Kerry legend says 'Donegal have the best kick-out merchant in the game'

GAA analyst and former Kerry footballer Darragh Ó Sé believes Donegal’s Shaun Patton is the best in the business when it comes to kick-outs.

Ó Sé won six All-Ireland titles as a player - 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009 - and currently writes a column in The Irish Times. This week, he gave his opinion on goalkeepers and the changing responsibilities of custodian, with particular praise for the St Eunan’s netminder, who is expected to keep goal for Donegal against Derry in the Ulster SFC final on Sunday week.

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“I can see how good soccer players make good Gaelic football goalkeepers,” Ó Sé writes.  “That makes sense to me. If you’re trusting someone with 40 kick-outs a game, you’re going to want someone who has a range of passing, who can see all sorts of off-the ball running, who can disguise his kicking and who won’t panic when the temperature gets turned up. It’s no surprise that the best Gaelic football goalkeeper of them all, Stephen Cluxton, is a very good soccer player.

“Donegal have the best kick-out merchant in the game in Shaun Patton. Again, he comes from a soccer background so it’s probably no big surprise. He has distance, he has accuracy and crucially he is a good decision-maker. That should give Donegal an edge, not just in the Ulster final but in the All-Ireland series as well.”