A short puck-out goes wrong and the ‘keeper gets a bollocking.
They’ll take it on the chin, most of the time, because even though they’re a risky business, these short puck-outs, it’s the business goalkeepers specialise in and it’s the business they live and die for.
Westmeath under-20 goalie Conor Lynch watched his short puck-out go astray on Tuesday night, but due to one of the most outrageous quirks of circumstance you might ever see, not even a stitch of the blame could be placed on the goalkeeper, who, by all intents and purposes, struck that ball the way he wanted to.
That’s because, not long after it left his stick, O’Moore Park played witness to a moment of what you could only call divine inspiration as James Duggan, the Laois forward who moments earlier was hobbling around on one leg, snapped out of it as if he’d just seen the light of God.
It’s fair to say that the Harps forward, with 3-4 to his name by the time the game reached extra-time, was hurling with the confidence and abandon of a man who could have hurled with his eyes closed if he wanted to as the games reached its closing stages. Well the game made it to extra-time and while he kept the eyes were open, it was the cramped leg that made his interception and subsequent score off the knees one of the most mind-blowing you might see all year.
Hands down the most outrageous point you will see all year.
Laois under-20 James Duggan, take a flippin bow son 😍pic.twitter.com/VCQodoj83k
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) June 30, 2021
That was the sensational highlight from a sensational game of hurling that ended with no fewer than 65 scores and a whopping 84 points. Laois took the win but there’s no doubt about it, it was James Duggan who took the night.
Leinster U20 Hurling Championship
Extra Time
FULL TIMEWestmeath 4.27
Laois 4.33#leinsteru20hurlingchampionship #iarmhiabu— Westmeath GAA (@westmeath_gaa) June 29, 2021
