Football

I provoked Diarmuid Connolly admits Mayo's Keegan

Dublin&rsquo;s Diarmuid Connolly and Mayo&rsquo;s Lee Keegan tangle during their All-Ireland semi-final clash<br />Picture: Philip Walsh
Dublin’s Diarmuid Connolly and Mayo’s Lee Keegan tangle during their All-Ireland semi-final clash
Picture: Philip Walsh
Dublin’s Diarmuid Connolly and Mayo’s Lee Keegan tangle during their All-Ireland semi-final clash
Picture: Philip Walsh

MAYO'S Lee Keegan claims cynical 'black arts' are used by all the top teams and admitted he himself provoked Dublin's Diarmuid Connolly into a recent red card offence.

Connolly was infamously dismissed for a clear punch at Keegan during last month's drawn All-Ireland football semi-final. The Dublin attacker was successful with an appeal but only after an exhaustive process that concluded hours before last Saturday's replay, a game he unsurprisingly failed to impress in.

Keegan, the Opel GAA/GPA Player of the Month for August, has now admitted that he provoked Connolly having initially appeared to wrestle the talented forward to the ground before he struck out. Two-time Allstar Keegan said that cynical play generally is part of the game and a necessary evil.

"Diarmuid is obviously one of their best players - I'm going to try to stop him any way I can to win the game for Mayo," said Keegan. "We haven't won an All-Ireland in a long time and we've been told before we're a bit of a soft touch. So the reality is that if I'm marking one of their best players, I need to stop him at all will.

"I think we are a tough team and we do play on the edge. I think a lot of people know that. Our tackling is always on the edge. It's definitely something we pride ourselves on.

"There's no point in being a soft touch and I don't think Dublin were innocent themselves if you look at the first game, they had a lot of incidents themselves. Yeah, all the top teams have their black arts, that's what you're looking at I suppose, even Kerry have it, they did last year with us (in the All-Ireland semi-finals), so you need a bit of a streetwise mentality about yourself.

"If you're going to win the All-Ireland you have to have these actions. Unfortunately they mightn't be the best viewing at times but if you're going to win a game, you have to win it at all costs for your team."

Keegan said he could empathise with Connolly and the strain he was under, as he himself had a red card rescinded before last year's All-Ireland semi-final replay against Kerry.

"You're probably looking at yourself, thinking, 'why did it have to be this, the week before (a replay?)" recalled Keegan. "It's hard, it is a tough week, it's mentally draining. As I've said before, that was probably one of the toughest weeks I've had in my life and probably it was leading into one of the biggest games of my life so, yeah, it is tough, it is draining and sometimes it felt like all eyes are focused on you in a negative manner.

"From that point of view it's tough and obviously Diarmuid Connolly went through the same last week so he probably had a tough week himself. It's just really hard to get yourself in the mind frame for such a big game coming up."

Keegan described the GAA's disciplinary system as 'flawed' in the wake of a number of successful appeals including that of his Mayo colleague Kevin Keane who also clearly struck out, at Donegal's Michael Murphy.

"I suppose we are all appealing thinking we're getting off, that's the way it's being looked at, at the moment," Keegan said. "Definitely, it's probably a small bit of a flawed system."