Stephen O'Brien: Kerry can't rely on David Clifford to kick all the scores

Stephen O'Brien believes Kerry need to ease the burden on star man David Clifford as they seek to regain Sam Maguire.

Saturday's Munster SFC semi-final against Cork is the Kingdom's first championship appearance since losing last year's All-Ireland decider to Dublin when the five-time All-Star forward from Fossa was held to just two points from play, a low return by his standards.

"He's an exceptional player," veteran half-forward O'Brien told RTÉ Sport.

"You can give him any type of ball and he’ll win it. He has a great chance of scoring every time he gets the ball.

"But we maybe have a tendency to sometimes just put the ball in and expect him to put it over from the sideline.

"He’s well capable of doing that but we want to get more repeatable, team-work scores and if we can get that down we have the class with David, [other Clifford brother] Paudie and Seanie [O'Shea] to get those screamers the defence can’t do anything about as well."

Kenmare man O'Brien is heading into his 11th season in the Green and Gold but he is diplomatic as to whether the 25-year-old is the best he has soldiered with.

"I’m lucky enough to have played with some class players. When I started out playing, 'Gooch' [Colm Cooper] was in his pomp and was class to watch as well. James O’Donoghue, for those couple of years he was playing, was unreal as well.

"We’re very lucky in Kerry to have a couple of candidates for that title."

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Derry's defeat of Dublin in the Allianz Football League Division 1 final suggests the