“It was one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen.”
Conor McKenna scored two crucial goals in Tyrone’s historic win over Kerry on Saturday.
However, yo could argue that the opportunity for one of them was completely gifted to him by Kerry’s Jack Barry.
Speaking on the GAA Hour, Colm Parkinson breaks down the moment of madness.
“Jack Barry for the McKenna goal, what was he doing? Now, what is he doing, seriously?
“If this was a wing-back like Paul Murphy who’s crap under a high ball – this is a midfielder, high balls are his bread and butter.
“He lost it in the air, and then he turned around, how is he not catching… you’re meant to trust the midfielder in that situation, you’re meant to have full trust. Like a Darragh Ó Sé, a 45, and you’re out the field going, ‘He’ll catch this.’
“And then you’re like ‘Jeez, he’s catching it even over the crossbar,’ you trust your midfielders… he kicked it straight to McKenna!”
Dublin legend Alan Brogan, was also on the show and he weighed in with some potential reasons as to why Barry kicked it the way he did.
“With all respect to Jack Barry, he’s not Darragh Ó Sé.
“When I saw it first I thought he was grappling with the defender, I thought he got pulled back a bit.
“Maybe he lost it a bit in the sun, it was a bit strange. When I saw it first I was like ‘there’s no way this is going to land straight.
“There was Kerry backs around there, and Conor McKenna on his own on the edge, I thought the other defenders should have been covering that off a little bit better, like at that stage of the game, the Kerry defenders should have been coming back to protect that high ball breaking and they weren’t.
“There was a lot of them standing, and Conor McKenna was the one that kind of anticipated getting into position, where it might break to him, and it landed perfectly for him.”
One key thing, was McKenna’s decision to actually take the goal on, as many would have opted for the fisted-point.
“Picture the way things have gone in the modern game,” said Parkinson.
“That ball coming back from Jack Barry, which was one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen.
“Conor McKenna gets the ball, fists it over the bar, three up, Ger Canning says ‘huge point, took the right option, great.’
“I can picture that happening. He didn’t even entertain it. He stuck it into the bottom corner of the net, and that is what you do with that situation.”
“Yeah, I’ve been in that situation in an All-Ireland final,” added Brogan.
“Goal chances don’t come around that often, and to finish the two of them the way he did, were two exceptional finishes to be fair to him.”
