In Tipp-top shape?
December 31, 2009
Tipp native Noel Mullaney has been part of the Monaghan hurling landscape for more than 30 years. Here's his take on how the small ball game fared in his adopted county in '09.
Noel Mullaney talks up Monaghan Hurling Inc. in the same way a stockbroker rejoices at the news that a bull market has appeared on the horizon.
Infectious optimism runs like a thread through his reflections, current analysis and projections for the future of hurling in the county.
So what if there's a hint of rose-tinted glasses illuminating his dulcet tones. A glass half-full can energise sport's most anodyne taste buds after all.
Fact is, take a leaf from Mullaney's script and you're liable to throw the book at all other sports in favour of the ancient game.
Monaghan Hurling's County Development Officer talks as good a game as he once played it in his native parish of Tipperary.
In an expansive assessment, the words 'positive' and 'consolidation' decorate his summary of 2009 as far as hurling in the county is concerned.
At senior level in 2009, he says the county's focus was on reaching the division four final of the National Hurling League and that was duly achieved.
"We went into the final against Sligo with all guns blazing but Fate conspired against us and we ultimately fell short of beating the old enemy.
"The team had lost heavily to Sligo earlier in the campaign. They had been relegated to division three but had won the Rackard Cup last year.
"So to nearly turn the tables on them in the final in Breffni Park gave everyone a big boost and morale was retained for the championship."
The Ulster SHC tie against Armagh saw Frank Brady's charges stay with their vaunted opponents 'till half-time before eventually being cut adrift.
Thereafer the Nicky Rackard Cup came calling and defeats to Louth and Fingal led to a relegation play-off against Sligo and another defeat.
The hope in the Monaghan camp was that dropping down to the Lory Meagher Cup would increase the appetite of all involved for 2010.
It had seemed that Monaghan would have their relegation to the lower graded Meagher Cup confirmed on foot of a motion put forward by the county to the recent Special Congress asking that the Rackard Cup become a seven county competition in 2010.
However the motion was withdrawn at the request of GAA President Christy Cooney and so another stint in the Tier 3 Championship beckons.
"It's very disappointing that our appeal against being lumped into the Nicky Rackard Cup for another year didn't gain support," Noel laments.
"We're back where we were (Nicky Rackard Cup) for 2010 despite the fact that we'll be still operating from division four of the national league.
"Playing in division four is not the ideal preparation for playing in a division three championship and it's hard to understand their (Croke Park) logic.
"We were just looking for some conformity between the league and championship with division three league teams competing in the Nicky Rackard Cup and division four teams being left to fight it out for the Lory Meagher Cup."
Noel's sense of grievance has definition and depth and he, like Monaghan boss Frank Brady, believes a lot of "lip service" is applied by Croke Park where talk of helping out the so-called weaker hurling counties is concerned.
Nevertheless, his happy pills continue to mask his innate frustrations as a hurling disciple and he looks forward with some relish to another season.
Noel is encouraged too by the way some of the traditional barriers have been coming down which has made hurling more attractive to some folk.
In this regard, he believes that there isn't the same fear in some parents' minds about perceived dangers associated with their young offspring playing hurling.
"I think indoor hurling is a tremendous innovation and the way it is organised at school level too has done an awful lot to ingratiate the sport non-hurling people.
"The idea of twinning counties like Monaghan and Cavan with Tipp and Waterford is excellent too, a very humbling, rewarding experience to have the likes of Lar Corbett, Benny Dunne and Eoin Kelly giving their time to the Monaghan cause," says the former Monaghan senior countyman (1977-'97).
Reflecting on Monaghan's progress at underage level on the inter-county stage, Noel is fulsome in his praise of the U21s success.
Victory over Donegal in the semi-final of the Shield competition paved the way for a meeting with Fermanagh in the final at Kingspan/Breffni Park.
Again Monaghan held sway. The upshot was that a place in the Ulster U21 Championship was secured only for Armagh to poop their party.
Thereafter a well-drilled and physically strong Roscommon side triumphed over the Frank Brady-managed (assisted by Paddy Donnelly, Brendan Murphy and Aiden Kerr) Oriel County crew in the All-Ireland 'B' semi-final.
He is pleased that Monaghan re-entered minor hurling at provincial level in '09 and says Sean Leonard (manager) and selectors Brendan Murphy and Stephen McKenna deserve the height of praise for their unstinting efforts with their sterling performance in bringing Fermanagh to a replay in the championship a stand-out game in the 2009 season.
On the underage club front, he is no less buoyed by the vibrancy of the competition and the will to progress emitted by all the units.
He takes his hat off to Carrick for winning the Under 12 title and Clontibret for scooping both the U14 and U16 titles and to 'blayney for netting the honours at minor level.
"There are some green shoots with regard to the possible establishment of a couple of new clubs and with the help of Paul O'Connor we may well see something emerge from the Scotstown, Threemilehouse and Clones areas of the county.
"The big challenge for us in that respect is to link in the work being done in the schools with their local clubs.
"But there will be an increasing emphasis on juvenile development work in the coming years. That was the consensus from the Forum in November."
He reckons there is a lot of good hurling potential in the Oriel County and while the powers-that-be may conspire to keep Monaghan's 'senior citizens' out of the winner's enclosure, he feels the younger brigade of Monaghan county hurlers will have their day in the sun, sooner rather than later.
"I am taking a lot of positive things from what I have seen of the Ulster Council's plans for hurling in the coming year," the Twomileborris native says.
"From a county perspective, we hope to have at least two development squads at possibly under 14 and under 16 levels.
"That's a proposal which was made at the Hurling Forum and which will be included in the Strategic Plan for the next five years.
"People have already been earmarked to work with those two squads but the ongoing challenge is to have good attendances at those sessions.
"Being the optimist, sometimes I feel that hurling people in counties like Monaghan can inadvertently take the view that they're second class citizens.
"Some may feel that while they're beavering away at the coalface that they're getting a rough deal but I don't think that's the case (in Monaghan).
"I certainly believe that the county board is full-square behind our efforts to drive hurling forward in Monaghan and I personally am more than happy with the help and support the county board has given us and the way they have put us on an equal footing (with football).
Noel, a selector alongside manager Joe Hayes of the Monaghan team that won the All-Ireland JHC title in 1998, is convinced that that the hurling fraternity in his adopted county work as hard as any of their counterparts in the established, traditional, hurling strongholds.
"The people involved in hurling in Monaghan are as passionate as they are in Tipp or Kilkenny and that has to be acknowledged.
"They are absolutely, 100%, dedicated to promoting the game but they need help in providing that extra bit of coaching that is needed to cater for the numbers who are interested in taking up the game at club level around the county."
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