Paudie Clifford's Beautiful Gesture To Mattie Donnelly Sums Up Respect Between Kerry And Tyrone

Kerry are one step closer to their 40th All-Ireland title after beating Tyrone by four points in Saturday’s All-Ireland SFC quarterfinal. Tyrone were without both Canavan brothers but two of their stalwarts proved that class is permanent.

Tyrone pushed the All-Ireland champions to the very limit and the game was ultimately decided by kickout in the final minute that David Clifford won and helped convert into a last-second goal. On the back of some debatable refereeing decisions that went Kerry's way, there'll be plenty of wondering from Tyrone fans this evening.

While there’s much talk about the Tyrone ‘conveyor belt’ and their great crop of rising talent, it was the old guard of Mattie Donnelly and Darren McCurry who did most of the damage on the scoreboard for Tyrone.

McCurry came off the bench to score 9 points while Donnelly was his usual imperious self at full forward.

Notably, both players took photographs with their wives and children after the game, which is often a sign of a player on the verge of retirement.

Donnelly was joined by his three kids on GAA+ after the game and tried to put it all into words.

"It’s very raw. Just gutted. The last few times we met Kerry, it probably wasn’t a game coming down the stretch, and we just wanted to take it to that fight. And we felt we might have the advantage considering we’ve had a few tough tests the last few weeks.

"We’ll take a lot of belief from it. It’s good for that team knowing that we can compete with the best. Kerry are the best in the business here. I think that’s well-documented. And we were there going into the last minute. We should be proud of that. Ultimately we’re gutted. We’re back to the drawing board like every other team."

Mattie Donnelly assures us that Tyrone is in a healthy spot with a serious mountain of stuff coming behind them👏🔴🏐@Kerry_Official@TyroneGAALive #KERvTYR

Clips courtesy of @AIB_GAA pic.twitter.com/2yD5XTUGfM