As manager of the Monaghan senior hurling team for the past three years, Trim man John Andrews made a telling contribution. The Oriel County stickmen charted definite progress during Andrews' stint at the helm and, even though the Meath man has now moved on, he leaves Monaghan hurling in a much healthier state than it was when he took the post. Former Trim and Meath hurler John Andrews became Monaghan hurling manager in January 2002. At the time, the border county was at a low ebb, struggling to make any impact whatsoever. Andrews rose to the challenge and turned Monaghan's fortunes around. A measure of the progress made during those three seasons can be gleaned from Monaghan's heroic performance against none other than Down in a 2004 Ulster junior hurling championship semi-final. Doomsayers believed Monaghan would lose by a cricket score - and then some! - but they put in a stunning performance to come within two points of their more illustrious opponents. Simply, it was a sensational display against the odds. It is somewhat poignant that the May 16 match at Clones was John Andrews' last engagement as Monaghan senior hurling manager. It was one of the most rousing performances we've witnessed from Monaghan … this from a team that was in dire straits when the Royal County man took charge in early '02. Hurling has always been the poor relation of Monaghan GAA, trailing some distance behind the big ball code as well as ladies football in terms of popularity, but Andrews has helped instil pride in the game in the county and has laid a solid platform to build upon in future seasons. John began his reign as Monaghan hurling boss in January 2002. He was appointed on a one-year-rolling basis and was re-elected as the start of each of the two following seasons. He resigned at the end of the 2004 term, after Monaghan's participation in the U21 championship came to an end. Why did he decide to call it a day? "Work and family commitments played a part, but I also felt that three years was enough and that I had taken Monaghan hurling as far as I could. It was time for a new man to come in with different ideas, to freshen the whole thing up…" When John took the job on in the first place, he was confronted by a daunting scenario: "I met John Graham and Gary Carville and the statistics they gave me painted a bleak picture. Monaghan had failed to win a game in something like three years and it got so bad that, for their final game in 2001, a couple of selectors had to tog out and play." Sounds like a post any aspiring intercounty manager would avoid like the plague! What possessed the Meath man to take it on? "I retired from playing in 1997 and took over Trim and we won three of the next four senior championships. People weren't that impressed and said that I had taken over a good team, so I saw the Monaghan job as a greater challenge." While their championship performance impressed in 2004, Monaghan's league form failed to catch the eye. Their sole victory in Division Three was a one-point win over floundering Cavan - nothing to write home about there. "The league form wasn't good at all," John concedes. "but it wasn't indicative of how Monaghan usually play in the league. "In 2002, we won seven games in a row and qualified for the Division Four final, which was lost to Mayo after a replay. Croke Park, in its wisdom, then restructured the leagues and we ended up in the same group as Mayo again in 2003, and they won promotion again." Indeed, the '04 league run was an anomaly. Pride has been restored in Monaghan hurling and the NHL was sacrificed to a certain extent last year, as John confirms: "This year, we set out to win the Ulster junior hurling championship. We used the league to work on a lot of different things and to experiment with players in different positions." The league was used for the sole purpose of preparing for the championship. It nearly worked. In their last league game, Monaghan lost to Donegal by 18 points. Donegal, in turn, lost to Down by 22 points. Two weeks later, Monaghan were up against the Mourne men in the semi-final of the 2004 Ulster JHC at Clones. A sound thrashing was predicted. Thing was, however, Monaghan hadn't shown their hand in the league. Everything had been geared toward peaking for the championship and Monaghan hit the ground running. Down didn't know what was happening. They were very fortunate to escape St Tiernach's Park with a two-point win. Monaghan, the wily underdogs, deserved better. "We played a completely different system against Donegal because we didn't want to show anybody the kind of game we intended to play in the championship," John notes. Bad luck contributed to Monaghan's narrow defeat. Mickey McHugh had enjoyed a phenomenal success rate from frees all year but pulled his hamstring in the warm-up. The Farney men missed several frees from within Mickey's range over the course of the match - especially in the closing ten minutes - leading the outgoing manager to claim: "I have no doubt that not having Mickey was the losing of the game. "The game was played on a good pitch in Clones and I think it proved that the work we had done during the national league was a success. We gave a great performance and getting so close to Down was a serious achievement." Andrews bowed out on a high - it was a stunning effort. But… "We were disappointed to lose. For the commitment I got from those lads over three years, they deserved some silverware and it was a shame they never got it. These are true hurling men and their commitment is beyond question." A lot of people might scoff at the idea of true hurling men in Monaghan but John presses the point: "A group of us went up to the All-Ireland final and we decided to wear our Monaghan tops. People said to us that they didn't know there was hurling in Monaghan and we told them that we were probably more genuine hurling men that they were! It's easy to follow Kilkenny, but it's a lot more difficult in a traditional football county. GAA snobbery towards hurling exists in a lot of these less traditional counties. The likes of Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Monaghan and Armagh all have some very good hurlers, but the Association doesn't do enough for them." John Andrews says he will remember his term in charge of Monaghan fondly. "It's something I will cherish for the rest of my life and I will always have an affinity to the Monaghan team. I think we were successful. Players want to play for the county now. "They have a new manager in Owen Connell from Galway and hopefully he will get the same commitment I got and can take it another step forward. "We sacrificed our league campaign for the championship last year. We made a conscious decision to experiment during the league as the championship was our only priority. We tinkered with it during the league and ended up producing an excellent championship display. Down thought they were coming to Clones for a stroll and they knew they were lucky to get out with the win. They went on to win Ulster and played Meath in the All-Ireland final." Speaking of Meath, John has returned to his native county as manager of the Royal County ladies - another fresh challenge for the Trim man. He was a dual player with his hometown club for two decades and managed both the senior hurlers and footballers in 2001. Tweet

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