The best shot-stopper in the country?
Such is Mayo's chase of the best team of all time, inches are magnified, blown up, and probably taken way, way out of proportion.
It's only natural when you're so close for so long and you're getting nearer and nearer to the top. You have to look at different ways, you have to dissect every facet of your play in the search for something, anything else.
The facts of the matter are that Mayo are a bloody fantastic team and, in any other era, they'd have won at least two All-Irelands by this stage. They're not in another era though and that's why we start looking at things like the trajectory of David Clarke's kickouts.
https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_GAA/status/839134999265886208
Clarke might not be as good a kicker as the best on the island but you'd go along way to find a number one with reflexes that even come close to the Mayo man's.
On Saturday night in Dublin, whilst it might've been a bad outing for the team overall, Clarke's reputation as a stopper only grew. Paddy Andrews had three attempts at his goal, from 12 yards, from eight yards, from five yards and he was denied all three times.
1. Clarke saves from the penalty spot.
2. Clarke somehow gets to the other side to tip the rebound off the post.
3. Clarke denies Andrews from even closer again.
He was springing around his six-yard box like a savage bobcat who had a simple choice of making the catch or dying.
Andrews couldn't believe what had just happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYbl2h6Cz-4
For Clarke, he's just making a habit of these stunts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSGZ3tMx9vQ
It might not have affected the result against Dublin but it puts things into contrast when you see his effect on the pitch and you realise that you've spent the last three days talking about the angles that he kicks in.
