It’s the dying moments of the game.
All of Dublin and all of Mayo are dead on their feet, they’ve given it their all.
And now it comes down to the most accurate free-taker in the country with it all on the line.
We know how it goes, Dean Rock slots the ball over the bar and Dublin win three in a row.
It wasn’t for the lack of trying on Mayo’s part, they tried three things to put the Ballymun Kickhams’ man off including verbals, encroachment and of course throwing a GPS.
Whatever you think about Lee Keegan and what he did, it is somewhat impressive that it even came into his mind to remove his GPS tracker and hurl it in Rock’s direction.
There were pockets of people calling for Keegan to be banned but the Westport man will escape a ban, according to Colm Keys of the Irish Independent, the Central Competitions Controls Committee has concluded its investigation on both Keegan and Eoghan O’Gara after a possible eye-gouging incident and neither will face disciplinary action.
And they’re right too.
The most common argument is that what Keegan did doesn’t belong in the GAA, fair. And that what he did was an awful example and will encourage people to do something similar.
There should be some major repercussion to deter Keegan from doing what he did, the only thing about that is it’d have to be some hefty unfair ban to stop the Mayo man throwing that tracker.
Anyone that has ever seen Keegan play will know he’s a win at all costs player, for better or for worse. His opponents often describe him as a serious “competitor” and he rarely loses his man marking battles.
Ask Enda Smith that, ask Ciaran Kilkenny that.
The 27-year-old is ruthlessly dirty when he has to be and will do just about anything to get the better of his man, all teams need that and all good teams have a player like Keegan in that regard.
Keegan has had too many heartbreaks in his day, 2012, 2013 and 2016 and would have given an arm and a leg to see Dean Rock miss that free so Mayo would have a chance to go up and score and win the All-Ireland, he’s a wounded warrior in pursuit of the one thing that has alluded him all this time.
And then you look at the logistics of a ban, you wonder what would the ref have done if Keegan throwing the GPS was spotted. At most, Joe McQuillan probably would have brought the free forward and brandished a yellow card so it’s hard to see how a lengthy ban could be in place for a yellow card offence.
But as James McCarthy said after the match, and this is the most important thing:
“It doesn’t matter now. He kicked it.”
