While acknowledging the honour, much of Kerry’s first press night of the year was spent downplaying how much weight such a decision has.

That his appointment came via a nomination by the East Kerry Board, home of the county champions, rather than from Peter Keane’s management team, as happens in most counties outside Kerry and Kilkenny, made it more routine. Clifford was the only East Kerry player to start last year's All-Ireland finals, with Jack Sherwood and the similarly fresh-faced Dara Moynihan coming off the bench in both the drawn game and replay.

He’ll be among the youngest captains in inter-county football and Kerry GAA history, albeit not many years younger than some recent Kerry leaders. Gavin White was 22 last year when he got the nod and their most recent Sam Maguire-lifting captains, Fionn Fitzgerald, Darran and Declan O’Sullivan, were all little further into their early-twenties when tradition bestowed the honour upon them. Indeed, Pat Spillane was 19 when he stood in for the injured Mickey Ned O’Sullivan to accept Sam Maguire in 1975, and Ambrose O’Donovan wasn’t long turned 22 when he lifted the trophy in 1984.

Clifford will also make history as the first Fossa man to captain Kerry but the player who scored 4-4 as Kerry captain in the 2017 All-Ireland Minor final is used to such trivial burdens by now.

“It's a great honour for me, it's a great honour for my club, Fossa, and for my family,” said Clifford.

I suppose there's not a whole pile involved, to be honest. There's very, very powerful leaders in our dressing room so they're going to keep doing what they're doing.

“I won't be changing what I'm doing too much. I suppose the big change is probably [being] just a bit of a liaison between players and management with any issues or anything that needs to be changed throughout the year. That'll probably be the only thing that'll change for me, I'd say.”

When asked what captains he might model himself on, Clifford insists it can be more “captain by name” as players take on leadership roles more organically: “They are the fellas you'd look up to”.

It won’t give him the power to pull rank over his older brother, Paudie, either, he jokes, after he became the second Clifford to make the Kerry panel for 2020.

As for his own performance, Clifford has few fears that the pressure of captaincy could affect him.

“I would hope it won't affect it. The message from the previous few years would be that the captain doesn't really change anything, as such, so it shouldn't affect me, hopefully.”

His manager says youth is always a potential concern for captaincy choices but believes Clifford has the temperament to carry it lightly.

“[The pressure] is always something you'd consider and worry about, especially with a young man, but that’s the system we have in Kerry at this moment in time,” said Keane.

“I know there's hopes to change that, if it can be changed, but it's something that's handed on sometimes to a young player and it has been a young player who has had it over the last couple of years. But look, that's not something I can control and all I'd say is I wish him the best with it.

“It's a huge honour for David himself and his mom and dad, Dermot and Ellen. From my own perspective, he's a member of the team and it's about the team and we've been treating it accordingly.

“He has a great temperament, that's probably the best way I could describe him. Things rest lightly on his shoulders which is a great trait for any person, no matter what age they are.”

Clifford could be the last Kerry captain to be selected through the traditional system, with a motion coming before a county board meeting next Monday to discuss transferring that power to management from 2021.