Scotstown and Monaghan goalkeeper, Rory Beggan, in attendance at the launch of the AIB Camogie and Club Championship. This is AIB’s 28th year sponsoring the AIB GAA Football, Hurling and their 6th year sponsoring the Camogie Club Championships.
By John Harrington
Rory Beggan was a hugely positive influence for Monaghan in the Championship this summer but the way it all ended left a sour taste in his mouth.
His last act in a Monaghan jersey came deep into injury-time of the All-Ireland semi-final against Tyrone with his team trailing by a point.
The goalkeeper raced up the pitch in the hope of creating an overlap in attack and when the ball came to him he shot for the posts from long distance when the percentage play was to work it to someone closer to goal.
His effort fell short, the final whistle blew, and Beggan couldn’t help but feel he’d made a terrible decision.
“I suppose in the aftermath, I did think about it,” he said. “Obviously it wasn’t the right decision.
“At the final whistle, I kind of knew that. I just sort of closed the eyes and go ‘what was I doing?’
“Maybe it was a wee bit of rush of blood when I got up the field. Why was I up that far? I don’t know. But, look it, I felt that I took the wrong decision.
“I regretted it for a couple of days but then, you can’t think for two long – I had club championship two weeks later and had to get the head right and focus on that.
“The club championship and winning it has taken the whole sort of bad feelings away from that game.”
His club Scotstown followed up their fourth county title in a row with an impressive win on Sunday over Fermanagh champions Derrygonnelly in the first round of the Ulster Championship.
Monaghan's Rory Beggan in action against Tyrone's Ronan O'Neill in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final.
Next up will be Down champions Burren on Sunday week, and Beggan admits there’s now an expectation within the club that this team is good enough to challenge hard for the Ulster title.
“Winning four in a row comes with its own expectation and people will be expecting us to make a bigger dent in Ulster,” he said.
“We just needed to get that win and get the experience because the intensity levels and the atmosphere levels all go up a notch when you win in the Ulster club, it’s an unbelievable competition.
“It’s a competition I love playing in. We probably needed that win just to get that confidence going into that Burren game, because they’ve three weeks to prepare for us, and they got a look at us last weekend. They’ll be tuned in, ready to go.”
Scotstown were beaten in the 2015 Ulster Club SFC Final by Crossmaglen after extra-time, and it’s a match that Beggan doesn’t remember fondly.
He had a chance to win the game at the end of normal time with a long-range free that didn’t hit the mark, and then in extra-time Crossmaglen pounced on an uncharacteristically poor kick-out from the Monaghan goalkeeper to score a decisive goal.
He’d love nothing more than to get back to another Ulster Final and redeem himself.
“The boys outfield played the best they could, but I didn’t have my best game in a Scotstown jersey,” admits Beggan.
“It’s something I’d look back on as a learning curve for the last couple of years anyway.
“It’s a huge motivation for us to get back and rectify what went wrong. But the road just gets tougher and tougher each year. Teams are a lot more professional in the way they go about it, a lot more tuned in.
“You’d be well ready for what they have and you need to be well ready for what they have. Burren, they won a couple in a row in Down before Kilcoo took over.
“They haven’t changed too much. They’ve a couple of U21s and minors that are coming through. They’ll be a huge test for us. We get through that there, we’re through to an Ulster semi-final – where we want to be.”
