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Irish Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Long Day's Journey Into Night – Frank McNally on a heady month for Monaghan GAA supporters, 40 years ago
As a long-suffering Monaghan GAA supporter, I can only dream of experiencing the levels of pain endured by Mayo Gaels during my lifetime as they reach All-Ireland final after final, only always to lose. Like most living Monaghan fans, I have never seen our (men's) senior team on the ultimate stage. They reached that only once in GAA history, and it's so long ago now that the game, a somewhat violent affair, was dubbed 'the last battle of the Civil War'. It was 1930 and our opponents Kerry were going for four-in-a-row. Their team included prominent anti-Treaty republicans, who had still been on the run (excellent training for football, it turned out) a few years earlier. Monaghan, by contrast, were seen as a pro-Treaty side, thanks to Eoin O'Duffy, the Garda commissioner who was also a fine GAA administrator before his late and unfortunate flirtation with fascism. READ MORE The game was a massacre, on and off the pitch. Kerry won by 3-11 to 0-2 (an embarrassing scoreline only bettered by the second half of last month's hurling decider ). My namesake and anti-Treaty grandfather may have been among the Monaghan supporters scarred for life. Since that dark day, we have never reached another All-Ireland senior decider. But the nearest we've been to experience such heights was a dizzy fortnight 40 years ago, in the two-part semi-final saga of August 1985. [ Hot Wheels - Frank McNally on the mystery of why anyone would steal a Dublin Bike Opens in new window ] That was against Kerry too, but this time, having had 55 years to plot revenge, our lads sprang an ambush. Defending with (almost) controlled savagery, we held the Munster aristocrats to two scores in the first half: one of those a lucky goal from a rebound off the upright. Then of course Kerry regrouped and seemed to have done just enough in the second half to win before a famous late, long-distance equaliser by Eamonn McEneaney. His free was only 51 metres out in 1985. The distance has grown with every year since, however, and is currently estimated to have been nearer 70. Our performance wasn't a complete surprise. The team were reigning league champions that summer – a first national title – and although the cliché was newer then, they had been 'punching above their weight' for a while. Speaking of punches, the county was also emerging as a global sporting superpower thanks to Barry McGuigan, who had won a world featherweight boxing title two months earlier and brought Dublin to a standstill with his homecoming. So to be a young Monaghan exile in the city then was to walk with a swagger, and to expect victory in all things, or pretend to anyway. On the other hand, I'll always remember a headline in the Evening Press before the first game. Kerry had been making the usual respectful noises about the opposition – 'Yerra', 'Sure Lookit', 'We're under no illusions', etc – and the county chairman Frank King had been especially humble. Hence the Press's riposte: 'Come off it, Frank, Kerry will murder Monaghan'. That felt personal, even if it wasn't. Anyway, for a fortnight after the draw, we luxuriated in newfound respect and dreams of the final. But in the replay, it was Kerry's turn to mount an early ambush, blitzing us for 2-3 in the first quarter. Then some good counter-insurgency work caused Kerry's crack forward, the 'Bomber' Liston, to detonate prematurely and get himself sent off. After that, we won the rest of the game 10-6. But the goals we needed never came. Kerry defended deep and held on by five points. Part of the price I paid for attending the replay was missing the start of holiday with friends on a Shannon cruiser. So immediately after the full-time whistle I headed for Athlone, using the then popular free transport scheme known as 'thumbing'. And the desolation of that day's defeat is all the more memorable now because it coincided with the only time in my hitchhiking career I got stranded somewhere overnight. [ Special Guest Appearance – Frank McNally on a famous banshee visitation of the 19th century Opens in new window ] This was a rookie tactical error, not unlike the ones we'd made in Croker earlier. One of my lift-givers was from Mullingar and when we reached his turn-off from the old N6, he gave me a choice. I could get out here and stay on the main route west. Or I could get a bit nearer my destination but be left on a back road to Athlone. The evening being young yet, I opted for the latter. But a stop for food meant it was almost 9pm when I started thumbing on the ominously quiet R390. An hour passed without a lift. Then two hours. Then three. I was still there at 1am, by which time people who had walked by me earlier on the way to a dance were again walking by me on the way back. Eventually I was offered asylum in a house full of young lads who were still playing cards and drinking beer at 4am when sleep overcame me. I finally reached the Shannon next morning. In the meantime, probably the closest I've ever been to experiencing the plight of Mayo fans was that long, dark night of the soul in Mullingar.
Irish Times
30-05-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Rory Beggan is Monaghan's ace card who stops forwards at one end and puts fear in defenders down the other
The Rory Beggan conundrum continues. This weekend, the contestants trying to solve the puzzle are the Clare footballers. During my Dublin career, when it came to taking on Monaghan , the two players we immediately thought of were Beggan and Conor McManus . While the retirement of McManus has robbed Monaghan of their generational forward, the new rules in Gaelic football have armed their goalkeeper - also a generational talent - with a new set of arrows. I'm talking about two-pointers. Beggan was Monaghan's top scorer in the National Football League , finishing their successful Division Two campaign with 0-38. Within that total there were 17 two-pointers, all bar one of which came from a placed ball. READ MORE He was back at it against Louth last week, kicking a pair of two-pointers from placed balls in a game Monaghan won by six points . We'll return to the merits of two-point frees later, but first it's important to understand the dilemma facing teams in relation to Beggan's attributes within the new rules. The Monaghan No1 is among a crop of elite goalkeepers who changed the role and brought the position to a new level. When we were preparing to play Monaghan, there was a lot of emphasis on him, not just on his kickouts but also how best to deal with him when he comes beyond his natural area and roams further up the field. His foot-passing and general game awareness are of a very high quality. We were also conscious of his ability to kick frees from distance, but the arrival of two-pointers to Gaelic football has been a game changer. It has really empowered Beggan and Monaghan in terms of taking on long-range efforts. In short, it's worth the risk now. In a year their greatest ever forward retired, who would have predicted they would put up such high scoring tallies? That realisation challenges defenders and forces them to make split-second decisions that need to be perfect. Players who might normally tackle hard are being forced to reconsider their level of force against Monaghan. If they commit to a tackle against the Farney men, it better be right on the money. The jeopardy has increased. The risk-reward equation is weighted in favour of Monaghan as they have Beggan to attempt long-distance frees. For defending teams, it means the potential punishment for a foul has been doubled. It's almost too risky to tackle at times. All of this creates doubt among defenders. Anxious not to be the reason Monaghan score a two-pointer, they step off. This leads to the kind of defensive uncertainty forwards thrive on. Monaghan's Conor McCarthy in possession during last weekend's victory against Louth. Photograph: Ciaran Culligan /Inpho If you step off a little bit against Monaghan, you are in danger of enabling strong ball-carriers like Conor McCarthy, Micheál Bannigan and Stephen O'Hanlon to break through the lines and punish you in open play. It's a double-edged sword for defenders. Conceding a long-distance free is potentially momentum swinging in a game against Monaghan because you just know Beggan is going to come up and have a swing at it. There are even more elements to it as well. Monaghan will not only bring Beggan up to try bag the prize of two points, but as he prepares to take that kick, it is an ideal opportunity for his teammates to set up for the subsequent kickout. It used to be very hard, at times, to get set on a kickout. With the new rules, where the kickout has to go beyond the arc, it's a lot easier to get pressed up. Free kicks and set plays are perfect situations to target kick-outs and it is something Monaghan do well. Gabriel Bannigan's men were the highest scoring team across all four divisions of the National League this season. They amassed a combined total of 193 points in their seven group games. Kerry were next on that list, with 170. Monaghan's average from those seven league games was 27.5 points per outing. In a year their greatest ever forward retired, who would have predicted they would put up such high scoring tallies? They have put up decent scores in their two championship games so far this summer as well – 0-21 against Donegal and 1-23 against Louth. Their high-scoring return is largely down to the factors I have highlighted: Beggan having the licence to kick from distance without fear of criticism should they not all sail over, plus Monaghan's ball-carriers having the freedom to take on their man knowing if they don't create a scoring opportunity, there's a good chance they'll draw a foul. And when they do draw a foul, that man Beggan will run up to take it. Rory Beggan takes the ball forward for Monaghan during their Division Two match against Meath in March. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho Even if it doesn't yield a score, Monaghan will invariably be in a great position to keep the opposition pinned in and steal the kickout. There were occasions over the years when I questioned Beggan's decision to shoot from certain difficult angles. Purely from a free-taking perspective, his percentages probably weren't fantastic; I'd imagine they were below 50 per cent a lot of the time. But those kicks are worth the risk now because two points are on offer, along with a chance to squeeze the opposition kick-out. The Donegal game in the Ulster championship is the outlier. When Donegal were faced with the Beggan conundrum, they concluded that denying Monaghan frees would be the most effective way of negating their attack. To an extent it worked. That's why I think they shouldn't be worth two points Donegal defenders refused to commit themselves to any borderline tackles within scoreable range – which for Beggan is a considerable distance. Donegal were so disciplined that Beggan wasn't afforded any opportunity of knocking over a placed ball two-pointer. At full-time, all the Monaghan goalkeeper had contributed on the scoreboard was one point, from a 45. Monaghan still ran up a good tally of points in that game, but there were no frees from outside the arc registered. Indeed, only 0-2 of Monaghan's 0-21 total came from frees – Micheál Bannigan kicking over a pair from inside the arc. Donegal's gameplan was built on a logic of taking away the weapon of Beggan's frees. If imposed successfully - and it was - they knew their opponents would be reduced to scoring points from play. You can be sure Peter Keane and his Clare management team have been discussing how to approach the Beggan conundrum this week. It's a key area for any team trying to overcome the Farney County. Monaghan fans will travel to Sunday's match against Clare expecting to see the two-point flag waved. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho As for the two-point rule in general, while I'm not averse to the idea of two-pointers from open play, I think the punishment of conceding two points for what can often be an innocuous foul is very harsh. I don't feel the punishment fits the crime. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have been coming out with a protest against two-point frees if they were introduced during my Dublin career. But I honestly don't think many of those scores from long-range placed balls justify two points. Free takers are operating at such a high level now that many of those opportunities are well within their range. That's why I think they shouldn't be worth two points. Not that Monaghan are likely to be joining any campaign for change. Their victory over Louth has put them in a strong position in Group Three and if they get over Clare in Clones on Sunday, Gabriel Bannigan's side will be in pole position to top the table. It looks very likely that Rory Beggan will still be posing problems for opponents come All-Ireland quarter-final weekend.
