PADRAIC Joyce and Liam Silke in the Galway dressing room before the Kerry match at the weekend:

P: Liam, could I have a word?

L: (bouncing) What’s up?

P: (looking down at his feet) Look Liam, we’ve had a bit of a chat

L: Go on…

P: We want you to pick up David Clifford

L: (no longer bouncing) Ah for f*** sake Padraic, what have I ever done to you? I’m not even a real corner-back.

P: Look Liam, it was a very difficult call for us. It’s nothing personal.

L: What do you mean?

P: We put the names of the six defenders into the tombola machine and yours came out.

L: Did you video it?

P: We did son (pulls out phone and shows him the footage).

L: Seriously Paraic. I’m going to stick with Corofin after this. I don’t need this sh**.

The problem with Clifford is that everything after him is an anti-climax. We watched him against Galway. Then we turn over to Tyrone v Donegal and think “what is this supposed to be?” Tyrone dropping back in numbers. Playing defenders in the forwards. Not selecting the son of God or Darren McCurry.

Has the penny not dropped with them that you cannot win an All-Ireland by playing half-hearted football? Another dull Tyrone performance labouring to yet another dull defeat against a middling Donegal team.

Kerry meanwhile are learning to play ‘Heavy Metal football’. This is what the Germans call the high-press system used by Bayern, Borussia and Liverpool’s Klopp. Dublin perfected it some years ago. By their All-Ireland campaign of 2018, it was reducing blanket defensive teams to rubble. In that year’s final, they scored 1-5 in a 10-minute first-half spell from intercepting Tyrone’s kick-outs.

In Tralee, Kerry’s high press quickly destroyed Galway’s long extinct Tally Defensive System (TDS) a 12-man defensive strategy involving shuffling, pointing, soloing and hand-passing. As this was unfolding, Mayo were doing precisely the same to Down’s TDS in Castlebar.

“Boys, don’t kick the ball whatever you do. DON’T KICK IT. I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU NOT TO KICK IT. HAND-PASS IT, SOLO. DO……..NOT……….KICK……..IT. CAN I BE ANY F*****ING CLEARER? NO KICKING, EVEN IN AN EMERGENCY.”  Mickey Linden and the lads would have loved it.

Is it any wonder Down are on their  knees?  So, at the weekend, Down, like Derry before them (we went from Division One to Division Four having abandoned our traditional attacking flair in favour of the TDS) got walloped by a team that played football while they soloed and hand-passed and pointed and double teamed.

The high press (in soccer or Gaelic football) is psychologically crucial. It puts the team in the correct frame of mind. The purpose of the game is to score.

To score, the players must have an adventurous mindset. The high press ensures this, as it involves trapping, intercepting, then counter-attacking at speed, relentlessly hunting for goals and points. It forces the team to play with the right spirit, banishing negativity and fear.

It’s why Dublin make short work of the blanket. The Dubs see their opponents drifting back to set it up before the first attack, and one can almost see a giant thought bubble appearing above their heads saying “Are you taking the piss lads?”

The high press also puts the opposing team on red alert. It forces them to make decisions quickly. They no longer have the luxury of soloing out at their leisure or taking a hand-pass or short kick-out under no pressure. Now, they are looking over their shoulders. Now, they are forced to make decisions while they are being hunted down by one or two forwards. The full-forward line becomes the first line of defence. The full-back line pushes up. They become the last line of attack.

Kerry are learning that excessive solo running and hand-passing does the defence’s job for them. In Tralee, they gave a masterclass in kick-passing. With the emphasis of the game-plan on attacking, they were transformed.

Against Cork last summer, needlessly fearful of Cork’s running through the middle, they played with a blanket defence, forcing them to move the ball slowly upfield and allowing David Clifford to be isolated and double marked. Here, that was just an embarrassing memory. The highly-skilled Kerry forwards got the ball early and accurately. Mix in the matchless chemistry of the East Kerry trio with Sean O’Shea, Killian Spillane and Geaney and this was Man City without the diving.

And towering above it all. Towering above us all. Clifford. Poor Liam Silke looked like the 5’5” guy being asked to guard LeBron. I imagined poor Liam going round his team-mates in the dressing room begging them to swap. “Sorry Liam, you know I would do anything for you, but not this.”

I have written on many occasions that this kid will become the greatest player the game has ever seen and he provided overwhelming evidence of that in Tralee. His first goal was a LeBron style slam dunk over Silke after a sequence of brilliant, inch-perfect passes from Killian Spillane and Sean O’Shea.

The only thing missing was Clifford hanging from the rim after he punched it home. In the parlance of US basketball, Silke had been posterised and it was going to be a very long day.

Clifford’s second goal came from the same magic trio, an impossible kick pass from Spillane to]O’Shea who had two metres of space inside a cluster of Galway defenders, then O’Shea to Clifford, then the bottom corner.

A few minutes later, his hat-trick goal, a hilarious, audacious moment that was pure Zidane, and reminded us why life is worth living. The ball broke on the ground. Clifford looked as though he was going to pull on it with his left, causing the ’keeper and full back to dive full length to block it. Instead, he rolled it back to himself on the ground, then nonchalantly stroked the ball to the empty right corner of the net.

The poor full-back climbed forlornly to his feet with muck all over his face. Which just about covered the egg.

Kerry have learned that you cannot drop back and defend your way to an All-Ireland. That you cannot pick defenders in your forward line. (remember Eamonn Fitzmaurice picking Paul Murphy at number 11 to drop back?)

Here, they pressed high throughout, kept the solo running to a minimum, kicked the ball quickly and accurately and as a result, their skilled forwards thrived and the team was motivated and energetic. A dull game-plan produces dull football. Hence, Galway got precisely what they deserved.

The game is primarily about attacking chemistry, which in turn depends upon an adventurous game plan. Kerry – playing with freedom and imagination up front – have shown us that they might soon be ready to seriously challenge Dublin. They are learning to treat the blanket defence with the contempt it deserves. And the 22-year-old who scored 3-6 from play finally has the game-plan he deserves.

Heavy metal football. Or ‘Gegenpressing’ as the Germans call it.