Davy Burke: Rory Beggan is the No. 1 player in the new game
Rory Beggan is the most valuable player in Gaelic football, according to Roscommon manager Davy Burke.
The Monaghan goalkeeper has kicked 0-54 in 12 competitive games in 2025, the advent of the two-pointer doubling his return from long-range frees.
Burke has had to plan for Beggan on two occasions, once in the Allianz Football League in Hyde Park and then in the Division 2 decider at Croke Park.
While Beggan was restricted to a single point in the Hyde, he took them for 0-07 in the latter, and Burke reckons he is one of the players who has profited the most from the FRC changes.
The Roscommon manager said that the problem wasn't so much frees conceded on the edge of the arc, which referees are wary of giving, but more so when the ball is marched forward 50 metres.
"We played Monaghan in the third round of the league in the Hyde and we restricted Rory Beggan to no effort at all for two pointers," Burke said on the RTÉ GAA podcast.
"We beat them by five or six points.
"We met them in the league final again. And we had a similar plan to restrict Beggan and I think he got four of them.
"A couple of them were balls brought up (for not handing ball back), which is ridiculous really. And kickout marks, which are gone.
"He's a cheat code. He's a complete cheat code.
"Monaghan have the No. 1 player in this new game, in my opinion. He's the biggest threat to everybody. He could kick 0-10 in a game. He's phenomenal.
"Particularly with the 50-metre rule. If you're bringing any ball up, that fella can kick the ball from 60 yards over the bar.
"In fairness to the refs, they don't give away soft frees on the top of the arc. I would imagine they're discussing it themselves.
"They don't tend to give you a soft free at the arc because most teams are playing for them, let's be honest about it. So, they don't tend to give you them, which is fair enough.
"But the ones that are killing teams are the 50m ones. You might think a free up the field, there's no jeopardy to it. But if you stand in the way and they bring it up 50m and then the likes of a Beggan or a Niall Morgan can kick it from 60 metres and it's a real, real hammer-blow."
While there were fears early on in the season that the addition of the two-pointer would result in fewer goals, this appears to have corrected itself as the campaign has progressed.
Burke says that defences are now ultra attuned to pushing out on two-point shooters, which has had the inevitable knock-on effect on leaving more space inside.
"You're seeing teams push out man-to-man and put pressure on the shooters out there. There's huge work going into it, from all angles, to try and exploit this two-pointer.
"As things go on, we're getting a better balance between goals and two-pointers.
"For a while there, people were saying we're not scoring enough goals, do we need to go back to a four-point goal? If you look at it now, we're scoring plenty of goals.
"Galway and Down, how many goal chances did they miss between the two of them?
"They missed six, seven or eight chances. But I think we're not programmed like this. We wouldn't have six goal chances in a championship campaign last year whereas now you have six in 20 minutes.
"I think the players don't know how this is opening up in front of them. They're delighted with themselves and maybe panicking and rushing the shots.
"But I think it might be next year before players get used to this and start finishing all of them."
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Subs: Áine Connell 0-1 for Lawrence 39mins, Paula Lohan for Aoibhin Killen 46mins, Sarah Cahill for Carter 47mins Roscommon: Michaela Fallon; Michelle Rogers, Mairead Lohan, Aideen O'Brien ;, Hannah Murray 0-1, Lilly Murray 0-1, Sinead Mannion; Sally Bolger, Erin McDermont; Celine Gasquin 0-3, Sarah Dooley 0-9, (1f), Tara Naughton 1-4 (all frees); Ciara Kilcommins 1-0, Rachel Fitzmaurice 3-7, Oonagh Kelly 0-1. Subs: Molly Tully for Fallon h-t, Deborah Finneran for Bolger, Grace Jones 0-1 for Gacquin and Chloe Whyte for Kilcommins all 47mins, Charlotte Blackweir for McDermott 52mins
