A parable of Monaghan’s uncertaintyin middle ground
A strange affair in Navan. Monaghan had threatened to hand Laois a tanning on another suffocatingly hot Sunday afternoon and yet the final whistle must have felt like a cold towel on the back of the neck after a committed comeback from a game but limited Laois.
As a game, it encapsulates the uncertainty over Monaghan pretty well. They seem stranded somewhere between the game’s highest peaks and its deepest valleys. A side stuck on some sort of accursed mezzanine level, unsure of the next step.
All-Ireland quarter-finals have been kryptonite to them time and again this decade but this round four qualifier will take them into the virgin territory that is the Super 8s. Kildare, Kerry, and Galway all await their efforts over the course of the next month.
Different ball game.
“Yeah, it will, there’s no doubt it will,” said Malachy O’Rourke. “That’s a consequence of going into the Super 8s, the challenges get tougher, the quality gets better. If we made the mistakes next week that we made out there today, we’d be punished severely for them.
“Our defensive work, everything, will have to be a lot better. Kildare showed a lot of pace, a lot of power (against Fermanagh) and Croke Park will suit them. We’ve a lot of work to do to be competitive. It’s good to be there and that’s what the next week will be spent doing.”
Monaghan were sublime for the entire sweep of the opening half. They smothered Laois in attacking waves, whether by running from deep or sending long and accurate balls into the inside forward line and the scoreboard did well to keep stride.
They led seven points to one and 0-13 to 0-4 at various stages. More a mathematical exercise than a competitive fixture.
Conor McManus was tormenting Gareth Dillon in the corner, Shane Carey was popping up here, there, and everywhere to tap over scores and Ryan McAnespie was darting about pulling strands of their play together with his work rate alone.
Monaghan were winning every scrap of loose ball, including plenty that Laois should have stamped as their own property. Darren Hughes was lording the midfield and an experienced and well-drilled defence was thwarting pretty much everything Laois threw at them.
The beaten Leinster finalists were implicit in their problems.
John Sugrue and his management team changed tack and started with a sweeper and the Kerryman suggested afterwards that the extra defensive layer may have sucked some of the intensity from their play. They were looked timid and maybe nervous too.
Hammered by Dublin in the provincial decider, there seemed to be an excess of scar tissue left over from such a sobering experience and they just made it far too easy for their Division One opponents to go about their business.
Laois were loose at the back and far too ponderous going forward and it took three superb saves from goalkeeper Graham Brody, and a bolt-from-the-blue goal from Paul Kingston after 33 minutes, to keep their heads above water at the break.
Brody was the undoubted star of the show. He added another hat-trick of impressive stops to his catalogue in the second half. Combine that with the manner in which Monaghan came off the boil and it made for an unexpectedly competitive second verse.
Laois moved Donal Kingston into full-forward and the big man began to find some purchase and, with their subs making an impact, they generated enough momentum to cut ever-so-slowly and gingerly into the deficit.
Eight down at one point, it was half that with a few minutes to play.
Monaghan were guilty of crimes similar to those committed by their opponents in the first 35: time and again they took far too much out of the ball and they compounded that by going for goals when the easy point was there for the taking.
Such stubbornness to find the net seemed to become something of a point of principle for Monaghan as the game wore on and Brody, whose mistakes occasioned two of his half-dozen saves, continued to stand tall.
All told, Monaghan managed just the five points in a thoroughly disjointed second period and almost 16 minutes had elapsed since their previous score by the time Ryan McAnespie recorded the game’s last white flag two minutes into injury-time.
“I wasn’t even aware of that,” said O’Rourke. “We started the game well and imposed ourselves from the word go. We were strong in the kick-outs and we’d a lot of energy about us. We made Laois work for anything they were getting.
“They were finding it hard to get scores. The second half, we just weren’t as clinical with the ball and, once Laois
started to clip over a few scores, it gave them that bit more hope. It wasn’t really over until the end when we added on a few points.”
Where it leaves Monaghan is another thing.
They have profited from the most benign of draws all through these qualifiers. Waterford in Walsh Park and Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon were accounted for before this latest expedition to Navan. Division Four sides, all.
“We got a serious dent to our confidence and everything else by losing to Fermanagh in the Ulster semi-final,” said O’Rourke. “We would have liked to have gone through that route but look, the boys have picked themselves up.
“People will say we were fortunate with the draw, and maybe we were, that we were playing Division 4 teams, but we’ve made the most of it and we’ve got through to the Super 8s. We know we have to improve our performance but that’s the challenge.”
Scorers for Laois:
E O’Carroll (0-4, 1 free); R Munnelly (0-3 frees); D Kingston (0-3, 2 frees); P Kingston (1-0); C Begley (0-1).
Scorers for Monaghan:
C McManus (0-5, 2 frees); S Carey (0-3); K O’Connell and R McAnespie (both 0-2); R Beggan (0-2, 1 free and 1 ‘45’); N Kearns, F Kelly, C McCarthy, J McCarron and P McKenna (all 0-1).
LAOIS:
G Brody; D O’Connor, M Timmons, G Dillon; T Collins, C Begley, D Strong; J O’Loughlin, K Lillis; A Farrell, P Kingston, B Glynn; R Munnelly, D Kingston, E O’Carroll. Subs: B Carroll for Farrell (HT); F Crowley for O’Loughlin (42); N Donoher for Glynn (46); E Lowry for P Kingston (50); S Nerney for Strong (61); G Walsh for Munnelly (68).
MONAGHAN:
R Beggan; K Duffy, D Wylie, R Wylie; V Corey, K O’Connell, C Walshe; N Kearns, D Hughes; S Carey, F Kelly, R McAnespie; C McManus, C McCarthy, J McCarron. Subs: D Mone for Corey and P McKenna for Kelly (both 48); K Hughes for McCarron (52); C Boyle for Walshe (57); N McAdam for D Hughes (63); D Malone for Carey (70).
Referee:
D O’Mahoney (Tipperary).
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