Oisín McConville: Ulster SFC delivers contrasting epics of chaos and control

Tyrone's Conor Meyler celebrates after the game. Picture: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

We saw two different ways to play Gaelic football over the weekend. The strange thing is, that probably wasn’t how it was planned at a baking hot Pairc Esler in Newry as Monaghan and Armagh served up a contest for the ages.

The managers on the sideline — Armagh’s Kieran McGeeney and Seamus McEneney of Monaghan — didn’t have the influence they probably wanted as the match just spiralled into a sporting epic. It’s one of those where you can make a substitution or two at a certain stage in the game and then all you can really do is hope for the best and see where it takes you.

Every manager gets involved in games but as I looked on I felt sorry for those two as it was the players who took control. It was basically down to them in those last 15 minutes. Late on, Monaghan showed their experience and made better decisions to get themselves through to a first Ulster final in six years.

Keith Ricken during the week summed it up best, talking about Cork’s U20s he was very honest: You just close your eyes with 10 minutes to go knowing you’ve made all the interruptions you can and it’s up to the players then. A lot of that went on in Newry. It was so helter-skelter, it was end to end, it was here and there. There was no margin for error.

There was an emotion in the air all day and nobody was sure at the start whether people were that interested in watching football. The game just delivered and gave everyone a bit of a lift for a while after the tragic passing of Brendan Óg Ó Dufaigh. No other sporting occasion this weekend would’ve managed that. I trained Brendan the odd time. He was a fabulous individual. Once the ball was thrown in, you could see how good he was. There was something special about him.

Young Brendan lost his life and it put everything in perspective for a while. What was served up on the field of play served his memory well. As an Armagh man, losing might’ve been hurtful in different circumstances. Losing as we did, there was a little bit of me saying the result was right. Monaghan had the greater need.

If one game was manic over the weekend in Ulster, then the other was much more controlled — the one in Enniskillen.

Tyrone’s win over Donegal was much more deliberate. You set up your defence and the other team tries to break you down and so on and so forth. There was the occasional bit played on the break. Donegal were chasing with 14 men and if ever there was a day not to be chasing, then it was in Enniskillen yesterday.

The sending off was a huge moment in the game, not even because it was Michael Murphy, it was huge in all.

When you sit down and think what did spectators bring to things? First thing is they’ll bring that energy. Also, they’ll bring an influence and it’s something I saw in both Ulster semi-finals. Referees are reacting to the shouts when players are going to ground. Rewind 18 to 24 months, that wasn’t the case as they were used to it. Now, they’re not used to it and they’re acclimatising again. Players are too and that’s why there are so many errors again.

Referees are human beings. A lot of the big calls this weekend weren’t the right calls. Mind you not all the players made the right calls either. Michael McKernan was lucky for the early challenge on Neil McGee and the Michael Langan penalty incident was more a penalty that the Ciaran Thompson/Rory Brennan one, as Tyrone had another defender back.

I know people might think with modern day football the effect of losing a man might not be as much, seeing it’s not man-for-man, it’s more of a collective. You have to take into the account the heat. Gaelic footballers and Irish people in general are not used to going around in 30 degrees of heat. Playing in such heat is unforgiving.

Monaghan will take on Tyrone in the final wanting more structure to how they go about their business. Part of it on Saturday was just pure, raw emotion, while part of it was just how things evolved. Tyrone will bring that structure and I’d expect Monaghan to revert to a similar type of game.

I was looking forward to this year’s Ulster championship and now we’ve had three very good games in succession, if you include the Donegal v Derry clash along with the two semi-finals we’ve had the pleasure of witnessing.

I’d expect to have a great final as well. When you think about the Ulster championship, one thing about it is that it constantly delivers. On the other side of that coin, when you take a sit back and look at the bigger picture, I don’t think that’s enough to keep the provincial structures. Something has to be done.

That, though, is an argument for another day. As I said a few weeks ago, all we can do for now in regards to the Ulster championship is to enjoy it for what it is.