You don’t fluke your way to winning Player of the Year.
Lee Keegan is a great footballer, there is no doubting that.
He was one of the main reasons that Mayo found themselves in an All-Ireland final last year and also a massive reason that they are still in the competition today.
As bad as they were the first day against Roscommon where they managed a draw despite a very slow start, one of the few bright sparks that day was the 2016 Player of the Year.
The Westport man had the job of marking Roscommon’s Enda Smith that day and there was only one winner in that battle.
Keegan scored 1-3 to the bemusement of the Smith and he was on SportsJOE Live to detail his experience of being marked the Mayo defender.
“Coming into that game I would have felt I was in good form and would have been up for any challenge,” Smith told show host Colm Parkinson. on the day and I probably didn’t expect Lee (Keegan) to come out to me in midfield,” Smith admitted.
“I thought maybe Diarmuid O’Connor might go into midfield or maybe Donal Vaughan, he ended up on me on the second day. Keegan didn’t cross my mind. I actually felt I started okay, I got a point early on but I think Lee then, he’s a competitor, he used all his experience and kind of played the game the way he wanted to play instead of going backwards he kicked the two points early on.
“The goal then was just after our goal against the run of play kind of and he really just kind of hammered the hammer for us and definitely the first half anyway,” the Roscommon man admitted.
Keegan is no angel, like any good defender he uses the dark arts of the game to gain an advantage over his opponent with disrupting and checking runs being amongst his trademarks.
“I suppose if you’re going to get away with something whether it be legal or illegal you’re going to keep doing it, and he gets away with it and it helps Mayo and if it helps Mayo he’s happy enough so I think he’s going to keep doing it,” Smith explained.
“As I said, he’s a serious competitor and he does whatever it takes and I think on Sunday he will be a massive influence on whoever he’s on and he’ll go do the exact same thing. It’s working for him,” Smith concluded.
Kerry faces Mayo in the All-Ireland semi final on Sunday.
