 odd of those shots that Kerry had. I mean, involved in like, it's not just a little hand pass. It's actually an assist, a proper assist. Like it's, like he gives Gavin White the hand pass and the four score. Like, would you call that an assist?
But if he's being completely left on his own to do that at his leisure, is that not giving him, I know like, he can give a hand pass even if he's under pressure, but like,
but then you lock down everybody if you're saying that hand pass and assist and everybody that gives a hand pass to a player that scores have to lock them down do you know there was a couple of balls that he gave in he intercepted one he's such an important player I'm not sure if you looked at that All-Ireland final people truly understood the effectiveness of the amount of touches he had that's all I'm looking at in terms of that
So I'm saying, do you need to go man to man on him? Well, do you know what? You could possibly get away with not going man to man on him, but being in his vision when he gets on the ball or when he gets into a certain zone on the pitch that he's dangerous, that he can't shred those passes like Cooper did years ago. to his brother. Then you must be getting in his face.
There was a couple of times where he wasn't even marked, you know, in the All-Ireland final. But here's the other side of it. There's two ways to skin the cat here when it comes to Paddy Clifford. You can go man to man on him as well. It also helped then when they were down a man that they were able to do that.
But they're not going to be down a man next, they possibly won't be down a man the next time.
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Chapter 5: What strategies are effective for marking Paddy Clifford?
You're a wee captain or some bullshit, to be honest. Just to see what he bite and he did. What did he say? And then I walked towards him. I don't remember, to be honest. I don't remember what he said. But I remember just having a little bit of a tussle and...
he stood on me and I knew then and I felt bad for Walsh because Walsh was probably going you're meant to be working me here like you know don't mind him like you know but I remember that stage going this fella bites a little bit now I'm not saying that You know, if I marked him, he wouldn't have scored what he scores on defenders.
But if he gave me a handicap of what he was scoring on the Dublin players, it would have been a good challenge for me to kind of go, right, back to the Dublin manager team, right? He...
doesn't necessarily need the fastest player marking him or the tightest player marking him he just needs someone to be taking him off his focus so that when every time that ball comes up he's thinking this fella is hanging out with me like Rorty was dealing with with Paddy yeah because it's funny because he's like he's just a physical player unlike some other forwards who can maybe be more finesse yeah that he almost like
Not that he likes the challenge, but he doesn't back down from it because he is so physical himself. So if you're in his ear, he's like, I'm taking you on. I assume that's what he said.
Yeah, he does point a bit at that. And that is, that epitomized Kerry in terms of that Kerry Donegal game. They were biting. So many players, not just him, they were biting. So as soon as they do that, they're taking their focus off what they should be doing.
And if you're a team that are focusing on what you're doing and that's a part of your strategy, well then you're going to get the advantage. So for me, the other side of it is with Clifford is he's playing now, we're seeing a lot more of him. It's not his first or second season now, you've got a lot more of him now.
So you can see different patterns, you can see different habits, you can see different things happening now. And it will become a much easier job, as much as easy, I say, it's a completely, you know, when you mark him, you're marking the top player in the country, it's really hard.
But once you see all those habits, and once you start to watch video footage of these certain players, you start to pick a way of what possibly could give you the advantage in terms of marking them.
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Chapter 6: How does the rivalry between Donegal and Kerry shape gameplay?
Yeah, and whoever loses there into the loser side of the draw, like Kerry versus Derry or Kerry versus Armagh will be a really good tie and will be winner advances, loser goes home. So a lot at stake, it feels like. Yeah, I'm enjoying this new format, even though it's only kind of building up.
Even though we don't know what I'm...
Yeah, we don't know like Kerry lost and we don't know necessarily if that'll be a fatal blow, but it feels big at the moment, which I like, you know, versus the round robin last year was a little slower. So that's Armagh, Derry, Westmead, Cavan. Westmead's win over Dublin was, it was a really entertaining game. They kind of kicked on in extra time. Like, what do you make of Westmead?
Like, on paper, Cavan is a very winnable game. They're at home in Mullingar. I think it sold out really, really quickly. Obviously, a big buzz around the team. Were you impressed with them?
Yeah, there's such a buzz and energy and a positivity around Westmead. And kind of like, you know, I think it comes from, I think from listening to a couple of the interviews, it comes from that sage mentality of nobody actually gives us a shot like here. They keep talking about, in Leinster particularly, Made loud in Dublin. What about us? And they stood up.
They really did stand up this year in Leinster. The question is now, can they truly believe that they can have a pop-up going further in the All-Ireland Series? That's the challenge. That's the question they have to ask. Have they been celebrating for...
In fairness, you wouldn't begrudge them a bit of a celebration after winning at Leinster for the first time in 22 years. But we saw a loud last year struggle after winning Leinster for the first time in a long, long time.
That hangover aftermath definitely will have a part to play. It's like one of those things also that, you know, that dormancy can actually feed complacency very quickly you know not just Westmead across the board that's why I always say it's very hard to win back-to-back All-Irelands nobody's done it since the Dublin team I was on but then Kerry done it was a
06 07 right so that's how long it's taken so that's what I mean and that's how it can feed complacency and I don't know how much Westmead have celebrated from that but they deserve it in fairness but do they do anything against Dublin that you think oh I could see them if they go up into the All-Ireland Series taking what they've done today and making it work I'll tell you what I liked about them their confidence
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of Dublin's recent performance?
Again, we spoke about dormancy. It's probably going to have to happen. It's not what we want as Dublin people. Of course, we want to be winning more All-Irelands, more Leinsters, but...
that stage where look there was a point where in time where people were crawling over each other for Parnell Park season tickets and probably they're all selling them now do you know it's sad but that's the reality of it and this Dublin team need to look within and not let the energy seep out and say to each other look
what do we want to do in our time that we have this Dublin jersey you know and if it's winning an All-Ireland right well then you know it mightn't happen now but we need to really go after what it's going to take us to get there because we've enough experience to have done it in the changing room to get to that stage and they've a brilliant management team as well
Something that we were actually talking about upstairs, the idea that like some of the guys like Brian Fenton, say Paul Mannion, guys who aren't like that old, like they could be playing, like they're physically capable of playing and they're not for whatever reason they decided to step away.
And the idea that like when they would have been young players like the guys are now, there would have been veteran players there who stayed on quite a lot. I'm kind of...
giving their wisdom or imparting their wisdom and kind of helping bring them along and then these guys is there an onus on those guys to do the same for another group rather than just say my time is done I'm leaving yeah it's hard because you can't force someone to play obviously but yeah it's objective isn't it like you know for somebody like I'd say the lads that I played with a lot of them including me would say we played probably a year too long you know we could have left a year before maybe two years before we did but
But we always wanted to pass on that good culture that even when you're at the end, this is how you should behave. This is the way you should be. Like, I suppose my second last year, strangely enough, I had a good buzz about me and a good energy about me. Last year, I was a bit more negative. Like, you know, I was like... Because you weren't playing? Yeah.
I wasn't playing, but there was times where I felt I could have been, I could have made a bigger impact. And that's just me. That's just my ego. Like, you know, and there was times even where I felt, Jesus, I could be pushed into that A team just to put the other lads under pressure. That's all. I'm not even looking for game time.
Just put me in the A's today for 10 minutes so that the fella that you're changing me with thinks I have to up my game here. There was none of that. Now, Jim Gavin would have done a lot of that. Desi, unfortunately, that was one thing that I would have felt that probably we lacked a little bit.
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Chapter 8: How do the upcoming matches influence the championship outlook?
They're brilliant at kicking the ball. And once you have Rory Began in your team, you're always staying in touch and distance, even if the other team is playing really well.
Last thing, Galway, Seán Fitzgerald, Monday night, the Villa, Love Island. Leaving your county panel midway through a championship to go into Love Island is a new one. We've seen a lot in the GAA and a lot this summer, but that's a new one.
Yeah, a lot of people were tipping Galway to win an All-Ireland this year and I could see why. They've a really good squad, they've been up there the last couple of seasons and I just worried defensively about them. They've got a little bit better but they were opened up a lot in the league and I'm not putting that down to their full back wanting to go to Love Island but...
it's an interesting one and me kind of stubborn defensive values of being that kind of physical defender wants me to abuse him for doing it but then on the other hand I'm going fair play don't be a hater go for it if you feel you want to but at the end of the day for me as a person it wouldn't have been my cup of tea for like I wouldn't have been happy if one of the Dublin lads went off to Love Island
Well, we were debating earlier which of your Dublin teammates would have been the most likely Love Island participant. I don't know. Would you have an answer for that?
Who would it be? God, who would it be? I said Paul Mannion really because I feel like he looks like he could be in there Paul Mannion's a good show I don't know I don't know if that was well enough I'd say Owen O'Gara would have been a great show he'd love hearing that now if he listens to this Owen O'Gara on Love Island he'd win by just taking heads for trophies That's my girl.
No, but Alain, Jesus. He's landed well with Alain, his wife. She's an amazing person. But who else would I think would do well on Love Island? Definitely Manion. Is there anybody else?
that's a good thing that I can't actually think of people popping out like you know people were saying when Dermot Connolly when Dermot Connolly was around that tank top before the mail game definitely not Dermot Connolly no no Bernard Brogan Bernard maybe in his youth maybe in his youth maybe maybe emm Yeah, I'm sticking with my Paul Manion suggestion.
There's not many others, like, to be honest. There's not many others. Cluxton? Definitely not. Definitely not Cluxton. McFitts? No, no, not McFitts.
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