Malachy O’Rourke masterminds Scotstown downfall as Glen advance to meet Kilcoo
Glen's Paul Gunning and Damian McArdle of Scotstown. Picture: INPHO/Lorcan Doherty
In their first-ever foray into Ulster club territory, Derry’s Glen now get to take the field against the defending champions Kilcoo.
They did so by taking out another renowned club in this crucible, Scotstown, with a performance that owed a great deal to the tactical acumen of manager Malachy O’Rourke.
For several seasons, O’Rourke took Rory Beggan’s raw talents and nurtured them into one of the most potent weapons in Gaelic football. His kickouts and ability to kick frees are not in question, but by stringing four men across the middle and forcing Beggan short, he short-circuited one of their chief strengths.
When Beggan decided to try a few long kickouts, they were hopelessly outnumbered for the breaks, Glen committing more bodies to the area and Michael Warnock in particular gobbled up a lot of loose possession. The statistic that jumped out at half-time was that Scotstown were only securing possession from 56% of their own kickouts.
“Anyone that watches Monaghan, watches Rory to know what way, the boot he has of the ball off the tee,” explained O’Rourke afterwards.
“So it was a case of trying to get damage limitation, if you like. We were trying to spoil their kickouts as much as we could. That worked fairly well at times, but Rory is always going to get a certain amount of them away.
“Having worked with Rory for so long, and the other boys, I suppose you have some sort of insight into them. But it doesn’t count that much when the game starts.
“It was strange for me, plotting against those boys rather than plotting with them, but that’s football.”
That was only part of it. Glen are blessed with a number of supremely gifted athletes and they ran right at the heart of Scotstown’s defence time and again, drawing frees, converting no fewer than seven of them.
Ciaran McFaul’s ability to take on his man had them in all sorts of bother. From him, Conor Glass and Jack Doherty took his lead. When they didn’t have the ball, they brought everyone inside their 45-metre line and while the Monaghan champions had a lot of ball, they had to do an awful lot of work to get something on the scoreboard.
When they attacked, they got the right men in the right positions, running the correct angles. Behind them, they had their defence correctly set for fear of a counter-attack. It may be their first time in the Ulster club, but they are already at a high level of tactical sophistication.
They will need all of it when they come up against Kilcoo on the weekend of December 18/19 with their own clubman, Mickey Moran, in charge of the Down side.
They jumped into a half-time lead of 0-11 to 0-6, a golden spell for them coming in the second quarter kick-started by two Paul Gunning frees. Conor Glass had his confidence up and strode forward to stroke one over and Emmet Bradley converted a free.
Scotstown’s hopes felt gone when midfielder Kieran Hughes was awarded a red card just four minutes into the second half. His brother Darren followed him to the line in time added on, both men going after referee Joe McQuillan consulted with his linesmen.
While they rallied and got the margin back to three points, Glen found a bit of momentum of their own after the second water break disturbed Scotstown’s momentum.
The goal arrived at the death, Danny Tallon stabbing home from close range past an exhausted Rory Beggan, who featured prominently throughout.
D Tallon (1-3, 0-3f), E Bradley (0-3, 2f), P Gunning (0-3, 2f), J Doherty (0-2), C McFaul, C Carville, C Glass, E Mulholland, C Convery, C McGuckian, A Doherty (0-1 each).
S Carey (0-4, 2f), D McArdle, K Hughes, C McCarthy (0-2 each), M Maguire, R Beggan (1f) (0-1 each).
C Bradley; M Warnock, R Dougan, C Carville; T Flanagan, C McFaul, E Doherty; C Glass, E Bradley; C McDevitt, J Doherty, C Convery; P Gunning, D Tallon, C McGuckian.
C Mulholland for Convery (51), A Doherty for Gunning (61), S O’Hara for J Doherty (63).
R Beggan; M Meehan, R McKenna, D McArdle; J McDevitt, R O’Toole, P Sherlock; M McCarville, K Hughes; F Maguire, C McCarthy, M Maguire; S Carey, D Hughes, D Morgan.
G McPhillips for McCarville (25), J Carey for F Maguire (40), S Mahon for McKenna (47), J Hamill for McDevitt (52).
J McQuillan (Cavan).
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
