Senior hurling selector Jimmy Hayes portrays the sort of honesty in his assessment of Monaghan hurling in '05 as he did when playing for his adopted county. Jimmy Hayes is a Tipperary native who pulls no punches when reflecting on the fortunes of Monaghan's senior hurlers over the course of the past 12 months. The affable selector is positive and to the point in reflecting on a year in which promise was shown at senior level without it actually being fulfilled. In the immortal words of an old gentleman snooker player who was wont to talk about a 'good-bad' shot, Jimmy suggests that Monaghan seniors had a 'good-bad' year. "It was a bit of a disappointing year overall with the first stage of the national league going well but then things didn't go right for us in the second part," Jimmy comments. And yet as Jimmy rightly recalls the county got off on the wrong foot when going down by a massive 21 points defeat (0-7 to 3-19) away to Carlow in the Keogh Cup. Carlow led by 2-12 to 0-4 at the interval in last January's division 3B league opener, leaving the Monaghan players having to work overtime to save grace thereafter. "Thankfully the lads picked themselves up well for the game after that against Tyrone," say Jimmy of the subsequent 3-9 to 2-11 smash and grab victory in Omagh. "We looked to have been heading for another defeat but Robbie Healy scored direct from a free to win the game for us," Jimmy recalls. Monaghan's victory was a sweet one for all concerned, and no more so than for Jimmy, for his cousin Joe Hayes - Monaghan's former manager - was Tyrone's trainer in '05. Healy's injury-time goal gave everyone in the Farney team camp a real lift and the increased confidence in the squad was amply reflected the next day out against Cavan. Monaghan made hard work of scooping the two NHL points at stake at Gavan Duffy Park though and the final score of 0-12 to 1-7 fairly reflected the closeness of the tie. Cavan gave their hosts a shock when goaling in the fourth minute but, according to Jimmy, the Monaghan think-tank wasn't overly worried at that juncture. "The fact that it came so early in the game meant that we had plenty of time to recover but we really didn't start playing 'till the second half. Monaghan trailed by 0-5 to 1-5 to Cavan at the interval in that late February contest and didn't look at all comfortable with their opponents' hurly-burly style of play. "We hit an awful lot of wides against Cavan but the worst thing about the early part of the season was the injuries we had to contend with. "For various games we were without the likes of Robbie Healy, David Connolly, Rory Woods, Ciaran Connolly, Pat Walsh, Shane Sullivan and Gareth Sullivan. "We had to go through a fair part of the season without having a full squad available to us and that's something a county like Monaghan can't afford." Nevertheless the Owen Connell-managed squad showed a lot of character and determination to nick a point (2-9 to 1-12) against neighbours Fermanagh in the third round. The dismissal young Latton star Bernard O'Brien early in the first half certainly didn't help Monaghan's cause but Jimmy wasn't prepared to make any excuses, especially given that Fermanagh were eventually reduced to 13 men before the homesters' Kevin McGarry fired over a levelling free on the 70th minute mark. "We were a bit lucky to come away with a point because we didn't play too well and I'd say it was more a case of Fermanagh dropping two points than us winning one." A fighting draw was again the order of the day in Monaghan's next match against Louth in Gavan Duffy Park in late March. The hosts maintained their unbeaten run thanks to a last minute equalising free from Bernard O'Brien who had earlier in the day played for Monaghan Under 21 footballers. Injury-hit Monaghan were full value for their 0-15 to 1-12 draw with Robbie Healy - with five points - a key man on the day. "The fact that they (Louth) reached the Nicky Rackard Cup final shows that there isn't that much ground to be made up if you're looking to go well in division three. "Louth aren't a bad team with the Dunnes on board but Monaghan has to take heart from the fact that Louth got to Croke Park," the Carrick Emmets clubman says. All good things have to come to an end at some stage though and so it was that Monaghan's unbeaten run concluded in mid-April when Armagh triumphed by 2-7 to 0-8. A late scoring spree by the Orchard County which yielded 2-2 in the final 18 minutes did the damage at Gavan Duffy Park. "I don't think we had any luck that day against Armagh," declares Jimmy who played with the aforementioned Joe Hayes on Monaghan's All-Ireland junior triumph in 1997. "We lost Conor McGinnity and Robbie Healy early in that game and then late in the game we missed two 65s which could have put us on level terms." It was woe upon woe however in Monaghan's ventures in the second series of games in the 2005 National Hurling League. A heavy 5-21 to 0-6 defeat to Mayo at Castlebar in their second game on April 17th was a big setback and a kick in the teeth for the Connell-led management team. There were mitigating reasons though with injuries ruling out Robbie Healy and Conor McGinnity while Rory Woods and Bernard O'Brien were on county football duty. To add insult to injury, Pat Walsh aggravated an old injury in the warm-up before the game and couldn't take his place. In dreadful conditions, the game was one best forgotten by Monaghan for all sorts of reason, not least because of the absolute dearth of scoring opportunities created. One wonders just what difference the availability of Woods and O'Brien would have made to the Monaghan cause? "When you're without any of your better players, you're going to struggle - that goes without saying," the former Knockavilla Kickhams clubman answers. "But you're always going to have fellas who will want to play for their county in football and you have to respect that. "The irony is that the more successful football is in Monaghan the harder it is to get fellas to stick with the hurling. "Some of the best hurlers there has been in Monaghan over the years have been county footballers and I don't see things changing on that front in the forseeable future." Jimmy admits there was a difference in class on the day in Castlebar but he insists that Monaghan ought to have aspirations on being at least on the same level as Mayo. Round three of the second series of matches in division 3B saw Monaghan lose out to Donegal by 0-9 to 3-13 in Gavan Duffy Park on April 30th. Once again Monaghan lacked penetration up front and never looked like clawing back Donegal's interval lead of 1-8 to 0-5. "The second series was very disappointing because we didn't take even a point from any of our three games," acknowledges the former Monaghan inter-county star. The Monaghan think-tank decided to afford their charges a short break after the completion of the league games with training only re-commencing on May 8th. "We had no problem with the players' commitment overall with the vast majority of them showing tremendous commitment all year. "But we had to try and pick up morale after the league because it was dented and the championship games were due to be played in the middle of June." Morale was sufficiently raised to help Monaghan see off the challenge of Warwickshire by 0-17 to 1-11 in an entertaining Nicky Rackard Cup opener in Gavan Duffy Park. "It was important to get the win over Warwickshire but then we fell back again by losing to London in the next game," Jimmy explains. Monaghan lost out by 2-11 to 1-20 in Ruislip (in the absence of the holidaying Hayes) to the would-be Rackard Cup champions. Was it any consolation that the Exiles went onto win the Cup? "Not really although it did tell us something of the standard that we need to achieve if we are to jump from being also-rans to winners. "I was happy that the county played in the Rackard Cup but we could have done better even though the other group might have been possibly stronger. "We have to aim as high as we can and for the coming year we should be aiming to get to the second stage of the league," Jimmy proffers. Monaghan finished their championship campaign with a 2-8 to 3-11 away to defeat to Longford. The game was uncontroversial but Croke Park's decision thereafter to allow two teams from the group to qualify for the play-offs certainly caught Monaghan offside as Owen Connell and co. had been led to believe that one team (and that being table-topper London) would quality only. "It was a mix-up from Croke Park and it was disappointing because we didn't think we were still in with a chance of qualifying before the Longford game," Jimmy explains. Jimmy is optimistic that with more and more 'home based' players now wearing the county jersey, Monaghan can duly emerge as qualifiers in the coming years. "If the young lads coming up from under 21 can stick together and the likes of Inniskeen and Latton can continue to improve then I'd be hopeful. "There's a fair degree of talent in the county and if the attitude is right, then we can go places but it's difficult to tell what the future holds," concludes Jimmy who has intimated that he will again be available as a selector for the county team in 2006. Tweet

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