UNSTOPPABLE FORCE MEETS IMMOVABLE OBJECT

Clifford & O'Callaghan two modern legends.. Roy Curtis ponders the tale of the tape

- Roy CURTIS

IT was Coretta Clay, an aunt to Cassius, who first labelled the prize fighting supernova who, as Muhammad Ali, would go on to shake the world, "the Alpha and the Omega."

The beginning and the end.

Those whose knees have trembled before stepping onto a rectangle of grass to spar with David Clifford or Con O'Callaghan would hardly protest the laying of Coretta's sweeping claim onto the shoulders of Kerry and Dublin's respective polestars.

For both teams, the sense this weekend is of their world starting and finishing with the fitness and form of their leading men, a photo-finish required to determine which of the pair is, at this moment in time, more critical to their side's fortunes.

Charlie Redmond (right), the former Dublin forward who is one of the game's shrewder observers, offers an interesting take as Tyrone and Armagh loom into focus for football's Old Firm.

"Right now, I would say Con is more important to Dublin than Clifford is to Kerry. Because, with Paul Geaney, Seanie O'Shea and Paudie Clifford, I think Kerry have better supporting forwards.

"Look at Dublin's two-pointer total. It's terrible and that's down to a lack of confidence in their forwards. Without Con, the attack can lose all cohesion."

With Clifford, the Fossa master who seems to deliver a Mona Lisa almost every time he steps behind the easel, the Alpha and Omega argument is not one that can easily be trampled underfoot.

He glided into our world as a wunderkind, a teenage divinity, scorer of 4-4 in an All-Ireland minor final, his reputation dwarfing even Carrauntoohil.

Somehow, even the ear-splitting drum-roll that accompanied the Chosen One onto the stage, understated his ability to cause our eyeballs, as one observer of Roger Federer famously commented, to protrude like novelty-shop eyeballs.