Curran: Always a price to pay for the sweeper keeper 

FLY-GOALIE: Shane Curran. Pic: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

Mama, we’re all crazy now.

Roscommon’s Shane Curran was the original rambling, gambling goalkeeper but he’d have a posse were he still at it. A roaming round-up including Rory Beggan, Niall Morgan and Ethan Rafferty who comes to his old Dr Hyde Park haunt on Sunday. Curran’s heir in the primrose and blue Conor Carroll is a wanderer too.

Not that he’s a curmudgeon who reckons the current generation are doing it the wrong way but he feels the proliferation of sweeper-keepers is not a great reflection on goalkeeper development at club level.

He may have started his Gaelic football career outfield but when he gave up goalkeeping with Athlone Town to focus on Roscommon he only wanted to play in goal. Reluctant or repurposed inter-county goalkeepers, he says, isn’t the greatest of looks.

“One of the reasons for it is the dearth of talent coming through from club coaching in terms of producing a recognised, technical goalkeeper. Many kids are forced into goal for one reason or another but there is very little being done to coach them in being proficient there.

“What you’re seeing is players with soccer backgrounds going into goal or outfield players showing their prowess as outfield players more so than goalkeepers while wearing the No1 jersey. A lot of counties are forced to do it because of that lack of keepers coming through.

“There is also the risk-reward element to it. You see it in soccer with the sweeper-keepers who are very comfortable with the ball at their feet. They’re far more agile and able to play the ball out from the back.

“Gaelic football lends itself to doing it because of the size of the pitch, the number of players in the way and it’s quite difficult to quickly counter-attack whereby your goalkeeper is going to be caught out for being away from his line.” 

Curran totally understands what Armagh moving Rafferty to their goal has done for them but it’s a major punt on Kieran McGeeney’s behalf, he feels. “Ethan is obviously an outfield player with a great pair of hands but I would caution – and this isn’t a criticism of him as a player – that he’s not really a very good technical goalkeeper. And there is no doubt about it, Armagh will pay for it in and around their box. How he attacks the ball, for example, with his catching and his punching technique. He will pay for that.

“Against Galway last year (in their All-Ireland quarter-final), I think he went for two balls and missed them. He went for another ball with the wrong hand and his jumping is very open so he’s liable to be clocked if an attacker is coming at a different angle to him.

“You would only need to see him playing there to know that’s not a natural goalkeeper but it’s a trade-off that Armagh and some other counties are prepared to work around. Rory Beggan wouldn’t be a good technical goalkeeper, but he brings a lot more to his game in goal.

“The most technically agile goalkeepers, who are both outfield players for their clubs, are Kerry’s Shane Ryan and Tyrone’s Niall Morgan. In Ulster, the skill in bringing the ball out is minimal because a lot of teams drop off the goalkeeper and give him the room to come that 45 or 50 metres.

“You saw the last day against Mayo Ethan was coming to fill the gap. He’s cutting down the space in the area the other goalkeeper can target and provides an extra man. That is very beneficial for kick-outs and when Kieran and his coaching staff sit down they’re probably saying they are more positives than negatives to it. But it’s when you get to the higher levels of the game the technical flaws Ethan has may show up.

“Of course, those flaws can be knocked out and he can be coached but it’s a lot more difficult to coach them when you’ve been doing something the same way for so long.” 

Former Mayo manager James Horan spoke on the Irish Examiner podcast about how the long kick-out is being underutilised. Curran wants to see more of them too and believes that can happen by insisting all restarts are kicked from the 14-yard line or the penalty spot area. “I think then you would see far more long kick-outs and competition for ball,” he argues. “There would be less traffic from a defensive point of view too.

“At the moment, teams that are kicking long have a goalkeeper who can hit his targets and kick with the right trajectory and things like that. Shaun Patton in Donegal has a great boot on him. You need catchers too. We have a young lad in Roscommon now, Conor Carroll, who is a very good kicker too but unfortunately we don’t have size in the half-lines or midfield to compete properly.”