All-Ireland week can get the better of most of us when our county is involved. Just ask John Casey.
The former Mayo forward has gone all UFC in trying to describe the side-show spectacle that is Lee Keegan man-marking Dublin forward Diarmuid Connolly.
Keegan has been a player transformed for Mayo over the last two months. He has been appointed a new role of quelling the opposition’s best attacking threat and he has revelled in it.
He has now done a number on Sean Cavanagh [Tyrone], Michael Quinlivan [Tipperary] and Connolly in his last three outings. Of course, when one man-marks in GAA one leaves some marks on their man.
Keegan’s up-close-and-personal hounding of the Dublin talisman has attracted some criticism from the capital but most neutral supporters would observe it is all part of the game.
This campaign against Lee Keegan is verging on pathetic, writes @ConanDoherty https://t.co/BGLdhg6Ol7 #GAA #Mayo #Dublin
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 28, 2016
Casey was on 2FM’s Game On, last night, and defended Keegan’s back and forth exchanges with Connolly as antagonism that is part of the game. “It’s football,” he remarked.
Casey, who was on hand to give an eye-witness account of the Croke Park tunnel… bumping, pointed out that Keegan has ‘an impeccable disciplinary record’ and had his only ever county red card [against Kerry] rescinded. He declared:
“Lee plays on the edge, he’s a born winner. I hope [match referee] Maurice Deegan doesn’t buy into this Dublin propaganda machine.
“It’s all a bit daft, I just wish, from a Mayo point of view and Diarmuid Connolly and Lee Keegan’s point of view, they’d let them go out and play each other.
“It’s a brilliant, brilliant spectacle, it’s like McGregor-Diaz, it’s what we want to watch.”
That’s right, forget McGregor-Diaz II. It’s Keegan-Connolly II we’re all looking forward to.
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