Monaghan goalkeeper Rory Beggan says he is looking forward to watching how the new proposed rules play out in football, as he admitted some games had become a “quite boring.”
This weekend will see provincial games used to showcase the new rules proposed by the Football Review Committee at Croke Park.
Among the new rules proposed is keeping three players in the opposition half at all times, and limits on goalkeepers being involved in possession.
Despite being a goalkeeper, Beggan is known for getting involved in the play further up the pitch, and has scored in open play. While the new rules may restrict his involvement in the build up, he is looking forward to seeing how this weekend plays out.
“I’m excited about them. “Yes, there’s an impact on goalkeepers but I’m excited that it’s going to make the game a wee bit better of a spectacle.
“As a player, your main aim is to win the game. You don’t care how it looks. You want to play entertaining football, but sometimes you’re just not allowed to play it because of the way teams sit back.
“But when you’re sitting in a stand or watching it on TV, it’s a very hard game to watch, and you understand why people give out.
“Hopefully, the new rules will make it more entertaining to watch because it is quite boring at the moment.
“I’m looking forward to seeing in Croke Park how it impacts it in a positive way and if there’s any way of making the game a more attractive proposition then we have to try it.
“But I’ll reserve my judgment until then because I’m reading the rules but I want to actually see it. I would definitely have said yes if I had been approached. But I have better things to look forward to over the next 10 days so I’ll be happy enough to watch it on the couch”
It has been an eventful year for Beggan, who is currently preparing for his 12th straight county final with Scotstown.
At the beginning of the year, Beggan was in the US, as part of the NFL’s Player Pathway programme.
A trial with the Carolina Panthers was as close as he got to the NFL dream, as the Monaghan goalkeeper says he has parked the thoughts of American football to one side.
“Maybe if I was 10 years younger, I could still give it another opportunity but I think now at my age (32), there’s no point looking back on it now.
“I suppose when I was away in America it really showed me how much I love the GAA and how much I missed it. Coming back in, it would be very hard to leave that again.
“People were always talking to me down throughout the years about trying it, but there was never any pathway for it. When this pathway came up, and I was approached about it, I said, ‘yeah, I’ll try it out’.
“I’ve no regrets. It isn’t like I missed a full championship, I missed a National League, I can live with that. To go over, to experience the lifestyle over there, I’d never done a J1 or anything like that. So, I wanted to try something new.
“To spend six weeks in a training camp, getting ready for the combine, it was a class experience.
“To get the added bonus of going out to the Panthers for a weekend, to train there, it was class too. At least when I retire, whenever that is, I can sit back and say ‘I tried that, and it didn’t work out’. There will be no what ifs, that is the main thing.”
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
