Beggan chasing Cluxton as the premier No 1 in the game ‘HE PINGED IT WHEREVER HE LIKED WITH THOSE TWO STEPS BACK’
EARLIER this month, the Mayo junior footballers got out of jail when borrowing a play from the schoolyard.
Trailing by three points to Roscommon, they replaced their goalkeeper with an outfield player – effectively playing with a ‘fly’ goalkeeper and the extra attacking player set up the match-winning goal that sent social media into one of its tizzies.
It is likely in Scotstown, they wondered what all the fuss was about.
Last year in a league game against Conor McManus’ Clontibret, they watched their goalkeeper Rory Beggan ghost up the field along the wing, taking possession from deep.
Clontibret made the collective decision to stand off and Beggan swallowed yards with every stride, until he found the angle which suited his eye and popped the ball between the posts – a match-defining score in a one-point game
It is one thing doing that in a club league game watched by a handful, another in the cauldron that was Healy Park but Beggan saw no difference.
The four long-distance frees he converted from five attempts meant that his performance was lauded, but it was only one element of a display which astounded.
So good, in fact, that Beggan may be ready to take the art of goalkeeping – which has been transformed by his hero Stephen Cluxton – to an even loftier place.
The most staggering aspect from his performance against Tyrone was not what he did between the posts, or with the kicking tee, or even those converted frees, but rather how he integrated himself into passages of general play.
He was involved in a dozen non set-plays, eight of which were outside his 20-metre line and two of which were beyond his 45-metre line.
They were ordinary plays and yet they revealed Malachy O’Rourke’s conviction that Beggan is too good a player to be shackled to the goalposts.
The two most extraordinary scores of the day – Dessie Mone’s point from the end-line and Conor McManus’ injurytime wonder point – both originated with Beggan.
Indeed it was an audacious solo burst by Beggan, which took two Tyrone players out of the game on the 45 and forced Conor McAliskey to foul him, which led to the short free which was finished by that McManus point.
The sweeper keeper may not be new, but Beggan’s interpretation promises to turn a possible fad into something feasible.
It may also be another reason why he can redefine the position, already taken to new levels by Cluxton.
In current form, he is already ahead of the Dublin goalkeeper after an exceptional Allianz League campaign, conceding only one goal.
That stat is in keeping with his career. Today will mark his 27th consecutive start in Championship football – he made his debut against Antrim in 2013 – and he has kept 14 clean sheets in the previous 26 games.
Of course, that is also down to a defensive structure honed by O’Rouke since his appointment as manager in 2013.
His core goalkeeping skills cannot be underestimated, having already been shortlisted three times for an AllStar, but it is kicking skills which set him apart.
Arguably, his stand-out kick against Tyrone wasn’t one of those aimed at the posts but his 29th minute kick-out which was lobbed down the middle into the arms of Darren Hughes, leaving the retreating Niall Sludden hopelessly clawing at air.
He went beyond the 45-metre line with nine of his restarts against Tyrone and just one was turned over
That, of course, is also a reflection of the quality of his receiving options, not least the Hughes brothers – Darren and Kieran.
And in front of the posts, his range is such that he has already chalked up 0-28 in the Championship. He had the distinction of top-scoring for Monaghan back in 2014, when five converted frees secured a draw against Armagh.
His potency means that he is the Monaghan player, every much as McManus, who the opposition must negate.
It’s Fermanagh boss Rory Gallagher’s turn today and he concedes that Beggan is a gamechanger.
‘Normally you see with kicks from 45 to 50 metres you are looking at a 50 to 60 per cent successful conversion rate, but with this guy you can extend that zone out another 16/17 metres and the way he is striking it right now he is probably somewhere between 80 and 85 per cent with conversion.
‘It definitely puts more pressure on you as an opposing team and that is the challenge in front of us now,’ said Gallagher, ahead of today’s Ulster SFC semi-final clash.
And it not just the potency, it is the unique style. The couple of steps walk up, the almost non-existent back-lift, the pitching-wedge trajectory and back-spin from distances which would have anyone else reaching into their bag for a three wood.
‘The first time I came across it was in the 2013 Ulster final and he nailed two 45s that day and we were going ‘where did this guy come from?’ said Gallagher of his time as Donegal assistant manager
‘That day no matter what we did to try and make him do otherwise, he kicked the ball out that day everywhere but on top of Neil Gallagher which is where we wanted it.
‘And he could ping it wherever he wanted to by just taking those two steps back, whether he was hitting it 40 yards or 60 yards.’
He offered the outside world a glimpse of the detail he puts into his kicking practice, when it emerged that he passed himself off as a member of Monaghan’s under-17 backroom team this month when they played in Healy Park, so he could get some shooting practice there ahead of the Tyrone game.
Monaghan will go forward today in the belief that they have the brightest and best goalkeeper in the land.