Ulster football is the new Munster hurling.
And Jack McCarron is the new Gooch. It’s great to have the crowds back, it’s even better to have the sun shining of a championship Sunday, but best of all is having Jack McCarron fit, healthy and buzzy because in this kind of form, there is hardly a more beautiful footballer to watch in the country. David Clifford included.
We watched it with jaws agape in the League when, with Monaghan’s Division One future on the line, McCarron turned on the style with a seven point masterclass and it was more of the same this time around. The Currin club-man is one of those players who, when he’s on it, what with dummies, jinks, turns and darts, he’s absolutely impossible to stop and this Saturday in Newry was just one of those days.
From early on, you could see by the drop of his shoulders and the hop in his stride that Armagh were in for it and when you watched him punish a poor Blaine Hughes kick-out like he had all day to do it, you said to yourself that this man was only getting going.
It’s in that composure and confidence the beauty lies. McCarron plays the game like a man who lives off the mantra that when he has the ball, he has what everyone else is looking for. So he doesn’t give it away cheaply and he makes the most of it. It’s around then when he unleashes the type of moves and skills that no defender could hope to stop. The finish for the goal was special but the set-up that put Michael Bannigan through for Monaghan’s third of the day was on Owen Mulligan levels.
A simply incredible piece of skill.pic.twitter.com/ZzVfePSPlL
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) July 17, 2021
While most of us are thinking and fretting about catching a ball, McCarron already has a dummy in mind. It’s incredible to watch.
