Gary McQuaid is a players' player. The evidence is that Banty clearly rates him as well. And Monaghan football fans have consistently vented their support for him. If the transfer business was in vogue in GAA circles, Tyholland and Monaghan powerhouse defender Gary McQuaid would be hot property. McQuaid is, in the vernacular, well got all round. In 2007 he was honoured with the Monaghan Intermediate Player of the Year award. Right and fitting. However it is a measure of the man that he credits his team-mates with hoisting him up on such a pedestal. Behind every award winner is a group of selfless players, he suggests. He genuinely didn't expect to receive the award, he testifies, but given that it fairly embellished the joy of winning an IFC medal, he says he was only too happy to receive it. "It was a nice double," McQuaid admits. "It was a good year all-round for the club but we just got what we deserved 'cause a lot of work went into the year. "Everyone belonging to the team put it into it and we got what we deserved. It was a big boost. Overall I think we proved we were the best team at intermediate level in 2007." 2008 proved much less invigorating and successful though for McQuaid and his Tyholland team-mates. It wasn't so much a case of pride before the fall as the famine after the feast. The wheels well and truly came off the wagon with the team unable to bed down in the vaunted senior ranks for more than just the one, single season. The fact was Tyholland just couldn't make the step up from senior ranks and nail down a safe position among the nest of well-seasoned incumbents. "Last season was a bit of a disaster, not staying up," says McQuaid. "We had a lot of young, inexperienced lads on the team and we got off to a bad start which didn't help us. "Most of all though, losing Declan Loughman and the chopping and changing of the management team as a result meant that we never really got settled and into our stride. "We had John Morrison first but then after four or five games he stood down and Gene (McGinnity) came in and he did his best but the lack of continuity all year didn't do us any good. "We have to put the past year behind us though and look to 2009. What else can you do? We have some good lads at underage level coming through and there's hope there. "Every couple of years we get maybe two or three lads who come up through the ranks and I'd be optimistic we will have a right good panel for next year." McQuaid hints at a sense of deja vu in recalling the past year at club level. He says much the same scenario unfolded when last the north Monaghan crew graduated to division one. It seems that the adage 'maith an tus, leath an oibre' hasn't quite been part of Tyholland's lexicon in more recent years and the club has paid the price. "For the last couple of times we got promotion, we didn't make a good enough stab at staying up. The last time we were in division one we had a bad start to the season as well. "We left it again too late this year to play our best stuff and find a bit of form in the league. You need to get the points up on the board as early as possible but we didn't do that." And the key factors which led to Tyholland's fall from grace in 2008? "It was a combination of a few factors but, on the field, I'd say our scoring rate let us down a bit. We didn't take enough of our chances in front of goal. "But it's a team thing and we should have done better in different games in terms of holding onto leads that we managed to engineer. "In fairness, it's a fairly inexperienced team overall and it showed in our performances away from home in particular because we were pushed about too easy at times. "We were too inconsistent as well. We won four games on the trot at home but couldn't take that form with us on the road but, when all is said and done, there's no excuses." A born winner, 28-year old McQuaid acknowledges that he simply can't identify any silver lining which may be stitched into Tyholland's 2008 season. He believes that the league table doesn't lie and that, like Monaghan Harps, Tyholland's faithful must face up to the fact that their premier team just wasn't good enough to stay senior. "Teams coming up from division two nearly always struggle to stay senior anyway so we're not unique in that regard," he comments. "Like a lot of others, we found we were that bit too good for intermediate but not just good enough to hold our own at senior level. "It was a similar thing in the championship where in the first game against 'blayney in Clontibret we stuck with them 'till about 15 minutes to go and then the cream came to the top. "The game against Carrick saw us going into it with a few injuries but at the end of the day it was another game that showed we just weren't strong enough. "Our form picked up well after the championship and we won a few games that picked us up but unfortunately we couldn't string enough of them together. "We had too many narrow defeats by one or two points and those killed us in the end. Games against Latton and Scotstown where they got last minute scores were killers." A new season though, a new sense of hope perhaps? "Definitely. We have a good, young panel that'll get better and stronger. There's a lot of talent there and I'm sure we'll be challenging for honours next year. "I think there's another championship title in these fellas. We've only won it (IFC) once and that was in 2007 and we've enough good men around still to win it again." Meanwhile on the intercounty front, the powerfully-built defender is also looking forward to helping a team that finds its best form and realise its potential. He was agonisingy ruled out of Monaghan's first round All-Ireland SFC Qualifier last year after the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee duly acted on referee Derek Fahy's (Longford) match report which referred to the Tyholland clubman's infraction during Monaghan's Ulster SFC clash with Fermanagh on May 25th last. His dismissal for an altercation with Ernesider Shane McCabe was untypical and borne out of frustration, pure and simple. When McQuaid declined to lodge a request for a hearing to the Central Hearings Committee within three days, the file was closed and an eight week suspension handed out. Thus it is clear that the highly-experienced defender 'cum midfielder has some unfinished business to attend to when the firm terrain and brighter days prevail. He accepts that 2009 will arguably see a re-visit of the nails-almost-to-the-bone stuff which has pertained under Seamus McEnaney's watch as Monaghan team-manager. Fans countywide and club and team-managements who have overseen McQuaid's modus operandi know that he brings a lot to the table. McQuaid is very often the fulcrum round which Monaghan's defence work their patterns with patience and persistence in going forward in search of scores. He has a bluechip background which is reflected in the kind of composure, kicking action and vision that he brings to bear for club and county. His value to Monaghan is immense and his vision, passing skills and intelligent running off the ball firmly reflect just why he's the apotheosis of the lynchpin in Gaelic football. Ever since graduating onto the Monaghan senior team, McQuaid's skill has more often than not been the lubricant of the county defence's more successful days. Forwards generally live or die on the frequency of good, quality deliveries from the back and, in that respect, forwards' allies don't come much better than the Tyholland stalwart. Capable of energising his team-mates with a lung-tearing burst out of defence, McQuaid has the ability also to plant passes on the very spots where his frontmen love to run onto. Over the years his composure and class has often given Monaghan the kind of leverage to forge up field in pursuit of a leveller or merely consolidation. Close aficionados of the Monaghan football scene will tell you that the Tyholland terrier has matured greatly as a footballer over the last five years A veritable collossus at Croke Park on his recent visits, McQuaid has been a bulwark of the county team since his recovery from an operation (in Germany) in mid-2008. An exceptional athlete whose forays up the field to augment the team's attacking options make him a fan's delight, McQuaid has always stood up to the plate. Arguably the most accomplished ever footballer to wear the Tyholland colours, McQuaid's leadership ability brooks no debate. The powerhouse defender is currently engaged, in tandem with the rest of the Monaghan senior players, in pursuing a rigorous personal programme in the gym ahead of the commencement of collective training in the New Year. "Getting a break for November and December is good and will help re-charge the batteries," he muses. "We were very disappointed not to win the Ulster title last summer and then come so close to defeating Kerry in Croke Park. "But we've shown that we're not that far away and with Tyrone going onto win the All-Ireland, there's plenty of inspiration there." And the 2009 Ulster SFC draw against Derry? "We could have got a harder draw, we could have got an easier one but we'll have to just approach it in the best possible manner and do our very best. "It'll be a tough game as will the next round, whoever makes it through, against the winners of Armagh and Tyrone but they're all tough games in Ulster." Tweet

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