Hat-trick hero David Clifford played down his own role after Kerry thrashed Galway on Saturday afternoon.

The forward starred with a tally of 3-06 as the Kingdom ran out 4-21 to 0-11 winners in Tralee in their Allianz Football League meeting.

The Fossa man's third goal was the talk of the town as he coolly slotted into the net after sending two Galway defenders sprawling across the goal with a dummy off his left foot.

"It’s hard to know, I played a bit of soccer in my younger days," he told eir Sport when asked about his moment of magic.

"I was a centre-half though so I don’t know where that came from but when they go in it’s always nice.

"I think we did [enjoy ourselves]. Things flowed well, we were moving fairly well up front. We were putting pressure on Galway coming out with the ball.

"It was enjoyable, it’s great to get back out there. It’s been a long five and half months."

Kerry boss Peter Keane, as one would expect, wasn’t getting carried away either.

"The boys were buzzing to get back when we got back, three and a half weeks ago on the field," said Keane.

"I said the most important thing for Kerry at the moment was that we stay injury-free and that’s our priority.

"We’ve had no challenge games, we’ve only had three weeks coming in, we’ve picked up some injuries in that little period of time and now we are focusing on Dublin next weekend in Thurles."