If you were to look at sprints made David Clarke could well be near top of that list.
How? He’s a goalkeeper? They don’t…move.
That’s a fair assessment in a way, they’re not doing any of the running that the lads out the field were doing but when Clarke did run it was important.
Seventeen times Kerry scored and seventeen times Clarke used that opportunity to get a ball off the umpire as quick as he could and find a Mayo defender.
The 2016 All-Star was relentless, it was like clockwork.
Over the bar the ball would go and by the time you blinked one of the Mayo cornerbacks would have it in their hands.
It was superb and in some ways, he won Mayo the game.
In the days where Stephen Cluxton is getting the long overdue praise he deserves for his sensational kick outs Clarke exhibited how Mayo’s restarts were the cornerstone to their success today.
The possession game
Mayo’s game plan today was based on possession, get the ball from the restart and be patient. They’d look for Clarke to find someone in the full back line and go from there. Aidan O’Shea was often the man that they flowed through today as he dropped back to help start attacks. Slowly and steadily Mayo would get themselves up the pitch and relied on their gameplan to work.
But it was all based on possession, keep the ball from the Kerry players and they can’t score. Keep the ball and you will score.
At half time Stephen Rochford and the 53,032 people in Croke will have known that Mayo were utterly dominant in terms of possession and they had 64% of it in that first half and a large part of that went down Clarke being so quick off the mark.
Pin point accuracy
When Kerry came out in the second half they were a bit wiser to how quick Clarke was from the restart so as the ball was going airborne the Kerry forwards frantically tried to cut off Mayo winning easy ball.
When it comes to 17 September either Dublin or Tyrone will also be aware of this but where Clarke improved from last Sunday was how accurate he was going long.
It was a rare sight you would see Clarke throw his hands up in the air, resigned to the fact that his only option to kick long and even when he did that he was umpteen times better than last Sunday.
Following the game plan
Option number two was going very short, it seemed to be the route exhausted more often than not but it was clear that Mayo would create as many options as possible in their half back line with runs being made by every player.
Clarke played the percentages and found his runners when he could but rarely risked kicking a sporadic ball.
Quick reactions
Towards the start of the second half, Kerry made it their mission to disrupt to kick out and a long ball to midfield looked likely but then the Cillian O’Connor and Conor Loftus ran up either flank, a window of opportunity was open for a split second and Clarke found O’Connor.
This was what he was about all day, scanning the field of play and looking for any possible opening and the Ballina Stephenites man backed himself with his kickouts today.
Recycling
Possibly the most important thing David Clarke did today, however, was get involved in the game itself. The reason Mayo had so much possession was their recycling.
Rochford clearly instructed the side to have a go at Kerry and when an avenue shut closed there’d be a man in support and they’d go again.
The 2016 All-Star found most of his kick outs were never fielded far beyond the 21-metre line and his defenders would be under extreme pressure, he made himself that outlet to start the play against and give Mayo a platform to attack.
Unlike last week where Clarke relied on hopeful kicks and little tricks, today he was sheer class. Man of the match will go to Colm Boyle and praise will fall for Andy Moran, Tom Parsons, the two O’Shea brothers and a few others but Clarke deserves a share of the credit too.
