Months on and the air around Castleblayney, Clontibret, Clones and Corduff is still clogged with the dust of another dream that's been demolished. Monaghan's bid to beat the big boys in 2008 bit the dust with Kerry outslugging Ulster's wannabes in a maelstrom of exciting championship football at Croke Park. Ciaran Hanratty was in the eye of the storm when the winds of change proved insufficient to usher in a new era for the Oriel County. In the aftermath of Kerry's thrilling All-Ireland SFC quarter-final win, Kingdom legend Eoin 'Bomber' Liston commented: "Monaghan really put it up to Kerry and showed the same kind of bite and hunger and appetite for hard labour that we've seen from Tyrone and Armagh in the past. "They chased lost causes and harried Kerry players whenever they had the ball and they had forwards like Ciaran Hanratty and Rory Woods to punish any slips at the back." Sadly neither Hanratty or Woods managed to quillotine Kerry's match hopes. Hanratty did come within inches though of nabbing a vital goal, not long after he was fouled for a penalty which was dispatched by team-mate Tommy Freeman. Monaghan's hoardes in the stands at Croker and the thousands sitting around the telly back home rose in unison as the Faughs' dynamo skinned his marker along the Cusack Stand. Hanratty proceeded to race in on goal and upon seeing the whites of Diarmuid Murphy's eyes let fly from an acute angle only to see the ball flash barely wide of the butt of the far post. The stuff of nightmares, one supposes: "I felt a chance of a goal was on and I had to go for it," Hanratty confesses. "If it had went in, I would have been a hero but as things worked out, it went down as a vital miss. "As a forward, you get chances like that in different matches and you win some and you lose some. It has gone through my head a few times since but you have to move on. "It was just one incident in the match but it did have a fair oul bearing on the result and I'd have to say that if I had found the net it would have given us a good platform to build upon. "When you get to play at senior intercounty level, very often it's a case of goals winning matches but the hardest thing for me about the day was that we lost the game." And so another glorious failure for Monaghan at championship level. While 2007 saw the border county at least reach the Ulster final, the past year saw them fall short on that score. Hanratty is wont to talk about the collective rather than the individual and the word 'I' doesn't appear to feature too prominently in his lexicon. He stresses that "we ultimately failed in the past year in our objective to get our hands on the Ango-Celt Cup and there's no hiding from that fact." And again: "We didn't perform in the (Ulster) championship and we didn't match the expectations that were there among the supporters and the panel itself." He acknowledges that the omens weren't good for a tilt at the big prize in Ulster once things went a bit pear-shaped in the NFL in the tail-end of their "fairly solid" campaign. "We had a bit of an up and down series of games in the league and it was disappointing that we missed out on promotion to Division One. "But the biggest disappointment was our defeat to Fermanagh in the first round of the Ulster championship," says Hanratty, a half-time sub against the Ernesiders. "Things didn't go right for us which was a major slap in the face because we had hopes of going much further than the opening round. "It was a matter of salvaging some pride after the Fermanagh game. "Everyone in the county was down after the championship exit so we had to show a bit of character. "We wanted to show that we were a better team than what we looked like against Fermanagh and that's no disrespect to Fermanagh because they showed by taking Armagh to a replay that they're a very decent side and showed too maybe that we weren't as bad as some people were saying." Redemption for Hanratty and co. came in the shape of victories over Derry and Donegal, both of which offered solace in bulk, according to ace attacker Hanratty. Monaghan were "on the floor for a couple of days" after the defeat to Fermanagh and the win over the Oak Leafers, it seems, was the perfect pick-me-up. "We had around eight weeks to wait for the Derry game so everyone had plenty of time to take stock and assess where we were and where we intended going. "Everything was on the line against Derry; it was the last chance saloon and we knew just how tough Derry were going to be after their success in winning the national league. "Thankfully everything worked out well for us and you couldn't have questioned the commitment or spirit by any Monaghan player that day. "Even though we were without Gary McQuaid and Paul Finlay, the team played very well and it was a great occasion to be part of it and a great day for Monaghan football." Hanratty reckons the increasing strength of the Monaghan squad over the recent while was key to the county's rejuvenation, post-Fermanagh, last year. "I think even the win over Donegal showed up how much stronger the squad is because not many teams go to Ballybofey and come away with a win. "Every single player wanted to see that Monaghan won its first championship game in Ballybofey since 1985 and we went into the lion's den totally determined to prove a point." And even though the wheels eventually came off the wagon in Croker, Hanratty says Monaghan again made their mark in 2008, albeit not in big black bold letters. For his part, the player shows a self-critical streak in assessing his introductory role against Fermanagh and his starting forays against Derry, Donegal and Kerry. However those clued into Hanratty's club career in 2008 will tell you that his bid to attain maximum fitness levels were gravely hampered by a bout of glandular fever. His medical travails kicked in after - and not because of - Castleblayney's defeat in the 2007 Monaghan SFC final to Clontibret and saw him go off the radar very quickly. "From mid-October onwards, I couldn't either do any training or very limited training for a couple of months and it wasn't until nearly May that I got back to myself. "The game against Armagh in the league was my first game back but at that stage I was still well behind the lads in terms of fitness - it was as if I had no pre-season in soccer terms. "I'm not using my battle for fitness as an excuse. I was 100% ready for the games that came after the Fermanagh match but it was frustrating beforehand." 2008 was the Castleblayney flyer's third championship season with Monaghan's senior team and he says it was a year in which his eyes were opened like never before. "I think it was only this year that I realised just how quickly the seasons go by at intercounty level and how important it is that you make them count as much as possible. "Even in those three years, there's been a fair turnover of players on the Monaghan panel and it makes you think about just how short a shelf life an intercounty player can have. "It's so important that you give it your all while you're around and I'm looking forward to being at my best in 2009. "Hopefully we'll end up with just more than pats on the backs. We want to show something for our efforts and that means major silverware." Tweet

Most Read Stories