What, if anything, can Monaghan do differently?

The first 10 minutes of Monaghan’s fourth round Qualifier win over Down last Saturday probably tells us much of what we need to know about their approach to this evening’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final against Dublin, says Dara Ó Cinnéide.

The early flourish from the Hughes brothers, Darren and Kieran, had both scoring points with the outside of the boot in the first four minutes but this was followed by a ragged enough period that saw Down forward, Seán Dornan catch two high balls, which promised much but delivered little.

Then Rory Beggan, one of the most comfortable kickers in the goalkeeping game, failed to find his targets with his first four kickouts and by the ninth minute, he had resorted to going short with most of his restarts. He stuck with that approach for the remainder of the first half.