Winning all that matters for Monaghan football manager Malachy O’Rourke

The entertainment business is probably best left to Conor McGregor-type showmen because sport, Malachy O’Rourke insists, is about winning.

The Monaghan manager will be apologising to nobody if Sunday’s Ulster senior football championship final against Donegal turns out to be a poor affair, even if it’s as bad as their league clash in Letterkenny.

Monaghan won 0-9 to 1-4 to take the points, and the criticism that went with it, but Gaelic football is not UFC and for those on the sideline, the result is the only thing that matters.

“Every day you go out, you want to put on a spectacle for the supporters,” says O’Rourke.

“But there are days you go out and come up against teams, and you know that if you set up a certain way, you can leave yourself exposed.

“And that is the way it (Letterkenny) turned out.

“We weren’t all that worried with how the game looked, we just wanted to get two points.

“Certainly, if I go to a game as a neutral, I want to see good football but to be honest with you, when you are in charge of a team, you want your team to win.

“And if Monaghan win this game 0-2 to 0-1, I don’t think there will be too many people in Monaghan complaining about the game as a spectacle.”

Donegal have led the way in terms of developing a dour defensive system and turning it into a more well-rounded machine.

They are coughing up more goal chances than in the past, but that may be a price worth paying, if they can kick enough winning scores.

“If you play defensively, you give yourself a better chance,” explains O’Rourke.

“But the next step is to be strong defensively and this famous word ‘transition’ into attack.

“That is one of the areas Donegal have been very good at — they have been tight at the back but they have been very good in the final third.”

Or even further out from goal than that, when one considers Michael Murphy’s free-taking.

The Donegal captain has been sending dead balls sailing through the posts from ridiculous distances in this year’s Ulster championship, and any ill-discipline by Monaghan is likely to be punished.

“The frees he has kicked have been phenomenal,” says O’Rourke.

“I don’t know if it is scientifically proven but the ball seems to travel further in the better weather. I suppose it is the better underfoot conditions... his kicking foot goes on and the stationary foot, there is no slippage. He is getting serious distance and it is a warning to teams that you can’t foul within 55 or 60 metres of the goal.”

This is Donegal’s fifth Ulster final in a row, and Monaghan’s third, but O’Rourke insists his group are too experienced to get too comfortable.

“They have won games as favourites and as underdogs and have experienced every emotion, and all credit to them for keeping going.

“But the type of fellas they are, they’re not congratulating themselves about getting to three finals — they want to finish it out and win the game.”