Monaghan defenders Dessie Mone and Vinny Corey have retired from inter-county football.

Monaghan squeezed through to the second round of the All-Ireland SFC Qualifier series with a nervy four-point win over a dogged Fermanagh side at Clones.

Tralee may have provided the antidote on Saturday night but the poison that exists in Gaelic football isn’t going away on the basis of what transpired in Inniskeen yesterday.

Monaghan advanced to their first All-Ireland semi-final in 30 years with a superb double scores win over Galway at Pearse Stadium in Salthill.

What has become of Kerry’s middle-aged? That’s been the standout quandary of the Super 8.

Newbridge or nowhere? That’s how it’s shaping up again for Kildare only this time they’ll have nowhere left to turn in the championship if they don’t beat Galway in Newbridge next weekend.

Monaghan 1-18 Tyrone 1-16: Typical, really. Murphy’s Law.

MONAGHAN 2-12 DUBLIN 0-17: In the end, we were given a dramatic conclusion rarely in keeping with the general tedium of events as Fintan Kelly fired over a glorious point deep into injury-time to secure a noteworthy success for Monaghan against the All-Ireland champions.

Monaghan brought the Carlow odyssey to an end, but only after a mighty scare at Netwatch Cullen Park, where the Ulster men finished strongly for a flattering five points Qualifier win.

Down look like a team who would love to play open and expansive football. Yet they know to do so would be folly.

Donegal and Monaghan will meet next weekend after a Conor McManus free levelled this Ulster semi-final deep in additional time.

Malachy O’Rourke couldn’t help but feel a little short-changed after an exciting afternoon in Clones.

Things can change over the next six weeks — ask Kieran Donaghy — but if football’s All Stars were handed out in August, our GAA correspondent would be shaking hands and back-slapping with the following summer achievers.

Malachy O’Rourke admitted he’d be disappointed if Tyrone’s Tiernan McCann feigned injury to get Darren Hughes dismissed.

Nine years Conor McManus has spent in the Monaghan shirt, on but one occasion was he overlooked.

The “massive costs” associated with HawkEye is the primary deterrent to the installation of the score detection system at Clones, according to Ulster Council chairman Martin McAviney.

Monaghan 0-11

Leaders are neither born nor made; they are found. This is what Ben Horowitz postulated in a recent Fortune.com article.

Peter McNamara looks ahead to the two Division 1 semi-finals tomorrow.

Monaghan 1-11 Dublin 1-22:  The death of Gaelic football? Hardly.

Art is born of humiliation. [W.H. Auden]

Allianz FL Division 1 

Monaghan 1-11 Kerry 0-10

Tyrone 0-9 Monaghan 1-13: Allianz Football League Division 1: It’s three years since Seamus McEneaney’s era ended and the obituaries were written for this generation of Monaghan footballers, but the team he built continues to show obvious signs of rude health under Malachy O’Rourke.

Lambs to the slaughter they may not be but Monaghan go into today’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Dublin in full knowledge of the disembowelment the reigning champions have handed out to all who have gone before this year.

Former Dublin footballer John O’Leary has called on Monaghan to throw down the gauntlet to Jim Gavin’s side, claiming the "rope-a-dope tactics" typically employed against the All-Ireland champions are a waste of time.

Monaghan 2-16 Kildare 2-14 (aet)

By Peter O’Dwyer

Distant memories flooded back as I walked up the main street in Clones with my son and nephew.

Monaghan 1-18 Armagh 1-13

Monaghan 1-12 Tyrone 0-14

Monaghan 0-13 Donegal 0-07

Eamonn McEneaney has revealed he is tempted to throw Tommy Freeman into battle at Clones tomorrow.

Three of Monaghan's most influential players will be missing from their starting line-up when they play Antrim in Clones on Sunday (throw-in 3.30pm).

Meath 1-15 Monaghan 1-9

NO Banty, no Freemans. No hope?

JACK O’CONNOR’S decision to rest Colm Cooper for Kerry’s trip to Monaghan indicated he expected a very competitive, tough, physical encounter and Gooch’s health would be better served by an afternoon off.

Monaghan 0-19 Galway 0-14

Long-serving Monaghan senior football manager Seamus McEnaney will not be reapplying for the position for 2011, he confirmed in a statement released today.

SEAMUS McENANEY is set to remain in charge of the Monaghan senior footballers with a new three-year term for the Clonduff man likely to be rubberstamped next Monday night.

Monaghan 1-14 Tyrone 0-16

GALWAY 1-20 MONAGHAN 1-14

Monaghan 3-12 Cork 3-13, Scotstown

St. Gall's forward Conor McGourty is hoping to break his way back into the Antrim senior football set-up 'sooner rather than later', with an obvious eagerness to build on the progress made by the Saffrons in 2009.