Preview: Kerry can avoid Derry ambush

Once the semi-final draw was made, the consensus was that if one Ulster team was to gate-crash the traditionalists' party, it was likely to be Derry.

The game is anticipated to be very 2023. Jack O'Connor braced his own people for a bit of a grind this week, telling reporters frankly that he was "not expecting a classic" and appealing for the Kerry supporters to show "patience."

These words evidently haven't done much for ticket sales in the Kingdom, which has never been frenzied for All-Ireland semi-finals, and is not reported to be brisk this time either.

It's 19 years since Kerry and Derry last met in the senior championship but the more relevant recent encounter between the counties is the September 2017 minor final.

That was the day David Clifford came to wider notice as an emergent superstar, the greatest teenage prodigy the GAA had seen, certainly since Joe Canning.

He blasted home 4-04 in a devastating display as Kerry cantered to a fourth successive All-Ireland title at the grade.

By the end of the day, former Dublin players were jokingly wishing him well in his Aussie Rules career, which they fervently hoped would be well remunerated and long.

Clifford's unfortunate marker that day was Conor McCluskey, who survived a torrid afternoon to become one of two graduates from that side to the current Derry senior team, alongside Padraig McGrogan.

He was one Derry player to emerge with credit from last year's disappointing semi-final loss to Galway, performing an estimable marking job on Shane Walsh (then in peak form).

In 2023, he has been one of the stars of the campaign, combining bracing defence with counter-attacking raids. He was Man of the Match against Monaghan in Ulster and can't have been far away from scooping the