Corey: how McEnaney has keptus buzzing

VINNY COREY has heard it all before. How this is the last chance for this group of Monaghan players and their manager Seamus McEneaney. Different year, same remarks.

McEneaney has been in the job five years now, five years which have delivered a string of memorable days but nothing yet that will allow him or his players retire into a life of local celebrity and adulation.

His first year in charge brought a Division Two National League title and Monaghan have grown in stature since thanks to a run to the Ulster final two years ago and two appearances in Croke Park where they gave Kerry a major fright.

Most of the guys who were there when McEneaney first took control are still plugging away at the coalface though. Hence the feeling that it is a case of now or never, starting with Derry on Sunday.

“That was said two years ago and last year,” said the full-back. “It is being said again this year but it is just another game. Whoever plays well on the day will win. If it is meant to be it is meant to be.”

Like their opponents in Celtic Park on Sunday, Monaghan need a run through the province a lot more than they do another adventure through the qualifiers. Silverware is what matters now.

They came mighty close two seasons ago with a narrow defeat to Tyrone in the Ulster decider but that masks an otherwise atrocious record in the province where they have fallen at the first fence four times out of the last five.

“There were big expectations on us last year coming into the championship and we went out in the first round to Fermanagh and that was hard to take but it is a good place to be, that people have expectations of you.

“I have played in a Monaghan team a few years ago where you would be going down playing Division Three and Four teams with nobody expecting anything of you. The players would have high standards as well and they want to do well this year.”

Monaghan have beaten Derry in the championship the last two years, once in Ulster and again in the qualifiers, so Damien Cassidy’s side will hardly lack for motivation. Can the same be said for McEneaney’s men? They lost to Tyrone by just two points in that 2007 provincial final and their pair of defeats to Kerry were by a combined total of just four. It must be difficult coming so close so often without claiming any reward.

“It can be and that would have been a worry this year,” said Corey. “This is Seamus’ fifth year managing and people were wondering would things be a bit stale but the appetite is still there with Seamus and the boys.

“The camp is as fresh this year as it ever was. You might think lads are getting burnt out now with Seamus there, that we are getting tired of him, but that isn’t the case.

“He has a good backroom team around him and I don’t think the players are carrying over any baggage from recent years. They are just treating this as a new championship.”

McEneaney’s longevity in the role bucks a trend in the GAA which sees managers come and go with a great deal more alacrity but Corey believes that has worked for the team and not against it. “It keeps a bit of continuity. If you are changing managers every two years the new guy will want to build a new team and you are always going to be doing that. It is testament to Seamus that he has freshened things up every year he has come back.

“He has been conscious that boys might be getting a small bit sick of him so, especially this year, the whole thing has been very fresh even for players who have played for him for five years and another two at U21s.

“It isn’t just one voice the whole time. Different people are doing the talking. He pulled in a new voice this year. Gerry Connolly has come in as a selector and that is a new voice in the dressing room. That is important.”