Summertime blues
December 30, 2009Now that the dust has settled on the 2009 championship season, Monaghan have every reason to feel hard done by. Preparations for the championship went superbly, as the Oriel County edged out the likes of Kildare, Armagh and Meath to secure promotion to Division One of the national football league. This was important for morale in the camp and has also left the team in good stead for the coming spring campaign. Playing in the top division should be of enormous benefit to the players next year. Though there will always be the occasional exception, generally only teams from Division One are in the shake-up for the biggest honours at the end of the year. Thus, gaining promotion to the top tier of the league should be remembered as the most significant achievement of the year, the undoubted high point for Monaghan football in '09.
As for the championship, well, where do we start? It was a charade from start to finish. While we must concede that Monaghan didn't necessarily reach sufficient great heights on the field of play, their downfall can also be attributed to crazy muscle-flexing, inconsistency and bullying from Croke Park, a massive media-inspired over-reaction to the physical nature of the Derry clash in Croke Park, and another unlucky succession of draws in the Qualifier series.
Things could have been different had Monaghan enjoyed the same fortuitous Qualifier draw as Kerry, Meath or Donegal, but that's sport for you and the only way to stay in the championship is to win games. In the final analysis, Monaghan played three matches in the 2009 SFC and lost twice. That's the bottom line. That's how the year will be remembered. But there's much, much more that will be lost in the sands of time…
Tommy Freeman's eight-week suspension is a real bone of contention. Without the Magheracloone ace, Monaghan's attack was severely diminished for the back-door series and it was galling to see both Fergal Doherty and Brian Mullan line out for Derry in the Round Two Qualifier at Clones on July 11. Regardless of the legal ins and outs of the whole thing, this represented a gross miscarriage of justice. There is no way on this earth that Freeman should have ended up with double the sanction of the two Derry men. In the original match, Doherty was sent off for a series of niggly fouls perpetrated throughout the game while Mullan committed one of the most heinous acts of the year. Freeman's alleged transgression was ill-advised but the fact that he made no contact and was punished for an "attempted" strike cannot but leave a bitter taste in the mouth.
Should we start awarding penalties for attempted fouls? Also, the part played by Misters Tohill and Brolly in defending Derry and castigating Monaghan in their post-match outcries was pitiful, to put it mildly. That their posturing and transparently-biased efforts to cover up Derry's cynicism worked so well (mud sticks) raised a lot of serious questions about the neutral role supposedly played by the state broadcaster.
In Celtic Park on May 24, it was Damien Cassidy and Derry who ambushed Monaghan with a performance that stepped over the line of what's acceptable. The cold facts are that, while Monaghan are no angels, most of the unsavoury fouls were carried out by Derry players and most of the cynicism in the game was generated by the hosts. But Brolly and Tohill were offered a platform to plant seeds of doubt, calling into question the very integrity of certain Monaghan players and publicly slating their style of football. The attack on Dick Clerkin was callous and calculated and far worse than anything the Currin man has ever done on the field of play. It was all very unsavoury stuff. Tommy Freeman was portrayed as the biggest villain since Shakespeare's Shylock and Monaghan's summer was effectively over. The ban was unjust; the blame that was left at Monaghan's doorstep in the wake of Celtic Park was disproportionate; and the public perception of Monaghan as a 'dirty team' that spread across the nation like wildfire was most disappointing. This was an insult to the magnificent work that Banty has done over the past five years in propelling Monaghan from the lower echelons into the very vanguard of the country's footballing powers. It belittles a team that pushed Kerry all the way twice, rattled Tyrone in an Ulster final, and contributed enormously to one of the outstanding championship matches of 2009. Here's hoping the injustices visited upon Monaghan in 2009 will serve to cultivate a siege mentality in the camp, which will culminate in an even stronger, more focused and more determined onslaught in 2010! Playing in Division One certainly offers a perfect platform from which to launch their season…
National Football League
Monaghan finished top of Division Two of the 2009 NFL. When the final points were totted up after seven rounds, they were level with Cork on eleven points apiece but held a superior scoring average (+39, as opposed to +35). This was achieved mainly due to a crushing 20-point defeat of Laois in the final round. Kildare had led the way for most of the year but ended up in third place.
Thus, with five wins and a draw each, Monaghan and Cork progressed to the Division Two final at Croke Park on Sunday April 26. Monaghan had won by seven points when the teams met in an earlier round of the competition, but on this occasion, it was Cork who prevailed and therefore denied the Oriel County a precious piece of silverware. But still the main objective of promotion had been secured…
Ignoring challenge matches and the increasingly-meaningless Dr McKenna Cup (which now seems to be more about readying college sides for the Sigerson Cup than helping intercounty teams prepare for the league), Monaghan's season began in earnest at Brewster Park on Sunday February 1. There was a bit of recent history to this one as the Ernesiders had eliminated Monaghan from the 2008 Ulster championship at the same venue, but the visitors gained revenge with a 2-12 to 1-10 victory. Conor McManus (1-3) gave a Man of the Match performance from right half back, while Tommy Freeman bagged the other goal from a penalty and Padraig McBennett saved a penalty at the other end. Under the terms of the experimental disciplinary rules, Dessie Mone and Rory Woods had to leave the action with yellow cards.
A fortnight later, Monaghan trounced Wexford by 2-17 to 1-12 at Clones. This was a superb team display, with outstanding efforts from Conor McManus, Darren Hughes, Dick Clerkin, Eoin Lennon and Tommy Freeman. Freeman and substitute Paul McGuigan fired the winners' goals.
In Round Three, Monaghan maintained their 100% record with a wonderful 1-13 to 0-14 defeat of Armagh in a thriller in front of 5,000 spectators at the Athletic Grounds on Sunday March 8. Monaghan had Tommy Freeman 'sent off' with a yellow card after only 50 seconds and trailed by 0-8 to 0-7 at the interval, but a goal from substitute Raymond Ronaghan turned the tide in the visitors' favour and they held out for a third consecutive victory.
A week later, at Clones, Kieran McGeeney's Kildare inflicted a 1-14 to 1-11 defeat on Monaghan. In a bruising encounter, the Lilywhites reeled off the last three points to throw the promotion race in the second division wide open. Monaghan were disappointing in the first half and the defeat gave the backroom team and the players plenty of food for thought.
Last-gasp points from Paul Finlay (2) and Dessie Mone saw Monaghan steal a 0-12 apiece draw with Meath in Navan six days later. The point ensured that things remained very interesting at the top of the table, with four teams still very much in contention for promotion to Division One.
One of those teams was Cork, and Monaghan advanced their case significantly when they stormed to a highly-impressive 2-13 to 1-9 defeat of the Leesiders at Scotstown on Sunday March 29. Having dropped three points in their previous two outings, Monaghan needed to deliver a big performance at the wintry north county venue, and the likes of the Freeman brothers, Stephen Gollogly, Paul Finlay and Gary McQuaid led the way. Tommy Freeman and sub Raymond Ronaghan got the three-pointers, while Finlay bagged 0-6.
After a two-week lay-off, it all came down to the last round of games on Sunday April 12. Monaghan, Cork and Kildare were level, so it looked like points difference would prove decisive. Few would have expected the Lilywhites to drop a point against Meath, a result which effectively guaranteed Monaghan a place in Division One. But the Oriel County had also kept their part of the bargain as their 4-16 to 0-8 annihilation of Laois at Portlaoise proved that they were full value for promotion. An interval lead of 3-12 to 0-2 tells its own story about a seriously one-sided game. Paul Finlay, Mark Downey (twice) and Tommy Freeman (1-6) rattled the net as Laois suffered their heaviest defeat in 21 years.
The 1-14 to 0-12 defeat to Cork in the final at Croker denied Monaghan a second Division Two title in five years. But they had secured promotion from a difficult section. The real pity was that Cork, Kildare and Meath all went on to contest the business end of the championship, while Monaghan failed to carry their league form into the premier competition.
Monaghan - 2009 national football league Division Two finalists: S Duffy; D Mone, V Corey, D McArdle (0-1); D Freeman, G McQuaid, D Hughes; D Clerkin, E Lennon; C McManus (0-2), P Finlay (0-4), S Gollogly; M Downey (0-1), R Woods, T Freeman (0-4). Subs: JP Mone for D Mone, R Ronaghan for Gollogly, C Hanratty for Lennon, G McEnaney for D Freeman, K Hughes for Downey, S McAleer for Woods.
Derry Pt I
All year, all roads had led to the 2009 Ulster SFC opener against Derry at Celtic Park on Sunday May 24. It was the hosts who progressed to a semi-final meeting with Tyrone on a 1-10 to 0-10 scoreline, but it was the quality of the fare on offer - rather than the result - that attracted most of the headlines the following day. The match was cynical and overly-physical, with both teams determined to frustrate each other at the expense of playing football. Neither team produced any football of note, but Derry just about deserved to progress.
Monaghan seemed destined to advance when Fergal Doherty was sent off with 58 minutes gone and the scores level, but it was Derry who finished strongest with the last three points of the game. Monaghan, on the other hand, didn't score after the sending-off.
The sides were level at the end of a niggly and robust first half. Paddy Bradley's goal - which had a suspicion of square ball to it - kept the Oak Leaf County in touch (1-3 to 0-6) but Monaghan recorded eight wides in the opening 35 minutes and also dropped three balls short into the goalkeeper's hands. The visitors had wind advantage in that opening period, but they hadn't their shooting boots with them and should really have been in front at the interval.
Monaghan got off to an encouraging start when Carrickmacross clubman Stephen Gollogly darted through a non-existent defence to effortlessly slot his shot over the bar. Chrissy McKeigue opened Derry's account in the fourth minute and, a minute later, the hosts moved clear when Paddy Bradley crept into the square and outjumped hesitant Monaghan goalkeeper Padraig McBennett to punch a high delivery to the net.
On nine minutes, the Monaghan defence was sliced open again and Eoin Bradley stretched the gap to four points with a precise right-footed finish, 1-2 to 0-1. Monaghan were guilty of wayward kicking in and around the Derry goal in the first ten minutes but Ronaghan steadied them when he tapped over their second point of the match with eleven minutes played.
Eoin Lennon pointed in the 15th minute, James Kielt saw yellow for a late tackle on Vinny Corry, and Tommy Freeman redeemed himself for an earlier miss with an excellent finish from a free from his hands to the left of the posts. On twenty minutes, Monaghan stole back to within a point when Freeman boomed over a wonderful point and midfield rivals Fergal Doherty and Dick Clerkin both went into the book after tangling close to the sideline. Freeman hit the men in blues' seventh wide in the 25th minute - again from a free - and Paddy Bradley sent a shot wide off the outside of a post as the scores dried up for a while.
Monaghan levelled just after the half-hour mark when Ronaghan pointed from close range. Finlay's 33rd-minute free - following Kevin McCloy's heavy hit on Conor McManus - was Monahan's fifth in succession and Seamus McEnaney's men now led by 0-6 to 1-2. In the first minute of first-half added time, Paddy Bradley hit his county's first score in 23 minutes, with a free from the hands from straight in front of goal after Dessie Mone was harshly adjudged to have fouled Joe Diver.
Upon the resumption, McBennett gifted Paddy Bradley a point with a poorly-struck kick-out which went straight to the Oak Leaf dangerman. Finlay curled over a trademark free in the 40th minute to tie the scores up again and Glenullin brothers Paddy and Eoin Bradley combined for the latter to slot over the lead point. Barry McGoldrick followed up with the home side's second point in as many minutes and it was 1-6 to 0-7 after 42.
Shortly after Banty brought in Ciaran Hanratty for Ronaghan and Mark Downey for Eoin Lennon, Freeman cut inside his man in the right corner to kick a majestic point off his left foot and the Magheracloone attacker quickly saw yellow for felling McGuigan. Corey earned a free on 50 minutes with another storming raid upfield and Finlay slotted his shot straight over the black spot. That score had the sides level again with almost three-quarters of the match played.
In the 53rd minute, Woods flicked the ball over the bar after a strong McManus run, Monaghan punishing McGoldrick's miss to edge back in front. But that would be their last score in the 2009 Ulster SFC… Brian Mullan came in for Derry and Kielt levelled with a magnificent finish before Mullan went straight into the book for kneeing McManus on the deck. It should clearly have been a red card. With 14 minutes left, the game was still in the melting pot and individual duels were breaking out all over the pitch.
Twelve minutes from the end, Doherty was sent off when he (finally) picked up his second yellow card for colliding with McQuaid. Hanratty and Freeman both missed opportunities to put the 15 men back ahead. With seven minutes left, the sides were still deadlocked, 1-7 to 0-10. Kielt then banged over the lead point from distance. McManus' 45 drifted frustratingly wide as the hosts remained marginally in front and Bellaghy clubman Diver finished off an excellent Derry move to make it a two-point game with just three minutes of normal time left. Finlay's shot trailed wide and Paddy Bradley kicked a super score at the other end for the 14 men - 1-10 to 0-10 with 90 seconds to play. Two minutes of injury time were added and Monaghan could make no further inroads as Derry held on for a most satisfying victory. Derry had scored the last four points of the match, while Monaghan - despite having an extra man - failed to raise a flag after the 53rd minute.
Monaghan - 2009 Ulster SFC V Derry: P McBennett; D Mone, V Corey, D McArdle; D Freeman, G McQuaid, D Hughes; E Lennon, D Clerkin; C McManus, P Finlay (0-3), S Gollogly (0-1); R Ronaghan (0-2), R Woods (0-1), T Freeman (0-3). Subs: M Downey for Ronaghan, C Hanratty for Lennon, P McGuigan for Woods.
Armagh
Sandwiched between the two defeats to Derry was a 0-13 to 0-12 Round One SFC Qualifier win over Armagh (after extra time) at Clones on Saturday July 4. Though closely-contested throughout, the match was generally of a poor quality but this one was always going to be a dogfight and Seamus McEnaney's charges were delighted to be still in the championship after the predictable tough draw.
Dessie Mone was outstanding at the back for Monaghan, who were also well served by Paul Finlay and Conor McManus, who between them kicked the two clinching points in the second period of added time. Considering that Croke Park had harshly shorn the winners of their attacking talisman Tommy Freeman, this was a satisfying victory.
Armagh could have no complaints about the result as they failed to score from play between the 20th minute and injury time at the end of the second period of added time - over 70 minutes later.
Monaghan started brightly and tore into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead but then totally fell apart and produced some terrible stuff in the second quarter as they allowed Armagh to reel off five consecutive scores to lead by 0-6 to 0-4 at the interval. Ballybay clubman Paul Finlay fired the home side ahead with a free from the hands on three minutes after impatient defending by Andy Mallon. Woods took Monaghan's second point sixty seconds later after leading Aidan O'Rourke a merry dance.
Conor McManus's foul on Ronan Clarke presented Armagh with a ninth-minute chance and Aaron Kernan opened the Orchard County's account with a trademark free from the hands from out wide on the right. Raymond Ronaghan struck a nice point after good approach work from half backs Gary McQuaid and Darren Hughes: 0-3 to 0-1. Damien Freeman - who was playing in an advanced role early on - tapped over the next Monaghan point after a bout of tenacious tackling from Banty's side.
But the first half fizzled out for the winners as the Orchard County hit five without reply. Brian Mallon, Ronan Clarke and Kernan hit rare points from play for the visitors before Steven McDonnell and Kernan landed a couple of frees. Monaghan had hit some poor wides in the first half and went 22 minutes without a score prior to the short whistle.
It was all Monaghan in the second half. Armagh were pitiful in that period and failed to score from play, relying on some soft frees to stay in the match. Monaghan weren't much better, knocking over one point from play and five frees. Paul Finlay mixed the sublime with the ridiculous and Monaghan could have been home and hosed if he'd had his shooting boots on. Finlay ended Monaghan's scoring drought by tapping over a brace of frees in the first three minutes of the second half to level the scores.
Aaron Kernan pointed a free from close range after Tony Kernan went to ground and was awarded a dubious free. The match had descended into a niggly affair, with plenty of needle between the opposition players. Finlay registered Monaghan's sixth wide in the 46th minute as Armagh remained a point ahead, 0-7 to 0-6. In the 48th minute, Finlay again missed the target from an easy-looking free and one could sense the Monaghan confidence visibly drain. However, the centre forward demonstrated great courage to arrow over a lovely point from play and level the scores again on 48 minutes.
Banty threw Paul Meegan in for Gollogly with 22 minutes left and Ciaran McKeever's foul on Finlay presented another relatively simple Monaghan free, which McManus tapped over to send his side in front on 50 minutes. Just as in the first half, Monaghan had registered four of the first five points. Two soft Armagh frees then saw the lead change hands: in the 52nd minute, the losers were awarded an innocuous free close to goal, which Aaron Kernan routinely tapped between the posts. Another harsh call against Vincent Corry (when he appeared to beat Clarke to the ball) resulted in a free, which McDonnell converted to make it 0-9 to 0-8 in Armagh's favour.
On 57 minutes, McManus knocked over yet another soft free - this one given to Monaghan - to level the scores, 0-9 each. With seven minutes left, Brendan McKenna bought a Monaghan free and this time Finlay kept his nerve to point from long range. The Orchard men were momentarily reduced to 14 players when McDonnell got a straight red for striking three minutes from time. Finlay sent another free wide on 68 minutes as Monaghan refused to take control of a match that still hung in the balance.
A minute from the end, Corry placed a hand on Clarke's back as the ball completely overshot both men. The free was awarded in front of the posts and substitute Stefan Forker obliged with the levelling point on the stroke of full time - 0-10 each.
Only two points were taken in the first ten minutes of extra time. Two minutes into that period, Forker put Armagh back in front from a free after a Corry foul on Clarke. At the other end, McManus booted over a Monaghan free to level matters again in the fourth added minute. The first period of extra time ended with the scores still tied on 0-11 each.
McManus scored a great left-footed Monaghan point from play on 82 minutes after good play from Finlay, Woods and Lennon. Finlay then curled over a fantastic point on the run off his trusty left peg six minutes from the end. In injury time, Gareth O'Neill took a point for Armagh, who ran out of time as Monaghan held on to take their place in the bowl for the Round Two Qualifier draw with a hard-fought and deserved victory.
Monaghan - 2009 SFC Round One Qualifier V Armagh: P McBennett; D Mone, V Corey, D McArdle; D Freeman (0-1), G McQuaid, D Hughes; E Lennon, D Clerkin; S Gollogly, P Finlay (0-5), C McManus (0-4); M Downey, R Ronaghan (0-1), R Woods (0-1). Subs: B McKenna for Downey (34), P Meegan for Gollogly (49), K Hughes for Clerkin (56), P McGuigan for Ronaghan (56), S Gollogly for Hughes (70), D Morgan for McArdle (80), C Hanratty for Meegan (83).
Derry Pt II
On July 11, Monaghan participated in one of the best games of the summer but came out on the wrong end of a 3-16 to 0-20 scoreline to exit the championship equation at the second round of Qualifiers. Both sides produced some stunning football, but those three goals from Paddy Bradley (2-8) and James Kielt sent Derry through to the next round, while Monaghan were left ruing the absence of the suspended Tommy Freeman, who might have made a difference for them at the other end.
The teams defied their critics by producing an absolutely terrific first half of football, which yielded TWENTY scores from play. At the break, Derry led by 2-8 to 0-11, having led by eight points at one stage, thanks largely to goals from Paddy Bradley and Kielt. Monaghan made a nightmare start when goalkeeper Padraig McBennett fumbled a high ball and the hapless Dessie Mone was unable to prevent Bradley from diverted the ball into the back of the net with just a minute gone.
The impressive Ciaran Hanratty fisted over Monaghan's opening point a minute later. It was all Monaghan early on and they were unfortunate in the eighth minute when they carved the Derry defence open with a series of tidy passes but midfielder Eoin Lennon ran out of space and could only send his goal effort wide. Paddy Bradley pointed at the end of a rare early attack from the visitors to make it 1-1 to 0-1. The elusive Hanratty - a late call-up to the starting XV - took Monaghan's second point superbly after gathering a pass from centre back Gary McQuaid. Raymond Ronaghan narrowed the gap to a point when he knocked over a nice point but Bradley again slipped his marker to tap over a Derry point from close range in the 16th minute - 1-2 to 0-3. Eoin Bradley scored the next Derry point after his initial shot had been blocked down.
Thirty seconds later, Derry walked through a non-existent Monaghan defence to bag their second goal: Eoin Bradley's ball across the face of the goal was tapped to the back of the net by centre forward Kielt.
Paddy Bradley put seven between them and Hanratty tried manfully to keep Banty's team in touch as he slotted over his third point of the match. Stephen Gollogly closed the gap to five after being set up by the troublesome Hanratty. Everything Derry touched seemed to fly between the posts and they had further scores from Kielt and Mark Lynch to lead by 2-6 to 0-5 after 22 minutes, with all 13 of those scores coming from play. Paddy Bradley and Ronaghan traded points and Paul Finlay was the first player to score from a free when he tapped over from close range on the half-hour after a foul on Ronaghan. There were now two goals between the teams: 2-7 to 0-7.
Rory Woods brilliantly curled over the Oriel County's third consecutive point to narrow the gap to five and Hanratty scored a fantastic point off his left boot in the 34th minute to leave just four between them again, 2-7 to 0-9. It was all Monaghan and Woods was on hand to take their tenth point in the 35th minute. Wing back Gerard O'Kane interrupted the Monaghan scoring run with an excellent Derry point in injury time at the end of the first half and Damien Freeman replied within a minute to leave it at 2-8 to 0-11 at the interval. Freeman's score drew the curtain down on a truly fabulous first half of football.
Finlay continued the Monaghan fightback with a point from play after just 20 seconds of the second half and half-time substitute Brendan McKenna had it down to the minimum before Paddy Bradley tapped over a Derry free from right in front of the posts: 2-9 to 0-13. The gap was again down to one when Damien Freeman struck a beauty after being placed by Finlay. It had been a remarkable recovery but from here to the end, Derry took control of the game as five successive scores put daylight between the teams. The game was well and truly over as a contest in the 55th minute when Eoin Bradley sent a lovely soccer-style pass across the face of goal off the outside of his left boot and brother Paddy was there to tap first time to the net and bring his personal tally to 2-7. Eoin Bradley followed up with a point from play and there were now ten between them: 3-15 to 0-14.
Finlay took his third point from a free on 59 minutes and Woods pointed with eight minutes left before McManus won and converted a free in the 64th minute. Paddy Bradley notched his eighth point and battling Monaghan struck twice in a minute through McManus (45) and substitute Paul Meegan. Monaghan managed another late point from a Meegan free on the stroke of full time but the final whistle sounded and the year was over for Banty's boys.
Monaghan - 2009 SFC Round Two Qualifier V Derry: P McBennett; D Mone, V Corey, D McArdle; D Freeman (0-2), G McQuaid, D Hughes; E Lennon, D Clerkin; S Gollogly (0-1), P Finlay (0-4), C McManus (0-1); C Hanratty (0-4), R Ronaghan (0-2), R Woods (0-3). Subs: P McGuigan for McArdle (50), M Downey for Clerkin (50), P Meegan (0-2) for Hanratty (58). Tweet
