Monaghan have not peaked too soon, says McEnaney

SEAMUS McENANEY laughs when the theory is put to him that his Monaghan team might be playing ‘too well’ at this early stage of the year.

Last year the Ulster side flew from the traps in Division Two of the NFL but hit a wall towards the end of the campaign just when promotion looked to be theirs for the taking.

That blip extended into the championship season. Ulster finalists the season before, they bowed out at the first hurdle against a Fermanagh side that went on to emulate their achievement in reaching the provincial decider.

“I don’t know when you can feel you are going too well,” said the man the world knows simply as ‘Banty’. “It isn’t a machine you are operating here. Listen, I suppose we were derailed last year in Cork when we were beaten by a point or two (in the league).

“This year, we took a dip in the middle against Kildare and against Meath but that match in Navan was a turning point. We didn’t play well in the game that night.

“I remember coming home on the bus thinking ‘Jesus, how did we come out of that with a draw tonight?’. It was a game that maybe two or three years ago we would have lost.”

This is McEnaney’s fifth season in charge of his native county and, though there have been ups and downs in that period, the accepted wisdom is that Monaghan are a team travelling in the right direction.

Promotion was secured to Division One in his first season when they claimed their first piece of silverware since 1988 with a memorable last-ditch defeat of Meath in the Division Two final at Croke Park.

The top tier proved too much too soon, however, and a miserly haul of three points in 2006 saw them return from whence they came and where they have stayed until this year’s impressive campaign. Though four of their seven games were away, they remained unbeaten on their travels, claiming the scalps of Fermanagh and Armagh early on and ending the group stages with a 20-point mauling of Laois in Portlaoise.

Cork have already felt the brunt of their abilities after a seven-point defeat in Scotstown. The only blips were that defeat to Kildare and the hard-fought point earned at Páirc Tailteann.

Said McEnaney: “I think it is fair to say that this team has progressed well and matured well. There is a great bond between the management and the county board and the players. This has been, in my opinion, the best National League campaign that Monaghan has had in the last 20 years simply because our targets were to play as many players as we could.

“We have played 29 players. We believe we have strength in depth in our panel and, by doing all that, we have ended up in the National league final against Cork. It’s another great opportunity to play one of the best teams in the country.”

Encouraging as all that is, McEnaney’s Holy Grail lies in Ulster where, that run to the final in 2007 aside, they have fallen at the first fence each and every time since he took charge for the 2005 campaign.

Their last provincial title came back in ‘88 and if they end that drought they will do so the hard way with a semi-final against the winners of Tyrone and Armagh awaiting them if they can manager to come away from Derry’s Celtic Park in the last eight still intact.

All of which is for another day for McEnaney and Monaghan. First things first and that means the Division Two final against Cork at Croke Park this Sunday and the opportunity to return home with a rare piece of silverware.

“Our main aim was to find some depth in our panel in the NFL. Now we are promoted we are only totally focused on one game and that is Cork this Sunday. Monaghan is not in a position to turn its nose up at any title.

“We have only won one national title in the last 25 years in 2005. We are not in a position to turn our nose up at anything and we are delighted to get the opportunity to play at headquarters.”