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Monaghan GAA thread

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So the seasons conclusion is nearly upon us, with both teams in the Junior and Intermediate divisions already promoted who do we think will get over the line in both finals?

In senior, it's going to take a 60+ minute performance from Ballybay to get the win over Scotstown you would imagine...but I for one hope that this is the case so to add a bit of freshness to Monaghan football.

MonaghanGa3l (USA) - Posts: 18 - 12/10/2022 09:38:08    2443674

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I was at both games in inniskeen last weekend. Carrick v Blaney and Toome v Corduff. Both were poor games football wise. Toome and corduff was entertaining as you did not know who was going to win untill the final whistle. However even thought the standard was bad in both games. The blaney v carrick game had far more football quality when compared to the toome v corduff. Corduff will struggle massively in Senior. You would wonder is it worth their time going up to senior ranks. On the other hand I see carrick going straight back up to senior. The quality of players they have will be unmatched through the intermediate ranks. O Hanlon was being dragged and pulled every second of the game and still opened the blaney defence any time he got the ball. Mc Menamin for Carrick was immense. I would say he turned blaney over atleast 5 times on his own and injected serious pace into the carrick attack. And according to the 2 aul lads behind me he has been doing that all year for carrick. They reckon carrick was a one man team and he was the one man. In my opinion Vinny should be begging these 2 lads back into the panel.

In the Toome v Corduff game, William Woods for Toome was unstoppable. Every ball Toome got they should've kicked it into him, the corduff defence was very weak and slow on the attack. Only for Padraig Keenan corduff would not of been able to cross their own 45. Every attack for corduff he was carrying the ball throughout the 90+ minutes. He knew when to attack fast or to let the play build up. He was immense and never stopped. Up front only for Fergal Hanraty corduff would've been bate out the gate, he was the only one who could seem to hold onto the ball and take his man on. In senior level he will be man marked and won't be allowed to roam around like he did.

MonaghanBoi (Monaghan) - Posts: 55 - 12/10/2022 11:45:03    2443719

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Replying To farneygael:  "Have to agree. I was in inniskeen for the game too and although the conditions were very bad I think corduff will find the going very though next year in senior.

I would say this is the first year in a long time that both teams that went up stayed up. Usually one if not the two of them would be going back down so credit to them for that."
Truagh won the Intermeidate all-Ireland in 2013 and have been Senior since. Carrick done the double and took up Inniskeen with them in 2017. So before this year they were the only teams that went up and stayed up for more than 2/3 years in the last 10 years. Carrick gone this year. Remains to be seen how long Aughnamullen and Donaghmoyne can stay there. Any man that thinks those Corduff and Magheracloone teams can go up Senior and stay there for any longer than 1/2 years needs to share with us what he is mixing in the spuds every night because he ain't eating the same dinners as us!!!

Monaghansclown (Monaghan) - Posts: 189 - 12/10/2022 14:49:35    2443755

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Replying To monman2011:  "@Latefortraining, I think you might have been late for school as well (its Karma (not Charma) and poached (not pouched)) :-)

As other posters have commented, people in Blayney know that they deserve to go down this year as they are in the bottom two and the two teams that go down always deserve their faith. Last year they were in the bottom four but finished top of the relegation group but they've been skirting the bottom 2-3 in the last 5 years so no surprises for anyone this year. Blayney won't be looking for sympathy and didn't expect any favours.

Your point re Toome and Doohamlet doesn't make sense as they are in different parishes from Blayney and are more likely to lose players to Donaghamoyne and Cremartin respectively. Blayney, Oram and Blackhill are all in the same parish so players can choose who they play for within the parish. There are far more examples of players travelling from the town out to Oram and Blackhill but Blayney have never used this as an excuse and won't start now. Fair play to all three clubs, they could have went down the route of the Scotstown amalgamation (Scotstown, Knockatallon, Tydavent) but it's much better for youngsters in the parish that there is more than one club to play for (more teams, more football...). The Blayney hurlers have of course a larger catchment area but this is hardly their fault.

This talk of the Blayney club being a shambles is ridiculous. Yes, their senior team is poor at the minute but look at what they have done over the last ten years re juvenile successes, introduction of ladies football, field development etc.. It's clear they are working hard and will rise again at some stage in the future. All teams can't win all the time. Two teams go down every year, its not that long ago that Ballybay (another town team) were junior and they came again.

Scotstown are undoubtedly a great club but tell that to any young boy or girl who'd like to pick up a hurl in that area. It's a real shame that they don't facilitate the 'small ball' given the great GAA stalwarts in their club.

People love sticking the boot into the likes of Carrick and Monaghan Harps but at the end of the day both towns offer football, hurling, handball (and even rounders in the case of Carrick) to the children in the area, the players do their best and their clubs are run by volunteers like every other club. We shouldn't forget also that despite how 'bad' their senior teams are they have consistently provided players to our county teams (no need to list the names).

Finally, for what Monaghan Harps haven't done 'on the field' over the last 15 months has been more than matched in what they have done 'off the field' in the toughest of times which at the end of the day is what GAA is all about."
I agree with everything you said apart from this quote:
"There are far more examples of players travelling from the town out to Oram and Blackhill but Blayney have never used this as an excuse and won't start now"…
I'm not sure if you were able to type that with a straight face. Castleblayney would have been intermediate many moons ago had it not been for the great work done by Blackhill and Oram developing players that ended up transferring to Castleblayney! A large chunk of that Faughs panel from the weekend have worn a Blackhill/ Oram jersey at some point in there lives!
An excellent point on the hurling however. Massive credit must go to their hurling club. Naturally, when the hurling club is as good as they are, some lads will choose hurling over football. And what a team they are. A club from Monaghan reaching an All Ireland Hurling Final might be the most impressive achievement from any club in Monaghan in my lifetime. Along with this, soccer is always big in Castleblayney, so it probably is unfair to speak about their population advantage in the same light as Scotstown.

HB245 (Monaghan) - Posts: 251 - 12/10/2022 17:26:35    2443776

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Replying To HB245:  "I agree with everything you said apart from this quote:
"There are far more examples of players travelling from the town out to Oram and Blackhill but Blayney have never used this as an excuse and won't start now"…
I'm not sure if you were able to type that with a straight face. Castleblayney would have been intermediate many moons ago had it not been for the great work done by Blackhill and Oram developing players that ended up transferring to Castleblayney! A large chunk of that Faughs panel from the weekend have worn a Blackhill/ Oram jersey at some point in there lives!
An excellent point on the hurling however. Massive credit must go to their hurling club. Naturally, when the hurling club is as good as they are, some lads will choose hurling over football. And what a team they are. A club from Monaghan reaching an All Ireland Hurling Final might be the most impressive achievement from any club in Monaghan in my lifetime. Along with this, soccer is always big in Castleblayney, so it probably is unfair to speak about their population advantage in the same light as Scotstown."
Don't really know wer u get ur figures??? But a large chunk of players wer from blackhill r oram???do u know how many people that started in Blayney are out in blackhill??? U will find Blayney lost more players to theses clubs then the other way about!!!! And to say Blayney would b intermediate before this only for them other teams is laughable!!!please name a team in the county that hasn't got outside players???i think due to Blayney been so successfully and the holders of 37 senior people try to make negative excuses to take the bad look of there own club… Blayney deserve to go intermediate the tables never lie…. If u haven't got it u haven't got it!!!! But when team is successful don't try and take it away from them by saying things u really haven't thought about!!!!

jakeezme5 (Monaghan) - Posts: 16 - 13/10/2022 13:08:37    2443835

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Replying To jakeezme5:  "Don't really know wer u get ur figures??? But a large chunk of players wer from blackhill r oram???do u know how many people that started in Blayney are out in blackhill??? U will find Blayney lost more players to theses clubs then the other way about!!!! And to say Blayney would b intermediate before this only for them other teams is laughable!!!please name a team in the county that hasn't got outside players???i think due to Blayney been so successfully and the holders of 37 senior people try to make negative excuses to take the bad look of there own club… Blayney deserve to go intermediate the tables never lie…. If u haven't got it u haven't got it!!!! But when team is successful don't try and take it away from them by saying things u really haven't thought about!!!!"
Do you honestly believe Castleblayney would have been senior over the last 5 years without the Malone brothers, Walsh and whoever else came from Blackhill / Oram?! Of course they wouldn't. They'd have been down in Intermediate 4 or 5 years ago. If you can point me to any players on the Blackhill / Oram teams of similar quality that have transferred, then I would concede that you had a point.
Clubs like Oram, Blackhill, Toome etc need to recruit lads from Castleblayney or other areas to make sure they can field a senior team and a reserve team. And (way) more often than not, these are lads that no longer play football with Castleblayney or are simply fringe players, who Castleblayney have no problem losing.
They have finally got their juvenile setup sorted, so no doubt they'll be back in senior sooner rather than later.
And your point on people having it out for Castleblayney due to them having 37 senior championships… I think people have had enough time to come to terms with this, seeing as it's been 20 years since the Faughs last lifted a championship.

HB245 (Monaghan) - Posts: 251 - 13/10/2022 15:57:11    2443864

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Replying To HB245:  "Do you honestly believe Castleblayney would have been senior over the last 5 years without the Malone brothers, Walsh and whoever else came from Blackhill / Oram?! Of course they wouldn't. They'd have been down in Intermediate 4 or 5 years ago. If you can point me to any players on the Blackhill / Oram teams of similar quality that have transferred, then I would concede that you had a point.
Clubs like Oram, Blackhill, Toome etc need to recruit lads from Castleblayney or other areas to make sure they can field a senior team and a reserve team. And (way) more often than not, these are lads that no longer play football with Castleblayney or are simply fringe players, who Castleblayney have no problem losing.
They have finally got their juvenile setup sorted, so no doubt they'll be back in senior sooner rather than later.
And your point on people having it out for Castleblayney due to them having 37 senior championships… I think people have had enough time to come to terms with this, seeing as it's been 20 years since the Faughs last lifted a championship."
I honestly believe they would!! Dermot Malone was 15/16 his brother 10 when they came in to Blayney and Young Walsh the same!!! And let's b honest Dermot Malone is the only 1 of them that has played constantly for Blayney over the last few years!!! And I'd be thinking Dermot wouldn't have had such a successful county career if he had to stay with blackhill!!! So ur saying it's Alright for Blayney to loss players to the clubs round them but Blayney shouldn't take players from them?? As I said in my first post most clubs have outside players!!! U seen to b thinking that it's only Blayney!!!

jakeezme5 (Monaghan) - Posts: 16 - 13/10/2022 20:20:53    2443907

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Replying To HB245:  "I agree with everything you said apart from this quote:
"There are far more examples of players travelling from the town out to Oram and Blackhill but Blayney have never used this as an excuse and won't start now"…
I'm not sure if you were able to type that with a straight face. Castleblayney would have been intermediate many moons ago had it not been for the great work done by Blackhill and Oram developing players that ended up transferring to Castleblayney! A large chunk of that Faughs panel from the weekend have worn a Blackhill/ Oram jersey at some point in there lives!
An excellent point on the hurling however. Massive credit must go to their hurling club. Naturally, when the hurling club is as good as they are, some lads will choose hurling over football. And what a team they are. A club from Monaghan reaching an All Ireland Hurling Final might be the most impressive achievement from any club in Monaghan in my lifetime. Along with this, soccer is always big in Castleblayney, so it probably is unfair to speak about their population advantage in the same light as Scotstown."
Blayney hurlers getting to Croke Park, leading for most of the match and coming within a couple of points of a good Kilkenny team is often overlooked.

Some would say that some of the Blayney dual players are better at hurling... Mark Treanor for sure, Brian McGuigan definitely, probably Jim McHugh, Brian Flanagan too and finally without question Thomas Hughes.

Last point, agree on the Blackhill. They would have been intermediate sooner if they had the Malone's. Probably would have won Junior in 2013 or 2014, then had a good run at intermediate with a young team and an up-and-coming county star (Dermot Malone). Instead this weekend they have more or less the same pool of players in Intermediate relegation with the Harps.

MrPBoylan (Monaghan) - Posts: 233 - 14/10/2022 08:41:20    2443920

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Replying To MrPBoylan:  "Blayney hurlers getting to Croke Park, leading for most of the match and coming within a couple of points of a good Kilkenny team is often overlooked.

Some would say that some of the Blayney dual players are better at hurling... Mark Treanor for sure, Brian McGuigan definitely, probably Jim McHugh, Brian Flanagan too and finally without question Thomas Hughes.

Last point, agree on the Blackhill. They would have been intermediate sooner if they had the Malone's. Probably would have won Junior in 2013 or 2014, then had a good run at intermediate with a young team and an up-and-coming county star (Dermot Malone). Instead this weekend they have more or less the same pool of players in Intermediate relegation with the Harps."
I agree on the hurling some achievement for a small town in Monaghan the work that is put in is unbelievable at all levels…. The boys u mention have unbelievable talent… as for Jim Mc Hugh what a servant he has been to both the hurlers and footballers….going back to the football and saying blackhill would have went intermediate earlier if the Malones were there nobody will ever know that u can only assume…. Every club loses players to other clubs at some stage weather they turn out good r bad is another story…. When Rory woods left Blayney for donamoyne they didn't complain…. I'd say Blayney would have won a couple more championships if he'd have stayed in the early 2000s… particularly 2007!!! But that's only my opinion… like u saying about the Malones…

jakeezme5 (Monaghan) - Posts: 16 - 14/10/2022 14:48:20    2443980

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Thoughts on the Junior final tomorrow? Feel like Clones been getting better and better as the year has gone on and will love a go in Ulster. Killany were always going to contest the championship final. Definitely would of been one of their aims and would fancy themselves in the Ulster Championship also so they'll certainly be eyeing up a win and a big performance.

Hope county management attend cause there's definitely county worthy players between both teams!

MonaghanGlory (Monaghan) - Posts: 738 - 14/10/2022 18:30:22    2444002

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Ugly scenes in cremartin today doing the rounds anyone know what happened?

Pet (Monaghan) - Posts: 24 - 15/10/2022 19:36:16    2444120

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Huge congrats to Ballybay today.. delighted to see them winning today & it gives Monaghan club football a badly needed shot in the arm..a 2nd champ medal is the least warriors like drew and jap deserve.. scotstown weren't at the races today toothless in attack and sluggish in general Ballybay were 7/8 pts better side.. dessie was immense head and shoulders the man of the match.. I know people will point to Kieran hughes not playing as key but then again Darren should have been suspended today so things evened itself out overall…overall not many players putting the hand up to Vinnie…

Junior final was a real war of attrition played in terrible conditions.. the county board have a lot to answer to in taking that game to Annughamullen…..hard to believe that killanny were 60mins last year from going senior, yesterday they were very poor up front and could struggle in intermediate next year... over all the quality on show was poor no-one really of inter county standard but clones will hardly worry about that so congrats to them on a well earned win..

mick2007 (Monaghan) - Posts: 569 - 16/10/2022 20:25:20    2444246

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Well done to ballybay on lifting the senior championship today ,great to see the greatest and most skillfull club and county player for the last decade Paul finlay get his 2nd medal ,a true gent, a pity you hung your boots up for the county years ago,a true county idol to look up to kids ,not like some of your scotstown players.

Blanket (Monaghan) - Posts: 42 - 16/10/2022 21:23:06    2444251

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Ballybay have been impressive all year and continued their form yesterday. They were easily 10 points the better team on the day. Scotstown never looked like winning the game. Too wasteful going forward and couldn't get around the Wylies who were immense all day. Dessie Ward had one of the finest individual performances I think I've ever seen in a county final. Defended like his life depended on it and took the goal well when he got the chance. You felt with 5 minutes to go that Ballybay were starting to get tense as Scotstown were gathering a bit of momentum. But arise the great Paul Finlay to win a crucial free in front of the stand that broke Scotstown momentum. You couldn't help but be delighted for Finlay, an incredible servant to club and county who got the second county medal he richly deserved.

A mention to Scotstown who just didn't turn up on the day but 10 finals in a row is an incredible achievement and one we are unlikely to ever see again. They have been great champions and undoubtedly will come back a different animal next year. A lot of clubs be eyeing up the success of Ballybay this year and thinking there's a Mick Duffy there for us as well lads.

Monaghansclown (Monaghan) - Posts: 189 - 17/10/2022 10:37:26    2444277

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Fully deserved win for Ballybay over a poor Scotstown. Scotstown were on top early on but couldn't score due to good defence and som wayward shooting(two easy frees missed) Ballybay grew in confidence as the half wore on and kicked some great scores from distance to go in three points up.
That pattern continued in second half and when the Pearse Brothers got their goal,finished off really well by Dessie Ward, they were totally in control. Took a fortunate goal for Scotstown when the Ballybay keeper, who played well but was out of his goals a lot, was caught off his line. From there in Scotstown pushed up and really went for it but Ballybay deservedly hung on in the end.

Big turnaround for Ballybay who went out poorly to Truagh last year and just avoided the relegation group in the League earlier this year. But beating Scotstown twice and also Clontibret in the Championshio means they are deserved top dogs in the county. Congrats to captain Eoin McKearney who follows in the footsteps of his dad, John Joe and his granddad Paddy and also to Dessie Ward who was the best player on the pitch.

Vofster (Monaghan) - Posts: 18 - 17/10/2022 10:52:15    2444281

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Fair play to ballybay play good football with some fine players

prideof85 (Monaghan) - Posts: 851 - 17/10/2022 11:00:16    2444285

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Well done to Ballybay fully deserved win made hard work of it in the second half altho he didn't get it but I thought shane Monaghan cleared serious ball and kept his head with passes when all else around him we,re losing their heads must of being very close to being man of the match

Pet (Monaghan) - Posts: 24 - 17/10/2022 15:11:01    2444351

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Well done Ballybay, absolutely deserved, no question the best team to watch play ball all year. Play with great confidence.
I know I'm a bit early to bring up the topic of management merry go round for next year, but heard today Inniskeen have their management team in place for next year in the form of John mc Entee, No Messing about there, the Pot must not have been emptied over the last 3 years.

stefon (Monaghan) - Posts: 17 - 17/10/2022 21:07:26    2444428

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Surely two dead ducks of league finals this weekend after last weekend. Wouldn't be surprised if Scotstown and Killanny won both by 10 points. County board need to look at playing these league finals before the championship starts. Unfair on Ballybay/Clones who are representing the county in Ulster having to go out this week and risk injury on wet pitches.

Game of the weekend is in Inniskeen on Sunday. Should be a cracking game. I hear Corduff have some big names in training them in the last few weeks. No do-re-mi left to waste this year so pressure will be on to deliver on Sunday. I think magheracloone's history of getting over the line in championships will be enough for them on Sunday but this one is tough to call.

Monaghansclown (Monaghan) - Posts: 189 - 20/10/2022 09:06:14    2444691

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Yes the senior league final should have been played months ago. I suppose it's different in Intermediate where the winners of the league gain promotion. You don't want to take away from the Championship if one team has already been promoted through the league.
I'd say the Ballybay management would half consider conceding the senior league final and focusing on Ulster club. Didn't Clontibret concede a league final / semi final in 2019 to focus on the championship? It means very little to the likes of them, Scotstown and Ballybay. Would be a great achievement for the clubs that are trying to break through at the moment.

HB245 (Monaghan) - Posts: 251 - 20/10/2022 14:16:46    2444777

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