Merciful Jesus.
Kian Duffy just had one of those sort of days.
Killanny won the Maguire International Minor Football Championship in Monaghan on Sunday and, whilst there might've been nine points separating them from Carrickmacross in the end, there were also six missed goal chances between them. Six missed goal chances or six saved goal chances.
Every once in a while, you see players go to a different place. It might happen in the most remote game, it might happen at any level, but you can see them becoming one with battle. You can see them tuned in as if nothing else in the world mattered there and then but what's unfolding in front of them, the movement of the ball.
Kian Duffy, in the Monaghan minor final, was at that place. He was one with the ball. It got to the stage where you just knew that there was no way around him.
https://twitter.com/monaghangaa/status/919561307308912644
And, although Killanny hit 1-19 on the day, although captain Dean Connolly powered through bodies and buried an unreal effort into the bottom corner in the first half, the champions had their goalkeeper to thank for keeping them in tact and that's why he got his own escort to the victory celebrations after the game.
Those scenes were just as magical as you'd expect.
In a brilliant highlights package put together by Monaghan GAA for their
YouTube channel, young Duffy's exploits are captured for all to see and for all to marvel at a man of the match performance made for Hollywood.
By the time the Killanny 'keeper pulls off the last - and the best - of his saves, Carrickmacross players are just about ready to give up even thinking about hitting the net. The number 12 at the bottom of the picture sums up the exasperation they were having kicking the ball at the wall-like Duffy.
That stop was described on Twitter as Darren Randolph-esque but there was plenty more where that came from.
Kian Duffy produces saves at the following times (and these are just the highlights):
- 01:18
- 01:29 (double save)
- 01:52
- 02:33
- 02:41
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8te0COBPG8w&feature=youtu.be
Some service from Monaghan GAA but some performance from Kian Duffy.
