I HAVE a tendency to gravitate towards a negative mindset at the best of times. If I were a Derry or Monaghan player I would feel particularly negative this week. While those feelings will wane in time, that scar never fully heals.
Having been beaten in an All-Ireland final by a point, I have experienced plenty of sleepless nights and ‘what ifs’ haunting me since. I am sure I am not alone in this regard.
We all know there are controllables and uncontrollables in sport, as in life. When Ulster’s two beaten All-Ireland semi-finalists look back on last weekend, many of the controllable factors as regards tactics, execution and decision-making can be deemed a success. Had more controllables been better, both Derry and Monaghan would be meeting each other in an All-Ireland final.
Both the Oak Leafers and the men from the Farney county can also, however, rightly feel aggrieved as they were on the wrong end of some bizarre refereeing decisions from Joe McQuillan and Sean Hurson respectively.
This is the uncontrollable stuff I’m talking about.
I still feel this way towards 2010
All-Ireland final referee David Coldrick. He may be a decent man but all I can think of is the calls he made against us.
In the case of the Derry and Monaghan players, and management, it’s unlikely this sense of injustice will ever fully dissipate.
However, Monaghan had some great goalscoring opportunities, unrelated to any official’s performance. In the first half, Ryan McAnespie should have squared the ball for a certain Monaghan goal that would have been a game-changing score – although he did kick a brilliant point in the second half from a very tight angle after beating four Dublin defenders.
Monaghan’s shot selection at times was also questionable – from players who have been about long enough to know if they have it in their locker to execute successfully.
Conor McManus was wonderful but having a former team-mate as a manager in Vinny Corey who knows when to start you and when to wheel you out as a substitute is just as important. This loyalty to each other will be important should McManus decide to stay for another season.
Dublin won the match down the final stretch because they have Con O’Callaghan, Cormac Costello, Ciaran Kilkenny and James McCarthy – not to mention Brian Fenton.
Colm Basquel had been the star man in the quarter-final win over Mayo but was hauled ashore with plenty of time left against Monaghan and the game still in the balance.
If the shoe was on the other foot, Monaghan would never substitute their star player as the depth of their bench just isn’t comparable.
In another key moment Dessie Ward ran down a cul-de-sac of Dublin players, was turned over and Dublin went down and scored. At the time I thought that was a pivotal moment.
At that stage, Monaghan had the momentum, had secured a few kickouts since drawing level and were squeezing Dublin hard. It was a controllable passage of play that could have been avoided by being more careful with the ball – being more aware.
Games and outcomes swing on such moments and, as any coach or manager will testify, this is why any training session will only do so much for players.
Overall, though, if ever there was a heroic defeat, Monaghan’s was one.
Derry’s loss was slightly different. While it is normal to feel that the
so-called foul on Stephen O’Brien when Derry were two points up was in fact not a foul – which I think is 100 per cent correct – Derry had missed too many scoring opportunities in the second half to confidently say they controlled the controllables.
Their shooting let them down for both goals and points. Their shot efficiency was brilliant in the first half but dropped off significantly in the second period.
The Kingdom turned a three-point deficit after 35 minutes into a two-point win – a five-point turnaround. In any man’s language this simply came down to the experience of Kerry in knowing how to win tight games at Croke Park.
It also has a lot to do with a certain player called David Clifford. If Peter Canavan is referred to as ‘God’ in Tyrone, what does that make David Clifford to the Kerry people?
Derry have been down at Croke two years in-a-row now and given it a brilliant shot. The historical advantage for the Kerry players, even those younger subs on the bench, is that they are almost guaranteed, given the structure of their provincial Championship, to be operating at the business end of the Championship at Croke Park.
Kerry players are no angels at Headquarters and there is plenty of devilment there. The Kingdom can mix it with the best of them as Shane McGuigan discovered. Derry were not overawed, or outmuscled or outrun, they were simply unfortunate and not enough of the controllables were controlled to take them to a final. Monaghan will feel the same.
On the other hand, Down can really have no complaints about their Tailteann Cup final defeat to Meath.
Having put the disappointment of the Down performance and result behind me, I stayed on to watch the Monaghan v Dublin game.
The difference in standard between both games was stark. In every way the gulf was significant – skill, pace, decision-making.
Both Meath and Down have a long way to go to get to the levels of the four teams playing in the main Championship last weekend.
My old PE teacher, Armagh’s John Rafferty, used to say “a good wee one is better than a bad big one”.
Well, Meath had good big ones who outmuscled a young Down team. What we have are a lot of players who are very similar – mobile, fit and small. Even our biggest players are only slightly over the six-foot mark.
In comparison to the Meathmen, and indeed the Monaghan and Dublin teams playing afterwards, we looked more akin to an U20 side. In coaching terms, especially in strength and conditioning circles, the experts talk about ‘training hours’ when preparing competitors to compete. Down have a long way to go, perhaps years, before we become hardened to the rigours of inter-county football at the top end of the scale.
I have been there myself as a 20-year-old, in plenty of panels that needed the time and the TLC. The concern is that big men with ability don’t grow on trees. And until they do, Down supporters will have to be realistic and keep perspective. There is no easy fix.
