This battle alone could be worth the entrance fee.
Whatever about Mayo and Dublin, whatever about one of the most hotly-anticipated All-Ireland finals in a long time, you’d be a fool to miss the Electric Ireland minor clash.
You’d be a fool to miss David Clifford v Desmond Conneely.
The pair have lit up the Electric Ireland Minor Football Championship.
If you followed that American Football documentary on Netflix, Last Chance U, you’d have gotten some real nuggets out of it.
Big players make big plays in big games.
It takes a certain type of man to step up to the plate. It takes a certain type of genius to win the day.
When Kerry and Galway come head to head in Croke Park on Sunday at 1.15pm, both counties will rest easy in the knowledge that they have the firepower in their respective arsenals to blow the other away.
Take Desmond Conneely, for example.
It doesn’t matter what level he’s playing at, he just carries on his destructive routine. In the last three games, he’s hit 2-10 for Galway. Just three of those scores have come from frees. And, yes, three of those games included a Connacht final, an All-Ireland quarter-final, and an All-Ireland semi-final.
Big players make big plays in big games. Conneely does it in his sleep.
Then you have David Clifford. Lord above, David bloody Clifford.
His 2016 championship rap sheet reads like this:
Munster quarter v Waterford: 0-5 (2f)
Munster semi v Clare: 0-4 (2f)
Munster final v Cork: 1-5 (2f)
All-Ireland quarter v Derry: 0-5
All-Ireland semi v Kildare: 0-8 (2f)
1-27 in five games. 1-19 from play.
1-18 in the last three do-or-die championship clashes. Big players. Big plays. Big games.
And he’s been at a stage like what Sunday offers before. He bloody well enjoyed it too.
Back in March, a Clifford-inspired St. Brendan’s outfit clinched Hogan Cup glory with the Fossa forward completing one of the all-time great Croke Park performances, hitting 2-5 himself that day.
David Clifford passes into Croke Park legend as breathtaking late show steals Hogan Cup glory for St. Brendan's https://t.co/pvmg8H1hl2
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 3, 2016
He has it in his armoury to unload on Galway next and deliver another All-Ireland title for himself in the space of half a year. Desmond Conneely too though, could shoot your lights out if you gave him a sniff of a trigger.
It’s two players destined for greatness but, before they go on to household prominence, this is the biggest moment of their lives to date. And this shootout between a pair of the finest attacking prospects around could be remembered in Croke Park folklore for a while to come.
Minor football. Major talent.
Minor players are embarking on their adult lives, many are about to finish school and start college, they have hopes and dreams and ambitions, but for this one moment in time, the Electric Ireland Minor Championships is the major thing in their lives. Follow the conversation at #GAAThisIsMajor.
Stephen Rochford chats with Colm Parkinson on The GAA Hour, heated Lee Keegan debate, and Barry Cahill is outnumbered by Mayo backers. Subscribe here on iTunes.
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