“I don’t even think there is a debate.”
GAA fans are blessed right now to have two outstanding forwards both playing at the top of their games, in the two top teams in the country.
One has already won everything there is to win in the game and stepped up on those occasions to do it, while the other has less medals in the cabinet, but has singlehandedly taken the whole game by storm.
Dublin’s Con O’Callaghan and Kerry’s David Clifford, are the two biggest stars in the sport right now. If they were Premier League footballers, they would be filling the back pages with transfer speculation sums in the hundred millions.
Colm O’Rourke recently wrote in his column for the Independent that Con O’Callaghan is better than David Clifford; a statement which sparked a debate on this week’s GAA Hour, and one that Colm Parkinson took exception to.
“I don’t know what O’Rourke is talking about here, for me there is no comparison between Con O’Callaghan and David Clifford – David Clifford, is a 10/10 and Con O’Callaghan is a couple of drops down below that.
“Now Con O’Callaghan is obviously a brilliant, brilliant player, but he’s not in Clifford’s league as far as I’m concerned. I don’t even think there is a debate, I think nine people out of ten who are not from Dublin or Kerry will say that David Clifford is better than Con.
“Now Ger Brennan told me that he would take Con, and most of this came after the Dublin vs Kerry game when Con got two goals and taken down for the penalty, but Con doesn’t do anything near the kind of spectacular things that David Clifford does.”
Conor Heneghan was also on the show, and although he didn’t disagree with Parkinson on who was better, he didn’t believe that the gap between the players is as big.
“I raised the eyebrows when I heard you say that he was a couple of drops below David Clifford, I would have Con O’Callaghan right up there, maybe he doesn’t do the spectacular things that David Clifford can do and is capable of.
“But in terms of the impact that he makes though, that’s another way you have to look at it. If you were to look at the best big game players in the last 15 years, I think Con is at the very top of the list.
“He scored a goal in the 2017 final against mayo, scored two goals against them in the 2019 semi-final, four points against Kerry in the 2019 final replay and a goal against Mayo last year in the All-Ireland final again.
“In the biggest games, Con always shows up and he’s so hard to manage because he’s so strong and in that way he’s a completely different player from David Clifford. In terms of the impact that they’ve both had, I think he’s right up there.
“I think ultimately in 10 years, we are going to look back at David Clifford as the best of all time. He’s a 10/10, there is no weakness that I can see to his game.
“I can maybe see where Colm O’Rourke is coming from, but who do I prefer watching? Who would I say is a better player? I would probably say Clifford.”
You can listen to the full discussion on the GAA Hour now.
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