Keeping three players up will stretch the field - Naomh Columba's Noel Hegarty

Donegal face Dublin in the Allianz National Football League this Saturday in MacCumhaill Park (7.30) and former All-Ireland winner with Donegal, Noel Hegarty is looking forward to seeing his old pal, Dessie Farrell back in the county as manager of the Dubs.

Hegarty is also looking forward to seeing at first hand teams playing under the new rules and after watching a number of games last week on television, the Naomh Columba man is happy with a good number of them.

In particular he feels that keeping three forwards and three backs in one half of the field at all times will create space for a more attacking game. However, he is not so sure about the ‘keeper being allowed to be part of the attack.

On Saturday Hegarty says he will be in MacCumhaill Park and it will be good to see Dessie Farrell in the dugout for the Dubs at a Donegal venue for the first time.

The link between Farrell and Naomh Columba remains strong with a young Farrell spending many summer holidays at the home of his mother in Meenaneary. 

“Dessie used to come in and train with us in Glen when he was a 17-year-old. And we had our eye on him.

“His uncles Seamus and Noel Carr would have been playing with us at the time and the three Gavigans are cousins.”

Fast forward a few years and Noel Hegarty and Dessie Farrell were to meet at intercounty level and end up marking each other.

“We would come across each other a few times through league and championship. We only played them once in the championship.

“We lost a league quarter-final to them in 1991 and in the final of 1993.

“He was a very quiet lad back then and sure listen, he’s still a quiet man. He is a very unassuming man. He comes back here on a regular basis. He has a house outside Carrick, between Carrick and Kilcar and he comes back there on his own and potters away. Not a one might know he is there. They might meet him in a shop and he might go out for the odd pint.”

I’m sure that when the two meet nowadays there might be a reference to the nudge by Hegarty on Farrell which resulted in Dublin being awarded a penalty in the eighth minute in the 1992 All-Ireland final.

“I don’t know if it even a nudge or not,” laughs Hegarty. “That is still up for debate.

“It’s funny, if they had scored the penalty we would have been in bother.

“Sometimes if you miss a penalty it can knock the wind out of you as well. That seems to be the way it happens.”

NEW RULES

The new rules introduced to Gaelic football had their first outing last weekend in the Allianz Leagues and Hegarty was watching.

“I tried to watch as many of them as I could. Definitely some of them are good. The three up is definitely very good, but for the goalie to be allowed to go up the field and make it 12 versus 11 is not good.

“Then the other one if the referee takes the ball forward for dissent, he goes inside the big circle and the freetaker takes it out the field and kicks it over the bar for a two pointer; it’s pretty harsh,” said Hegarty, who feels the two pointer from general play is very good.

“It is nice to see people kicking the ball over the bar from a distance.”

Reflecting on another of the changes, where a player deemed to have fouled must hand the ball to his opponent, Hegarty is not in agreement.

“We were always told never to hand the ball to the opponent, to hand the ball to the referee. That’s the way we were always trained. If you just planted the ball on the ground where you are standing and head back. I think that is a wee bit harsh as well,” said Hegarty, who feels that it makes the game too gentlemanly.

“And Gaelic football is not gentlemanly. It’s not like soccer,” says Hegarty.

“It’s a pity that they just didn’t bring in three or four changes this year, have a look at them and then go back and take in another three or four next year. Keep what you need and any you are not happy with (discard them).”

The Naomh Columba man says it is going to be difficult for club referees to manage all the changes.

“It’s all right in Croke Park or in the county matches but the poor club referee, how is he going to manage.

However, Hegarty feels that the three up will also be good for club games and that clubs will adhere to it because of the penalty of giving away a free kick in front of the goals.

“I think the three up, that alone is going to stretch the field out. You have six players on one side so you won’t now have everybody in one half of the field. I like that rule.

“You had the situation of 400 handpasses and that wasn’t nice to watch either. 

Hegarty feels that there should be a restriction on the involvement of the goalkeeper, maybe for him to stay inside the 20m line.

Even if the change in the role of the goalkeeper is retained, Hegarty can’t ever see Donegal using Michael Murphy in that position.

Hegarty also had a view on the new kick-out which now has to go beyond the 40m arc. “Do you really want eight, nine players jumping for a ball in the middle of the field. Very few are going to be caught clean.

“It is very interesting to watch, to see how it pans out. When the last game is played in the league, everybody will know more.”

However, he does feel that Donegal are well equipped to take advantage of the two point rule for scores from outside the 40m arc.

“We have Langan, Paddy McBrearty and McGee, we have some good long range kickers ourselves. And if Murphy’s there, you would be hoping that Donegal should benefit from it.

“The only thing is have Donegal got the man markers now, when you have three up front. The sticky corner back will have to come back and he will become more important.”

He also watched the Dublin v Mayo game at the weekend and was impressed.

“I thought Dublin were very good at the weekend, with all new players. You would think all them boys were playing together all their life. I just watched how the surface was so much better in Croke Park (than in the other grounds).

“It was a pity that we didn’t get to play Kerry. The first few games Kerry always struggled and it was probably the time to get them.

As for this weekend, he is looking forward to the clash with the Dubs. “There will be a big crowd. The pitch in MacCumhaill Park might be sticky enough. It will be a dogfight but sure that might be good for us.

“Four home games is massive. It’s a pity we didn’t get the Kerry game away as we might have picked up two handy points there, because of Clifford not playing. When you get a couple of points on the board, life gets a bit easier.”

As for having his old pal on the line and feels that his Dublin side is a reflection of himself. “I’d say he is a very good manager. He has a way with him but he was a tidy performer. He had a good left foot and he was very brave. The Carrs and the Gavigans were pretty brave also.

“We will go up to see. You want to see the home game live and see what these new rules are all about,” said Hegarty.