Scotstown's Nicholas Corrigan played a lead role on the Monaghan GAA stage in 2003. He was in stellar form as our boys sensationally eliminated defending All-Ireland champions Armagh from the Ulster championship and excelled consistently as the Blues proved themselves the most consistent side in Division One. Monaghan had many outstanding performers when they ruthlessly dumped Armagh out of the 2003 Ulster SFC in May, pulling off the 'Shock of the Season' with a stunning 0-13 to 0-9 victory. It was a day for heroes - but nobody played better than Nicholas Corrigan. The industrious attacker covered every blade of grass in St Tiarnach's Park on Sunday May 11th and left the Orchard County's notorious workaholics scratching their heads in complete bewilderment. In terms of work rate and application, Nicholas led by example on a day when each and every Monaghan player was deservedly afforded hero status. Corrigan and Monaghan were unlucky to lose to Down in the provincial quarter-final but bounced back with a fine victory over Westmeath in the Qualifiers. Despite a rousing second-half display against mighty Meath, Colm Coyle's team eventually bowed out of the premier competition. But many positives could be gleaned from the Royal County man's first year at the helm. Prominent amongst these is the official emergence of Scotstown playmaker Nicholas Corrigan as one of the most important footballers in the county. Corrigan had a superb year with the county and also terrorized every defence that tried to stand in his way at club level during '03. One of the most potent and determined dangermen in the county, he helped Scotstown finish the season at the top of the Credit Union senior football league. Unfortunately for the north county men, they came a cropper against Clontibret in an Owen Ward Cup semi-final played on home soil on Sunday November 9th. Defeat in that game was less than Brendan Lilis' team deserved for their efforts over the course of the year. Scotstown's senior championship aspirations ended on a disappointing note when they were well beaten ((1-14 to 0-7) by Carrickmacross Emmets at Clontibret on Sunday August 24th. The former proud kingpins of Monaghan GAA were hoping to capture the SFC for the first time since 1993 but were simply unable to cope with the unavailability through injury of three key men for the ill-fated quarter-final clash. Corner back Gerard Corrigan, wing back Damien F McKenna and county star Nicholas Corrigan were all forced to start on the bench. Earlier in the premier competition, Scotstown had beaten Gaeil Triucha before losing to eventual winners Castleblayney Faughs. In truth, they never really got into their stride in the SFC, as Nicholas concedes: "It's ten years now since we won a senior championship and we're going through a bit of a barren spell at the moment. Even though we didn't get the breaks in 2003, the bottom line is that we weren't good enough. We came up against a better Castleblayney team in the championship and Clontibret, who had won the senior double the previous year, were more experienced in the league semi-final." Nevertheless, losing the Owen Ward 'semi' was tough luck on Scotstown who set the pace all year at the top of Division One and looked on course for a first senior league final appearance since 1996, only to see all their good work come undone in 60 minutes. On the county front, the defeat of Armagh was the definite high point of 2003. Bearing in mind that Monaghan took such a notable scalp, was Nicholas happy with their season as a whole? "I have mixed emotions on that one. We didn't really capitalise on the Armagh win. I'm happy with some of it but at the same time it was somewhat unfulfilling. I'm disappointed with the way it all finished and we're certainly a better team than we showed against Down at Casement Park and against Meath in Clones. "Meath came at us with all guns blazing in the first half and we didn't play well at all until it was too late. I think the whole Colm Coyle thing geared them up a lot more than it did us. They got the two goals in the first half and that effectively finished it as a contest." Monaghan came back into it in the second half but desperately needed a goal to hammer home their superiority as Meath tired. Unfortunately the three-pointer was not forthcoming. In fact, Monaghan failed to raise a green flag all year in the championship, a statistic that did not go unnoticed in the camp. Says Nicholas: "I think that's one thing we definitely have to look at. It's bad enough not getting a goal but we didn't even create a decent goal-scoring opportunity in any of the four matches." Apart from when Paul Finlay was about to bag one against Down but was wrestled to the ground? Should that have been a penalty? "It was a blatant penalty but the referee doesn't always see it and sometimes they go against you. "To be honest, I think our season ended that day in Casement Park. We should have beaten Down. We might have taken our eye off the ball a little bit after the Armagh game but we still played well against Down and were well on top in the first half. When they got 1-2 at the start of the second half and we fell behind, we panicked a bit and our heads dropped. But hopefully we'll learn from that experience..." All in all, it was an encouraging year for Monaghan, who won the McKenna Cup and morphed from Ulster's whipping boys into giantkillers supreme. Nicholas agrees that progress was made: "We have laid down a marker and can now build on that. "We should have bigger support next year. Nobody expected anything from us this year but I think that has changed now. Expectations have increased and hopefully we'll have the support to reflect that. The players have proved they can mix it with the best in the province and confidence will be higher in 2004. "There are games there to be won. Ulster is wide open. What Monaghan really needs is to get two wins on the trot. If we could achieve that, it'd be interesting to see what happens then..." Nicholas is adamant that Monaghan have as good a chance of lifting the Anglo-Celt Cup as any of the other eight contenders. He notes: "It's wide open. Okay, Tyrone look strong and they're still young with a rich conveyor belt of talent coming through. They're going to provide formidable opposition for many years but they're not unbeatable. There are no bad teams in Ulster and the thing about football is that it's all on the day." Monaghan face Armagh [again] in the first round. Is this a dream draw or a nightmare one? "I'm looking forward to it. It's a good draw. We weren't expecting an easy draw anyway. There were three Ulster teams in the All-Ireland semi-finals and it would have been every bit as difficult if we'd been paired with the likes of Donegal or Fermanagh. "It's going to be a tough game. Armagh will be out for revenge but we're not turning out just to make up the numbers and we'll be confident of doing the job again. It's a local derby and a big, big game for both counties. Those are the ties every footballer wants to play in, so we can't wait. "There will be 15 jerseys up for grabs for that game and they won't be handed out softly. So from here on in, it's just a matter of everybody knuckling down and trying to get into the starting line-up." On the club front, Scotstown flattered to deceive in 2003. Major silverware was on the shopping list ... but things didn't go to script! "At the start of the year we had high hopes and we discussed winning a senior trophy and what we would have to do to win one. We had a great start in the league and were very consistent all year. We only lost four games, but unfortunately the fifth one we lost was the semi-final. "In the championship, we opened our account with a narrow defeat of Truagh and scraped into the next round. Against Castleblayney, we were confident and the squad was strong but they were the better team on the day and they showed their quality by going on to win yet another championship. We had a few injuries, which certainly didn't help in the championship, but we can't make any excuses. Looking at things realistically, we just weren't good enough." It's a decade now since Scotstown - once lords of all they surveyed in the county - ruled the roost in Monaghan. Every now and then, there's talk of a revival, but the anticipated recovery always fails to materialise. What's up? "We've had a lot of underage success and all the lads have plenty of medals, but we can't translate that into senior silverware. We just can't seem to rediscover our form of old at senior level. In fairness, we're not far away but something just isn't clicking into place. I can't put my finger on it..." Nicholas Corrigan won an U21 county championship with Scotstown in 1999. He has been on the first team since he was 17 and actually played in an Owen Ward final in his first season (1996). A former county minor, he broke onto the Monaghan senior team for the 2001/02 national football league and made his championship debut against Fermanagh in the summer of 2002. His brother Gerard is a key man in the Scotstown defence, while another brother, Kieran, captained the Scotstown side that won the junior C championship in '03. Meanwhile, a third brother, Michael, featured on the U16 team that contested league and championship finals in 2003. Evidently, Scotstown have ample cause for optimism. What are Nicholas' hopes for the club in 2004? "Hopefully we'll make it to the county final. That's the stage we want to play on and it's been too long since Scotstown have been up there mixing it with the big boys. "We'll also be hoping for another good run in the league and the target will be another semi-final place at least. It's very difficult at this stage to forecast what way the season might unfold, but we'll be very disappointed if we haven't some silverware to show at the end of it all." Champions of ireland The success of Scotstown's underage footballers in recent times simply brooks no debate. Last July more success came the club's way with victory in the All-Ireland Feile competition as mentor Eugene McKenna happily reflects upon. Scotstown's footballers have always been at the forefront of propelling Monaghan GAA Inc. upward and onward. And so it was last Summer when the blues' under fourteens did club and county pride by scooping the All-Ireland Feile Peile na nOg title. In the wake of Scotstown's Kilpatrick Cup success in 2002, expectations were, of course, pretty high among the local faithful. But nothing was taken for granted. "We knew that there was a lot of potential in the squad and a number of very good footballers but there has often been a lot of good young fellas in the club but we didn't always get the results we wanted. "Our success in Feile has been a great boost all the same for the club and, I think, for football in Monaghan generally," outgoing juvenile club chairman Eugene McKenna explains. Certainly nobody needs to remind the good and great of Scotstown just how fickle football can be in trying to buck the trend of young starlets 'falling away' year on year after showing some rare promise. "We'd be hopeful that a lot of these fellas will stick with the football and progress on up the ranks but there's no guarantee. "But after winning the under 13 league and qualifying to represent the county at Feile, we feel that the players definitely have the talent to continue to make an impression at underage level." Meanwhile, for now at least, Eugene, Michael Caulfield, Gerard Sherry and Michael Owen McMahon who masterminded the Feile success last summer are happy to take stock and re-charge their batteries ahead of yet another testing season. Pleased with the benefits which have accrued to Scotstown GFC since "the underage structures were put in place three or four years ago". And with the work being done on an ongoing basis by club coaching officer Brendan Lillis, Eugene says that the club has to work hard to make sure that the Feile success of 2003 is well and truly consolidated in the coming years: "We won the Feile in 1998 as well and about six of that team are on the club's current senior panel. We would really need to be getting at least five or six good players to be coming through from underage level each year. "We need to try and make sure that more fellas from this recent Feile winning squad come through at senior level in the coming years." But with some fine coaching at St. Macartan's College Rannafast Cup level helping to complement the coaching being done at Scotstown, Eugene believes that the current all-conquering set of under 14s have every chance of honing their skills to the highest degree. "They're a very keen bunch of lads to work with and one of the best things about them is that they're very willing to listen and learn. "I would be surprised if they didn't go on and win the minor championship in three years time." But as Eugene well knows a lot of water is destined to pass under the bridge before now and then. "I think these lads have the ability to win a minor title but there are a lot of distractions nowadays. "You can't blame fellas, for instance, who are around the 16 or 17 mark wanting to earn a bit of cash working during the summer or at weekends. "I think it all depends on how much the players themselves want out of football," Eugene cautions. As someone who has been at the coalface of juvenile football affairs in Scotstown for the last 12 years, Eugene admits that trophy-winning exploits like that which Scotstown undertook last July makes all the commitment involved for everybody all the worthwhile. "You can get a great buzz out of seeing the young fellas progressing up through the ranks like the likes of county minors Mark Duffy, Niall McCarville, James O'Hara and Gerard McKenna of the '98 side," Eugene opines. Needless to say the Scotstown under 14s who scooped the Division Three All-Ireland Feile crown in Galway fairly embellished their c.v. with five memorable victories en route to an exciting 2-6 to 2-4 victory over Limerick's Ahane at Pearse Stadium, Salthill in mid-July. "It was a tremendous couple of days. The trip exceeded all our expectations in every way. "On the way to the West, I don't think any of us with the team really genuinely thought we'd go the distance. "We knew the competition would be very stiff but we also our lads would give it their best shot. "We were based at Williamstown, close to the Roscommon border, and the club there were very good to us and they had great praise for all the lads too. "I was delighted for the players. "The tournament gave them great experience of playing against different players and different styles of play." After lining up with the other 127 teams at the tournament's impressive opening parade, Scotstown had their opening round game the following day when they took on Galway side St. Brendan's, Ballygar at Williamstown and impressed greatly as they romped to a comfortably win. The blues then took on Louth champions Geraldines St. Furseys in what proved to be the most decisive game of the group encounters. After a rip-roaring encounter, Scotstown dug deep to eventually account for their opponents on foot of a 4-7 to 1-3 scoreline. Next up was a semi-final clash with Padraig Pearses (Roscommon). In a game which saw the Monaghan representatives play some of their best football of the competition, a 3-8 to 0-6 victory was achieved with two early goals by captain Mark McDevitt helping his side to overcome the westerners. "We were glad to get the goals because it was a real nip and tuck affair," Eugene remembers. The final against Limerick side Ahane had one interesting side-angle to it in that the Limerick side were coached by former Scotstown star Rory McDermott. Played at the magnificently refurbished Pearse Stadium on the morning of the All-Ireland SHC quarter-final clash between Galway and Tipperary, the final was a fine contest with Scotstown leading all the way and easing into a 1-4 to 0-2 lead at the interval before going onto withstand the best Ahane could dish out as they eventually secured a 2-6 to 2-4 victory. So did Scotstown truly deserve to lift the title? "I think so. To my mind, the lads proved they were the best team in division three. "We had the better balanced team and we were probably stronger all-round than even the '98 winning team. "Physically, the team was very strong up the middle, there was good pace all around the team and a lot of good, skilful players on the team too," adds Eugene who acted as the first-aid person for the successful Feile team of 1998. Born and bred in Scotstown, Eugene admits that he didn't enjoy similar any rich tidings as a player himself. Getting onto Scotstown teams which were invariably competing in Ulster and All-Ireland club finals just wasn't that easy, he explains! "The thing about those times when the club was winning so many senior titles is that so many of us thought those good days would go on and on." One wonders can the crop of All-Ireland Feile winners from 2003 help, in conjunction with other recent all-conquering underage Scotstown teams, to kick-start a bevy of senior successes sooner rather than later? "I hope so. It'll be interesting to see how things work out over the next three or four years," Eugene answers. Watch this space! Tweet

Most Read Stories