Promised land reached
November 27, 2011
This past August saw Monaghan's camogs retain their All-Ireland B Championship title under the managership of Malachy Treanor. The Clontibret man spoke to us about the splendid success he enjoyed with the Farney women in his debut year of inter-county management.
When Malachy Treanor took over the reins as Monaghan senior camogie manager in June, his main objective was straightforward - retain the All-Ireland Junior B Championship crown which they had captured in 2010.
Having only coached at St McCartan's the past and joined the camogie county board at the start of 2011, the powers that be cited Treanor as the ideal man to bring in when the Monaghan management team which had been installed departed in the summer.
"I came in in the middle of June and I only had one training session with the team before we had to play Tyrone in the Ulster final," Treanor explained.
"I was coming in to try and maintain where the team were going and I wanted to get them back into an All-Ireland final. They had only played two games before I came in, beating Cavan in one of them to qualify for the Ulster final."
Monaghan's victory over their neighbours Cavan had been an impressive one, but they knew they'd have to up their game considerably to overcome a stern challenge from Tyrone in the Ulster final.
"The Ulster final was in the Athletic Grounds in Armagh and it was a one-sided affair," Treanor stated.
"Tyrone were very strong on the day, as we knew they would be, but despite being down a good bit in the first-half, we came out fighting in the second-half and I think it showed what we were capable even if we lost the match."
Monaghan's potential was there for everyone to see and it would shine through come the group stages of the All-Ireland Junior B Championship when they finished in style to book their place into another final by the end of August.
"After the Tyrone game we entered the All-Ireland B series and came into a group with Wicklow, Meath and Kildare," said the Clontibret native.
"We played Wicklow in the first game and it was a draw. After that we played Meath and beat them convincingly before losing to Kildare by two points. That defeat was kind of a wake-up call for us and we went on to beat Wicklow, Meath and Kildare in the next three games to finish top of the group and advance to the final."
After playing them twice, Monaghan would have to once more see off Wicklow to retain the Maire Ni Chinneid Cup.
Playing with the wind in Ashbourne, Monaghan flew out of the traps early on and built up a four-point lead at half-time, keeping their foot firmly on the pedal as they outplayed Wicklow in most areas of the pitch. Unwilling to let their opponents to come past the midfield until the second quarter, together with three early points from Marie Greenan and Karen Boyle, which gave the champions the confidence to settle into the game.
Wicklow were having trouble penetrating an airtight Monaghan defence, which compiled of Joanne McSkeane, Mary Meehan and the Kieran sisters Edel and Isobel, and it took 20 minutes before their free-taker Laura Manley had them off the mark.
Marie Greenan replied with a free and with team captain Siobhan McKenna and Michelle Morgan lording it at midfield. Greenan eased Treanor's side further in front from another free, which saw them into a 0-7 to 0-3 lead at the break.
Both sides swapped two scores apiece early on in the restart, but Monaghan extended their advantage once McQuaid and Greenan each flew shots over and when McKenna sent in a superb pass Morgan the centre-forward split the uprights. The icing on the cake would arrive shortly after when Morgan set-up her namesake Nicola Morgan, who smashed to the net to all but confirm victory.
Wicklow hit back with a goal of their own in injury-time, but more points from Shauna Finnegan and Greenan wrapped up the title and sparked wild celebrations from the Monaghan contingent.
Afterwards President of the Camogie Association, Joan O'Flynn paid tribute to both teams on a fine match performance and before presenting the Monaghan captain Siobhan McKenna with the Maire Ni Chinneid Cup. She also added that the Farney women had made history by becoming the first team to win the trophy for two consecutive years.
Monaghan (All-Ireland B final v Wicklow): Roisin McKenna; Louise O Connell, Aisling Greenan, Joanne McSkeane; Edel Kieran, Isobel Kieran, Mary Meehan; Michelle Morgan (0-1), Siobhan McKenna; Mairead McCarron, Shauna Finnegan(0-1), Eleanor McQuaid (0-2), Nicola Morgan (1-0), Marie Greenan (0-7), Karen Boyle (0-1).
"We played Wicklow in Ashbourne in August and I suppose nerves would have been an issue because some of our players were debutants playing in their first All-Ireland final. But we did have a lot of established players that we knew would be able to settle us into the game," said Treanor.
"We analysed their (Wicklow's) weaknesses. We knew that most of their strength was around midfield. Marie Greenan was always our target at full-forward and we built an early four or five point lead in the game, but at half-time we knew we needed to push on."
He added: "Michelle Morgan deservedly got 'Player of the Match' and Eleanor McQuaid, Sharon Finnegan, Siobhan McKennan and Marie Greenan, who scored seven points, were all brilliant for us."
Treanor also paid tribute to his backroom team of Paul Monaghan and Geraldine Clarke afterwards, as well as to the players, whom he said had put in "a tremendous effort" since he took over as manager to ensure that their All-Ireland bid remained on track.
"The celebrations weren't subdued, let's put it that way," he said. "We brought the Cup back to Castleblayney and the celebrations went long into the night. I had classed myself as an inexperienced manager and to come in and win an All-Ireland was a great feeling.
"Next year we will be targeting to set-out our stall in the Junior A Championship, because it is a much higher standard of camogie and we would know that from playing Tyrone. Hopefully we can maintain our status up there and in a few years challenge for the title."
Treanor believes that the key to Monaghan camogie's improvement is more clubs becoming involved in the sport.
"There's no question that camogie in this county is being dominated by Clontibret," he said Of the starting 15 in Monaghan, nine of them would be made up of Clontibret and next after that are Castleblayney, who are doing a lot of great work at ground level. Hopefully things will continue to improve and Monaghan can challenge for more silverware in years to come."
Hear, hear!
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