Monaghan lack killer instinct to expose Cork

WHEN Cork clipped Monaghan’s wings in the first ever competitive meeting between the sides on Leeside this time last year, we saw for perhaps the first time in Seamus McEnaney’s tenure as Monaghan manager, the frailties in his team that were to emerge a few times since.

Some weeks later, Westmeath pipped them at home in Clones to deny them the opportunity of playing Division 1 football in 2009 and shortly afterwards, Fermanagh well and truly burst the Farney bubble in the first round of the Ulster Championship. A sustained period of introspection followed that galling defeat and while Monaghan recorded good wins over Derry and Donegal before a decent showing and honourable exit against Kerry, it was hard to avoid the conclusion that the gloss had gone off the achievements of McEnaney’s regime and it would take something special to restore the sense of anticipation that abounded before Easter last year.

The rehabilitation appeared to be going quite well with three high scoring wins in the opening three rounds of the 2009 league campaign. A narrow three-point defeat to Kildare in Round 4 didn’t appear too upsetting but it did offer context to those three opening wins. For their first six league points Monaghan had to beat two newcomers to this level of league football (Wexford and Fermanagh) and a seriously depleted Armagh team that are only now finding their stride with the addition of the Crossmaglen contingent. A home defeat to Kildare (minus Johnny Doyle for much of the second half) and a late, late draw against a Meath team that wouldn’t have any opposition quaking in their boots is probably more representative of where Monaghan are at as we face into the final two rounds of league football. The recent history of Monaghan football is littered with references to near misses and patronising platitudes about ambushes and gallant defeats but you really do sense at this stage that the current crop of footballers in Kavanagh country are always going to be that one tantalising win away from being a good team.

If I were a Monaghan footballer the game against Kildare a fortnight ago would really bug me. Not only was it played out in front of a partisan home crowd in Clones but when the temperature went up a few notches early in the first half, all the loose ball in the middle third of the field was being hoovered up by the Kildare half-backs and any attempts being made by Monaghan to impose their supposed physicality on the game were being swatted away disdainfully with minimum fuss by the likes of Michael Conway, Kevin O’Neill and Killian Brennan. Even allowing for Kildare’s improved workrate and commitment to graft under Kieran McGeeney recently, there simply was no excuse for Monaghan’s ineptitude and when they did eventually decide to roll up the sleeves and match Kildare for muscle, their statements of intent were limited to a few cumbersome pushes and shoves by Dessie Mone and an absolutely reckless clatter by their goalkeeper, Padraig McBennett, on Ronan Sweeney.

Up to now, Monaghan’s hard edge (which would be less-euphemistically labelled cynicism were it found in Kerry, Tyrone or Dublin teams) was being tolerated because of the feisty charisma of their manager and the goodwill afforded those who don’t have the same sense of entitlement as the established order. Seamus McEnaney’s opposition to the experimental yellow-card rules from the very beginning of the national league would be understandable if his criticism was directed at the implementation and interpretation of the rules but one suspects his continued opposition to the rules themselves relates to the fact that the Monaghan game plan is essentially all about being highly disruptive if progress is to be made.

Facing into a depleted Cork outfit in Scotstown tomorrow, Monaghan can take encouragement from the return of JP Mone after a long-term injury, from being the second highest scorers in the top three divisions and from the fact that more players have got their chance to impress during the course of this year’s National League campaign than at the same stage last year. McEnaney and his backroom team have suggested that promotion wasn’t the highest priority for them in Division 2 this year and having seven points on the board means they won’t be dragged into the relegation dogfight at this stage. They can still however, experiment with team selection and get a result tomorrow if they have sufficient ambition. Two league points against Cork could see Monaghan having to face a not so daunting trip to Laois to secure promotion. I suspect that all this guff about experimental rules and experimental line-ups is a smokescreen to deflect from the expectation that comes with being near the top of the league. It’s a burden of expectation that Monaghan haven’t always borne well in the recent past but they’re eventually going to have to deal with the palsy that afflicts them when they fly close to the sun. Cork have never lost to Monaghan but they’re more vulnerable in Scotstown tomorrow than they would be in Clones or Iniskeen. I’m not so sure Monaghan have the cojones to capitalise.