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Beggan's boomers & Clifford's card | Anthony Moyles' GAA takeaways

A weekend of GAA slightly disturbed by Storm Ciara, Anthony Moyles nevertheless had plenty to wat...



Football

Beggan's boomers & Clifford's card | Anthony Moyles' GAA takeaways

A weekend of GAA slightly disturbed by Storm Ciara, Anthony Moyles nevertheless had plenty to watch as he discussed the key talking points on Monday's OTB AM.

Making every possible attempt to subsume himself in Gaelic football across the weekend, here are Anthony Moyles' takeaways from all that he could muster.

Rory Beggan is 'unnervingly' good 

GAA 8 February 2020; Rory Beggan of Monaghan kicks a point against Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile | GAA

One of Monaghan's outstanding talents, goalkeeper Rory Beggan's contribution of 0-3 only hinted at the effectiveness of the Scotstown man going forward.

"He was unbelievable," noted Anthony Moyles of the wandering Monaghan 'keeper, "he deserves a special mention.

"It is unnerving some of the frees he kicked, but then his kick-outs as well!"

Along with his Tyrone counterpart Niall Morgan, Moyles was impressed with how both men have approached the role of being a goalkeeper in Gaelic football.

"I've always thought you should train kids who want to go in goal to able to kick off both feet," suggested Moyles.

"Watching Beggan and Morgan, the two of them start straight-on and it is so difficult to know where the ball is going.

"Beggan only reveals it at the last second. But from a dead-ball, he is just unnerving."

David Clifford's sending-off asks questions of umpires

One of the weekend's most controversial talking-points, Kerry's captain David Clifford was sent-off after receiving a second yellow card for a collision with Tyrone's Ben McDonnell.

As became quickly apparent, however, Clifford had done everything in his power to stay clear of McDonnell and the referee, acting on the advice of his umpire it appeared, was particularly harsh in doling out a card to the Kerry forward who had done little or nothing wrong.

"It was ridiculous," noted Moyles of the decision, "but it was the umpire who called it. The referee wasn't going to go there and the umpire called him in."

Fundamentally, Moyles believes that decisions such as this highlight the need to reassess how umpires are selected.

"My issue with umpires is, and I know this has been said a lot, they're generally just from the nucleus of the referee's friends and family," he lamented. "That is simply it.

Meath the victim of referee's poor time-keeping

After suffering two defeats from their opening two league games, Meath were in need of a positive result when Mayo travelled east on Sunday.

Something resembling a relegation play-off, Meath, although they have plenty to answer for in terms of shot selection according to Moyles, did have reason to feel harshly treated in the dying moments of a game they lost by one-point.

"There were 74 minutes on the clock," noted Moyles, "the ball was kicked out and the whistle was blown.

"Now, there was definitely a situation prior to that where one of the Mayo lads went down after a tackle, he was holding his head so the referee had to stop the play.

"He actually didn't do that and he told the Mayo man to get up, but there was about 90 seconds where he was on the ground, and you're thinking that is going to be added on.

"There was another incident where the Mayo 'keeper came out and acted like he didn't know where the ball was. It was on the tee, and he was walking around and that was a good 20 or 30 seconds."

Citing the exemplary manner in which time was added on in Monaghan's drawn game with Dublin on Saturday evening, the inconsistency baffled the former Meath captain.

Shane Walsh is tearing it up with Galway

GAA 9 February 2020; Shane Walsh of Galway in action against Eoghan Ban Gallagher of Donegal. Photo by Oliver McVeigh/Sportsfile | GAA

Sitting joint-top of Division 1, Padraig Joyce's tenure as manager of Galway's senior footballers has gotten off to a good start.

After beating Monaghan in week one, losing narrowly to Kerry in week two and beating Donegal on Sunday afternoon, one Galway man has particularly stood out for Anthony Moyles.

"Shane Walsh was absolutely unbelievable again," he expressed. "Like, he had Eoghan Bon Gallagher on him who is lightning quick and just a fantastic player, and he had his fill of it with Walsh.

"At one stage, Gallagher had to call in two or three guys to help him. Walsh just leads the line so brilliantly yesterday and absolutely everything he did was top-notch."

On the question of how a team might go about stopping him, Moyles has yet to reach a suitable conclusion.

"I don't think you put a dog on him because he's too big," he reckoned. "He's physical enough and well able to hold guys off."

You can watch back Anthony Moyles' assessment of the weekend's GAA action back in full here

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Anthony Moyles David Clifford Donegal Dublin GAA Gaelic Football Galway Kerry Mayo Meath Monaghan National Football League Tyrone