Refreshed Rory Beggan targeting Ulster glory with Scotstown

"I asked for an extended break just to refresh a wee bit and he gave me six or seven weeks off. I’m just starting to feel the benefit of it now," says Beggan.

BEGGAN FOR A BREAK: Scotstown goalkeeper Rory Beggan during the AIB Ulster GAA Football Senior Club Championship quarter-final match between Kilcoo, Down, and Scotstown, Monaghan. Photo by Stephen Marken/Sportsfile

Rory Beggan believes Monaghan manager Vinny Corey’s decision to permit him some time off at the outset of this season has worked a treat.

Asking his old team-mate who had just been appointed to succeed Seamus McEnaney was a risk but it paid off for both the manager and player, who with Scotstown continues to build on a 2023 that has already brought him to an All-Ireland semi-final and earned him an All-Star nomination.

“In fairness to Vinny at the start of the year, after we lost to Ballybay (in the 2022 Monaghan SFC final), I asked for an extended break just to refresh a wee bit and he gave me six or seven weeks off,” says Beggan. “I’m just starting to feel the benefit of it now.

“You don’t feel it when you’re with the club, really. The club is just at a different level. You might start feeling it in December or whatever but I got that break I never got before and feeling it now.”

At the outset of the provincial championship, there was plenty of talk of another Glen-Kilcoo final. That didn’t motivate Scotstown, says Beggan, but they did enjoy the lack of onus on them coming into Sunday’s quarter-final against the Down champions.

“I don’t think too many were respecting us at all. But, here, we haven’t done enough in this competition to be respected at the levels of Kilcoo and Glen.

“I’m sure a lot of people were tipping KIlcoo to win this and probably win it easily enough. I’m not saying it added fuel to the fire but it just means there is less pressure on you coming into the game.” 

Trillick stand in the way of Scotstown reaching a third Ulster final in eight years but it’s 34 since they last won the cup.

“We’ve been in this competition for seven years and the losses have probably steeled us a lot,” acknowledged Beggan.

“This year this competition was a big target of ours. No disrespect to the Monaghan championship but we felt when we got out of it we had to go up a couple of levels.”

For a team who are well represented in the Monaghan set-up (six saw action against Dublin in this year’s All-Ireland semi-final), Beggan knows they should be faring better.

“We have just been second best in a lot of the games – Kilcar, Kilcoo, Glen. We just haven’t been good enough. The record is not good enough for this group and we know that.”