Former Kerry defender Marc Ó Sé has described the goalkeeping displays of Monaghan’s Rory Beggan and Niall Morgan of Tyrone last weekend as “pure entertainment”.

It was an Ulster SFC final like no other last Saturday as both goalkeepers roamed the field at Croke Park, covering the space on their opposite number’s kick-outs, tracking runners into the full-forward line, scoring frees and even attempting shots in open play.

Speaking on The42 GAA Weekly podcast, Ó Sé said the tactics were “mad” but “very effective”.

“There’s people looking at what’s going on at the moment with goalkeepers and they just cannot get their heads around it,” said Ó Sé.

“It’s mad, but it has to be said it’s very effective. It has been happening before. You saw the situation with (Stephen) Cluxton in 2019 when Kerry were a man up and he was out marking Tommy Walsh.

“There are situations where you do need to do it. It can be done for a kick-out. We worked on it very much so in 2016, particularly on set plays. Because you can set-up for a set play. That means if there’s a fella taking a free on your team, as a defence collectively you can push up and that’s what’s happening. 

“Then when the opposition are taking their kick-out, there’s nowhere to go really. You have to either bang it out the field and hope for the best and we’re seeing that.  

“For these two guys, Rory Beggan and Niall Morgan to bring it to a new level, it’s insane really. I have to say it’s pure entertainment. Even watching Beggan getting back there to make the tackle (on Tyrone’s Mattie Donnelly), my God I that went the other way and the ball is in the back of the net then all of a sudden it was the complete wrong thing to do.”

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