Unlikely lad manfully grows into his dual responsibilities

Philip Clifford

Age: 20.

Club: Bantry Blues.

Occupation: TSB official.

Height: 6' 0"

Honours: 1 Munster SHC (1999); 1 NHL (1999).

Next Sunday, 20-year-old Philip Clifford may find himself in the middle of a historic achievement: captain of the third Cork team to complete the hurling and football double, the first captain to lift the League, Munster and All-Ireland trophies in 10 years and the youngest man to captain an All-Ireland winning football team.

(Pat Spillane was 19 when he collected the Sam Maguire 24 years ago - but as stand-in captain in place of the injured Mickey O'Sullivan).

Such achievements are the work of caprice in counties like Cork where the captaincy goes to a player from the county champions. In Clifford's case, two more experienced players from Bantry Blues were on the panel, but with neither Damien O'Neill nor Mark O'Connor making the team, the honour passed to Clifford.

Capricious or not, it's hard to imagine a more suitable 20-year-old for the task. Cautious beyond his years, Clifford fields questions with the practised ease of a veteran. On the field he has evolved from something of a bit player in the league into a match-winner, earning the Man of the Match accolade in the All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo.

Pace and kicking ability are his main assets, but he demonstrated a gutsy determination in the Munster final. Scoring 1-4, including the goal which turned the semi-final, he was assisted by Mayo's paralysis on the line as he roasted Aidan Higgins, winning every ball pumped in between them.

His season started propitiously with an equalising goal against defending league champions Offaly back in October. Throughout the campaign, he chipped in a few points per game, generally from frees. In the dire, low-scoring semi-final against Meath he was substituted while being marked by Sunday's opponent Cormac Murphy.

Despite the league win, there was an air of uncertainty about the side as the Munster final against Kerry drew closer in July. It was a defining match for the young Cork team. Bedrocked by the best defensive unit in the game this year, Clifford and his forward colleagues did the rest as they overcame the setback of conceding two goals in the first half.

"We had a lot of young players and didn't know how we'd respond when we got there," he says of the Pairc Ui Chaoimh final. Maybe we would have gone out on the pitch and after 20 minutes wished we hadn't. But luckily the older players on the team, Kevin Dwyer, Ciaran O'Sullivan and Joe Kavanagh, kept us younger players going when times were hard, credit to them."

Clifford didn't have a minor career due to unusual circumstances. Former under-21 manager Bob Honahan recalls: "We called him up for the under-21s when he was still a minor, but he got injured playing for us and then wasn't able to play for the minors."

Now a bank official, Clifford spent some time in IT Tralee in 1998 and in Cork IT this year. However, he didn't figure on the successful Tralee Sigerson panel and didn't do himself justice in CIT's campaign, struggling in the defeat by UCC when he was marked, ironically, by All-Ireland team-mate Anthony Lynch.

He is a bit too eager to deny any suggestion that the captaincy is a burden - as indicated by a tell-tale response to a neutral question: how do you find the captaincy?

"I wouldn't think it puts any extra pressure on me. I think walking in front of the team behind the band and maybe tossing the coin is about as far as it goes. I think everyone is a great leader on this team."

And the prospect of completing the double? "It gives us a great boost. I wouldn't think it puts extra pressure on us. Looking at the hype the hurlers have brought to the town makes you wonder: `Jeez, wouldn't it be great if we could do it?'."