If Gerry Murphy is choosing a destination for a holiday or perhaps investing in a second home he is unlikely to choose Donegal, as that county has proven something of a bogey team to his aspirations for his under age hurlers in Monaghan. By John Graham. Donegal again this year proved Monaghan's bogey team. They had denied Monaghan honours at minor level last year in a close finish to the Ulster minor league when they came to Scotshouse and defeated the home team by a point. Had Monaghan defeated Donegal that day they would have forced a play-off and in the minor C championship this year it was a similar story with Monaghan going into the final game against Donegal needing a win to force a play-off, but their two points defeat meant they went out of the championship. However it wasn't all doom and gloom for Gerry Murphy and his under age hurlers as they won the Ulster Minor Hurling League, but that made the disappointment all the more palpable when they did not complete the double. Monaghan were expected to do well this year after their great victory in the under 16 C championship last year but a number of matters along with the Donegal influence conspired to deny them the chance to put under 16 & Minor championship titles back-to-back. Things looked very promising for Monaghan in the Ulster Minor Hurling League when they made a good start away from home with a two points victory over Donegal. They followed this up with a comprehensive win over Cavan and then a hard fought seven points victory over Antrim in Clones. Monaghan were well on their way to being top team in the league when they were awarded the points against Fermanagh who withdrew from the competition. In normal circumstances finishing top of the league would not automatically give a team the league title but the Ulster Hurling Committee had decided that the winner took all on this occasion and so Monaghan had at least some medals to present to the young players who were helping to spread the hurling gospel. Missionary work however is never easy and the game of hurling in Monaghan is experiencing just as difficult challenges in achieving their aim as any missionaries have down through the years, from apathy to downright indifference. At the recent Youth Convention Mick Hannon whom is one of Gerry Murphy's right hand men decried the lack of coverage of hurling activities in the reports to convention, further proof that there is a total lack of perception at certain levels of what hurling is about and what it needs. "Hurling needs people, but most of all hurling needs more investment of resources, as Monaghan would be much the poorer as a county and it could not even be cast as a full unit of the GAA if hurling goes from the scene," argued Hannon. Having won the Ulster Minor Hurling League there was a quiet air of confidence that Monaghan could go on and add the minor C championship to that title. However, that was a much more demanding proposition as they would come up against stronger opposition and other problems that definitely affected the overall strength of the team. "The biggest problem that we had at this level" according to Gerry Murphy "was injuries that players picked up playing football and I suppose the surprise was that we actually won the league without the eight or nine players who were members of the county minor football panel while we had one player suspended. That wouldn't have been so bad on its own because we could expect to have those players back when the county minor football team was out of competition but that didn't happen as the club competitions then came on stream and there were even more demands on the young players. And that is not the first time that this has happened, it is a problem that has been highlighted before but it would appear that those who can do something about it are either unwilling or are being prevented from addressing the situation. "Despite the shortcomings and the restrictions it placed on the team selection and the options we had, we faced into our first competitive game against Tyrone away from home and came away with a good four points victory. Louth were next on the agenda but we had eight points to spare over them after a good game in Carrickmacross and we also defeated Antrim for the second time this year, that game again being played in Clones. We had also picked up the points against Fermanagh who had withdrawn from the competition but Donegal had been making similar progress and so we headed off to Ballybofey for what was effectively an Ulster final as the winners would progress to the next stage of the competition. "A couple of players had been recovering from injuries, particularly Bernard O'Brien and I fully expected to have him back for that match although we still had several other players injured. We arrived at the venue to find Bernard had picked up another injury on the Thursday and another couple of players were carrying niggly injuries that they had picked up in club football games so our physio had ten people to attend to before the game and I put our defeat down completely to that. The same happened Monaghan at senior level this year when they had to go into a very important game with two players out as they had picked up injuries in a club match the previous evening and it is just simply not good enough. It needs to change but it will take a whole mind set change to alter that because the status of hurling is ingrained in the Monaghan psyche. While we have made progress and have been applauded for doing so and wished well in our attempts to make further progress, the people concerned will not take any of the obstacles out of our way. "Part of the problem however is that the hurling clubs themselves are not standing up and fighting their corner, most of the clubs are just one man bands and as that one person looks after everything at grass-roots level there is no one to make contributions higher up and the clubs will have to address this. To even stay where we are in Monaghan at the moment as far as hurling development is concerned we will need two or three people working with each development squad and the hurling coach liaising with these people and supervising their programme of work as opposed to driving it himself." Last year Gerry Murphy was running all the development squads himself and that just simply is not on. Speaking to Gerry Murphy during the year he was of the opinion that the standard of coaching at club level in the county is not good. "In an attempt to keep young players on side too many people are willing to let them do it as they feel as opposed to learning the basic skills properly," stated Gerry. Murphy is also of the opinion that a coaching scheme must be imposed so that progress in improving at county level is not impeded, as he and the couple of people working with him have to go back and eradicate the bad habits and start to teach the basic skills at that stage instead of moving the players on to the next level. "If players have learned the basic skills properly at the right time then with the work that is being done on the development squads the pace at which they can perform those skills and particularly their first touch will pick up." Gerry Murphy's biggest fear is that if these problems are not addressed very quickly then Monaghan will begin to move backwards. "It would take very little to see us drop back from where we are at the moment, the interest out there among the young lads is unreal, the hunger is there but we have to get them organised and we have to make space for them to learn and space for them to play. There is talk in the stronger counties of the future of the dual player or indeed the lack of a future for the dual player, but little do the authorities know that the dual player at under age level is an even bigger problem for the so-called weaker counties like Monaghan. We talk of not putting our young people under pressure but it may ultimately come down to it that the players will have to choose whether to stick with football or hurling." Gerry Murphy believes that playing football does affect the hurling skills. "They are too totally different games, a completely different ethos and they need a different approach, a different level of concentration and the worst thing that can happen to a player is that they will begin to apply the skills and tactics of football when they are then out playing hurling later on. It simply does not work." Another problem that Monaghan is facing is the fact that Gerry Murphy will not be available as their full-time hurling coach come the new year. That would be the biggest backward step that hurling has taken and unless his shoes are filled and filled quickly, all the work that he did and all the progress that he made will count for very, very little. Monaghan's Results: Ulster Minor Hurling League: Monaghan 2-11, Donegal 4-3 Monaghan 7-11, Cavan 0-4 Monaghan w/o Fermanagh scr Monaghan 3-12, Antrim "C" 3-5. Minor "C" Championship: Monaghan 3-9, Tyrone 3-13, Monaghan 2-14, Louth 2-6 Monaghan 3-4, Antrim"C" 0-7 Monaghan w/o Fermanagh scr Monaghan 1-7, Donegal 1-9. 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