The role of the 'keeper in the GAA has changed considerably over the last decade.
That was evident again at the Athletic Grounds on Sunday when Armagh’s Ethan Rafferty burst forward on a couple of occasions to fire over two monster points.
Rafferty has played all his club football for Grange out the field and he looked confident as he strode up the field.
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“I have played outfield for my club all of my career and I know that if I get into those positions I can kick them,” he said.
“It’s all about keeping your head down and kicking through the ball.
“I was just happy enough that they went over and maybe they cancelled out the couple of kick-outs that I sent over the line!”
By their own admission Armagh failed to play to the best of their ability in their Ulster Championship quarter-final defeat to Donegal, opponents they meet again this weekend.
Rafferty said they were eager to put that performance behind them against Tyrone.
“That was probably the main thing today, we were determined to rectify those wrongs of six weeks ago,” he said.
“It didn’t really matter who came out of the draw but when it was Tyrone it sort of heightened what was on the line and we are just delighted to have come through it.
"We were determined to focus on our own play and stick to our own principles and if we do that we have the belief that we can take anyone on.”
A one-point interval lead was scant reward for Armagh’s first-half endeavours, during which they missed two goal chances.
But Rafferty is still happy they are creating those opportunities.
“We’d another couple of good goal chances in the first half and that is something we’ve been working on, trying to take the simple scores when they present themselves,” he said.
“We will always get a sniff of goal during the game and it’s better to come away with a point in those situations as opposed to nothing.
“It’s something we’ve focussed on since the Donegal game because in the first 10 or 15 minutes that day we could have come away with 1-5 or 1-6 but we scored nothing and then they came down the field and got a point.
“I felt the first two points in the second half were massive as it got us up and running straight away again.
“We’d have liked to have been further in front at the break and we probably should have been but when the referee throws the ball in for the second half it doesn’t matter what happened in the first half.
“We then clipped over the first point after the big break and that was a massive score for us as well.”
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