Mixed fortunes could best describe the hurling year at senior level in Monaghan although if the mixture was taken to describe disappointing and more disappointing it might not be too far off the mark either. By John P Graham. It was a year that promised much but delivered little. It was a year when little went right, a year that saw a change of management between the national hurling league and the Rackard Cup and a year too that saw Monaghan lose to opposition from across the water for only the second time. Monaghan lost to Warwickshire in their opening game in the Rackard Cup and previous to that they had lost to London in the old format national hurling league in Carrickmacross back in the nineties. Of eight games played Monaghan only won two and lost six, two of them by sizeable margins to Derry in the Rackard Cup and Longford in the Allianz Hurling league quarter final. And it could all have been so different as Monaghan started well and after their promising win away to Sligo they were in the frame for promotion. That however was as good as it got with injuries, club commitments, absenteeism and any number of other problems conspiring to send things into a downward spiral with the result that by season's end things were at a very low ebb. Things looked much better in Sligo when a strong second-half performance that was underpinned by the accuracy of Pat Walsh from play and frees, saw Monaghan pick up two valuable league points in an at times robust contest in Tourlestrane. "I was very pleased with the outcome in Sligo that day as it left us in a position to strike for a play-off place and it was a very good win especially away from home but even more so I was happy with the work rate that the boys showed at that stage. We didn't play well against Donegal and so we went to Sligo knowing that we needed the points and the result put the outcome of our section back in our own hands," said the manager. "We had got our campaign off to a winning start with a five points victory over Leitrim and even though we lost to Donegal we could still have challenged for honours but it seemed to be that when things started to go right something happened that undid all the previous good work. "Pat Walsh was unavailable for the Donegal game and this was highlighted particularly in the second-half as we missed a host of chances especially from frees but I'd have to say that we didn't play well that day, we were missing the dual players who were involved with the under 21 footballers, Arthur Hughes was still injured and Pat Walsh was also a big miss. The result was a setback to our prospects and we faced a difficult away game against Sligo. That match was postponed earlier and then became a very important one. "But we did a good job that day and deserved to win it. It was then all down to the game against Louth in Scotstown but when we needed it, it didn't happen again and that inconsistency wrecked us all season. The return of Barry Reilly was a great boost and we had hoped that a few others would have been available but that didn't happen either. I was at a loss as to what went wrong on the day, things just didn't work out for us. Too many players didn't play up to scratch but it's just hard to know what went wrong that day. Louth were a lot hungrier than us and they took their chances but even things we had been working on like ball handling and that didn't work. It was just one of those days when you think of Murphy's law, anything that could go wrong did. It was such a come down from the Sligo game when there was hunger there and we made things although the performance of the refereed that day didn't help, I remember that as he cost us a couple of scores and ruled out a very good goal. "Despite all that though we got through to the quarter finals which I thought was better than playing in the Shield but at the end I'm not so sure. We were down to play Longford and we had motivation enough as they had pulled a bit of a stroke over us in the Rackard Cup in 2005. However even that was of no help as we slumped to a big defeat. This was a game where nothing went right for us. W lacked the hunger and drive of Longford and they controlled the game almost from the very start. We were again forced to field short a number of regular with Pat Walsh missing through injury and David Connolly also unavailable but even that didn't explain even in part the very poor performance. Longford effectively had the game wrapped up by the halfway stage when they led by fifteen points as they raided and scored almost at will and their defence was never stretched. We didn't score until the 29th minute of the match by which stage Longford had two goals and eight points on the board and it was all downhill form there." The outcome of the league and the other problems that were surfacing saw a change of management before the start of the Rackard Cup with hopes high that Paul Ward who had taken up the mantle could turn things around. In the end though he too suffered similarly with Monaghan suffering defeat in all of their three games. "We knew that Derry were the favourites for the Rackard Cup but we should have done better than we did. We lost our opening game to Warwickshire in Solihull and that left us struggling. We needed to win that first match but some of the boys didn't have their minds focussed and we paid the price. There was an element of inexperience on the team as well but that was only part of the reason that we lost because I think the sheer number of games we have in Monaghan especially for dual players had started to take its toll on them," said Ward. That day it was blazing hot and a very hard ground and some of our players already had maybe four games in their legs that week so that was bound to have a detrimental effect. The penalty was perhaps the defining moment and when we missed it that probably lifted them but penalties are a bit of a lottery. After that defeat our overall aspirations were really focussed on the future with a superb under 21 team and a good minor team coming up and I hoped to bring those teams through and the Rackard Cup is a great way to do that. "I wanted to get those young players blooded in the Derry match and the Longford game and get the under 21's prepared for their All Ireland semi-final. We could have qualified but it wasn't totally in our hands after that result. Our next game against Derry was another disappointment with players not turning up and we shipped a heavy defeat. It could have been much worse though if Derry had been better with their shooting as they hit something like nineteen wides on the day. The last game against Longford was purely academic with just pride at stake really but even with that it was a fair enough performance on the day. Conditions were terrible in Clones that Saturday with a strong, biting wind and heavy rain making life difficult and leading to numerous unforced errors by both sides. The conditions did not help the standard of play but to be fair both sides showed great measures of endeavour and you have to remember that Longford had that much more to play for. Longford led at one stage by five points but going into the final ten minutes we had the margin down to the minimum but that was the best we could do and Longford finished the stronger with three late points to seal victory. It wasn't the best way to end the season but it was a much better performance than we had given earlier and I am still convinced that the future could be bright if all the emerging young talent can be developed on. "There was a lot of soul searching in the weeks and months after such a disappointing season but hope springs eternal and with a new manager, Gerry Murphy, now in place for 2007 we will strive to reach the level that I know Monaghan can reach. The talent is there, we have proved that with our success at underage level over the past six or seven years and that talent is now coming through. I said in Solihull after the Warwickshire game that the future for Monaghan hurling was bright and nothing has happened to make me change my mind." THE RESULTS. ALLIANZ HURLING LEAGUE. Div 3A 19/2/06 Monaghan 3-13, Sligo 1-7 Sligo 26/2/06 Monaghan 2-9, Leitrim 0-10 Gavan Duffy Pk. 12/3/06 Donegal 1-13, Monaghan 1-5 Letterkenny 19/3/06 Monaghan 0-9, Louth 3-11 Gavan Duffy Pk. 9/4/06 Longford 5-19, Monaghan 1-3 Ballyconnell RACKARD CUP. Warwickshire 1-11, Monaghan 0-9 Monaghan 0-11, Derry 4-24 Monaghan 1-11, Longford 1-14. Tweet

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