ONE OF THOSE reliable clichés that many revert to in the course of football conversation, is how Jack McCarron is one of the better ‘Winter Footballers.’
There is a snobbery in one sense to this and the sample size is not particularly wide. But in assessing what he has added to the Scotstown team since his controversial transfer from home club Currin, to his father Ray’s club, you can see that his addition brings Scotstown from a contender in the pack to one of the front runners.
What is a ‘Winter Footballer’ anyway? Well, the thought is that he impresses when the ground is wet and soft. That somehow, in the middle of the summer, this will count against said Winter Footballer.
Newsflash. Gaelic football is played mainly in Ireland. Not the Algarve.
And this Autumn/Winter is the first time we have been able to see McCarron in action on the provincial stage. As impressive as he has been in past league campaigns for Monaghan, you have to remember that his best-ever league performance came against Dublin in 2022 on March 27th, a sun-drenched afternoon.
He was back out five weeks later in the Ulster championship, top-scoring with 0-7 in a big win over Down.
Onto Sunday, and Kilcoo. As he made his way to the forward line at the start, the opposition sent Ryan McEvoy to mark him.
Some felt that this could harm McCarron as McEvoy is trusted with regular charges upfield. But that never transpired. Instead, McEvoy instead concentrated on defending.
It took McCarron until the 48th minute to chalk his first point, but that’s not to say he wasn’t influencing the game.
In the first half it took eight minutes before his first play, and it came in his own full-back line.
He made seven plays in the first half. Three of them were kick passes forward. One was an outrageous dummy that McEvoy bought, but the resulting shot tailed wide. Another came when he turned over Niall Branagan just before the half-time whistle when Scotstown were finding joy with an aggressive press on Niall Kane’s kickout.
His first point demonstrated McCarron’s skills. Damien McArdle put a ball into the square and McCarron caught it clean. He jinked out of the way of tackles from McEvoy, Anthony Morgan and Niall Branagan to kick over and leave a goal between the sides.
And this is where the mental strength of the top players kicks in. Despite being subject to close attention all game, he was well aware that opportunities would come his way in the final quarter.
Ten minutes after, Ryan Johnston fouled Darren Hughes and McCarron belted over the free. There was now two in it.
From the next kickout that Kane played short, he shut down the build-up play between Eugene Branagan and McEvoy, leaving Ross McKenna to hoover up the break. In the move to follow he kicked the ball to Kieran Hughes and then Rory Beggan. He got on it again and drew a free from a tiring McEvoy. Rory Beggan stepped up and left one in it as the game ticked into the final minute of normal time.
The next move was all about Beggan; he won the Kilcoo kickout, was involved in the build-up and treaded the pass to Jason Carey to take a mark, the point, and go level.
By this stage, Kilcoo were in a panic. Kane tried to pick out Ryan Johnston with the next kickout at the top of his ‘D’ but Ryan O’Toole steamed in to get a hand to it. Who was it sweeping up the break, only McCarron although the move ended with a short dropped short by O’Toole.
After Paul Devlin restored Kilcoo’s lead with a free, McCarron lost McEvoy in the next play, and after he laid off to Donal Morgan, he kicked to Kieran Hughes to take a mark, brilliantly converted.
From the restart, Kane clipped it short to McEvoy, who made a tired decision in trying to force a kick long to Ryan Johnston. Kieran Hughes made the interception, was instantly fouled and beckoned Beggan to seal the deal.
Everywhere you looked, there were big characters making big plays. The difference for Scotstown now from their previous forays into Ulster is they have a new weapon. One that needs watching the entire game.
Afterwards, the hero of the hour was Beggan. But in his post-match chat with reporters, he assessed the contribution of McCarron.
“That’s the benefit of Jack. He is probably taking their main defender out of it too, taking him out of the game and it might free up a couple of other players.
“But Jack’s well fit for that. We might not have got loads out of him in the first part but he does loads too that is maybe unseen. He is renowned for scoring but he wins a lot of dirty balls too and makes that wee inside pass too into the ‘D’.”
Scotstown know that with McCarron, they are a team transformed. It will be interesting to see just how Trillick combat this in the semi-final.