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THE All-Ireland Minor final takes place between Kerry and Derry this Sunday at 1.15pm. Here are five things to watch out for:

1. The Cliffy Show

Not for the first time in his fledgling career, all eyes will be on Kerry captain David Clifford as he looks to guide his team to another famous Croke Park win. The Fossa native has already had countless spectacular performances in HQ and the whole country will be hoping for another memorable display on Sunday.

If he can reach anything approaching his best then the Kingdom have an excellent chance of prevailing and Clifford will well and truly cement his status as one of the best Kerry minors of all time.

2. Plenty of Eastern promise

The future of East Kerry football is looking bright to say the least. In last month’s semi-final victory over Cavan, no fewer than nine of the starting 15 hailed from the East with a further two taking their place on the bench.

Six different East Kerry clubs were represented in the backs alone. Niall Donohue (Firies), Chris O’Donoghue (Glenflesk), Seán O’Leary (Kilcummin), Patrick Warren (Gneeveguilla), Michael Potts (Dr Crokes) and Cian Gammell (Legion) all played and gave a good account of themselves while Clifford (Fossa), Donnchadh O’Sullivan (Firies) and Brian Friel (Rathmore) have consistently made valuable contributions up front. Crokes’ Nelu Doherty is the sub goalkeeper while his clubmate Jack Griffin came on in the last game and scored 1-1.

With the Sem also dominating schools football in recent years, there certainly seems to be no shortage of young talent coming through the ranks in this particular corner of Kerry.

3. Will Kerry cope with the weight of expectations?

There’s no question that Kerry will be overwhelming favourites going into Sunday’s final. Their recent record in this competition speaks for itself and, with the incredible amount of talent currently at their disposal, Kerry supporters will be expecting another comfortable win and a record-breaking four-in-a-row.

With the senior team falling short once again this year, the spotlight will be very firmly on the minors and it will be interesting to see how these young stars deal with that kind of pressure.

4. A little piece of history

Of course, for many of the current players it will be their first All-Ireland Minor Final and the last three years will be of little consequence to them, but they will all be well aware of the bigger picture. Kerry (1931/32/33), Dublin (1954/55/56) and Cork (1967/68/69) are the only teams to previously win three times in a row. Victory on Sunday would see them surpass the remarkable records of those great sides.

This group have already made history by reaching a fourth consecutive All-Ireland Final but if they can go one step further and beat Derry, they will be forever remembered as the first ever minor team to win four-in-a-row.

5. Can Derry spoil the party?

Derry’s route to the final has been far less straightforward than Kerry’s and the Ulstermen will be hoping that extremely tough games against the likes of Tyrone, Sligo and Dublin will stand to them in the final.

They’re averaging 19.6 points in this year’s Championship which shows that they have the potential to rack up a good score, although Kerry’s average of 25 points per game is even more impressive.

The game could be won or lost in the goals department. Kerry have scored two goals in four of their five games while Derry have shipped just two goals all year, keeping three clean sheets in the process. They’ll probably need another one on Sunday to be in with a fighting chance of winning their first minor title since 2002.

 
Above: Kerry Minor captain David Clifford in action during the All-Ireland semi-final. Pic Don MacMonagle