Banty-style resurgence would mark real success

Football aficionados here in Cavan, reared on tales of the big wins of the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, when - we are told - men were men and 31 counties were scared, have often been accused of losing the run of ourselves. Surely, however, we have never been so deluded as they have been next door in Monaghan in letting Seamus McEnaney ride off into the Corduff sunset. Banty looked a shoo-in to hold on to his position, after six years at the helm; the venerable Irish Independent even went to the lengths of printing on Tuesday that "Seamus McEnaney was ratified last night for a three-year term". But, as in racing, there is no such thing as a sure thing in football. In their wisdom, delegates to the county board, those chosen few charged solely with the duty of informing the overall hierarchy of the wishes of their own individual unit, decided that Seamus McEnaney would have to be interviewed if he wanted to hold on to his post. Ignore the shocking fact that, as revealed in a fiery players' statement, only two club delegates out of 15 clubs consulted with their county players prior to the decision. The ugly ins and outs of what can only be described as a heave are not important; the end result, however, is. Monaghan goalkeeper Shane Duffy, in an interview with this writer a couple of years ago, spoke of the changes wrought by the McEnaney era. The nadir for him came in 2001. Monaghan travelled to deepest Munster to play a Waterford team who were ranked 31st in the country, one place above Kilkenny. "We went down to play in Dungarvan," Duffy remembered, "and only about 19 players went down on the Saturday evening, we all headed off in cars and arrived at different times. We had lunch at different times. Everyone went out that night and got absolutely hammered! Of course, we went out the next day and drew with Waterford, and we were lucky to draw with them. I wasn't even on the team, I was sitting on the bench looking at it, thinking 'we are never going to go anywhere'." Fast forward nine years and, having reached an Ulster final, Monaghan folk feel that McEnaney hasn't yet proven he's the right man. Clearly, a strange kind of logic is operating to the east of this county. A cursory glance at Seamus McEnaney's managerial record tells its own tale. The year before he took over, Monaghan were massacred by 15 points by Armagh and then got hammered at home by Longford (conceding 4-16) in round one of the qualifiers. Since he took charge, they've won the Division 2 league title, reached two Ulster senior finals (pushing eventual All Ireland champions Tyrone to two points in one) and lost to a 68th minute Kerry goal (again eventual AI champions) in an All Ireland quarter-final. They've had championship wins over Armagh (twice), Down, Derry (twice), Donegal (twice), Wexford, Louth, Wicklow among others, and are very competitive at Under 21 level. There is a feel-good factor about football in Monaghan, as noted by McEnaney in his resignation letter last week. "To give just a small example of the progess this group of players has given Monaghan football," McEnaney wrote, "I was one of only 20 Monaghan supporters in Carlow for a NFL game in February 2004 and to witness 20,000 Monaghan supporters in Clones in July 2010 highlights the incredible work these players have done." Thus, the search begins for a new man to fill the Farney bainisteoir bib. The delegates have spoken and, backed into an impossible corner, Banty has gone out on his shield, his dignity intact. Monaghan simmered after the players' incendiary statement backing their manager but, as ever, Banty put the county first with the gracious tone of his own statement. Tellingly, however, it was issued, not through the auspices of the county board but directly, from a private email address, to the media, local and national; read into that what you will. Across the county boundary here in Cavan, yet another new management team is in place and this time, we are almost at as low an ebb as Monaghan were pre-Banty. Notably, barring the fleeting resurgence brought about by the dearly-missed Eamon Coleman prior to his falling ill, this county has been in freefall since a spirited Ulster final appearance in the same year that Monaghan scraped that draw with the second worst team in Ireland. Patrolling the line then was Val Andrews - the wheel has come full circle. To hear the former manager fielding questions amidst the chuckling and back-slapping on on RTE Radio's Sunday love-in Take Your Point just 24 hours after Cavan's humiliation by the Lee this past July was galling for the many Breffni supporters listening on the road home from Cork, pride and heads having taken an equal pounding. His game was up. Carr wanted out. Now, Andrews and Hyland want in. The revelation this week that they will buck the widely-reported national trend and take on the role gratis, with nominal expenses, is a splendid start; this, clearly, is a labour of love. Paying emissaries from other counties (and absurdly, at club level, from other parishes) is widespread, an example of the herd mentality alive and well in our games. Some of the figures commanded (and in some cases, demanded) are more in line with a top private sector gig than for an amateur and ostensibly voluntary sporting organisation. Let's hope that supporters here can grasp a concept that seemed to elude some of those of the team next door - namely that success is measured differently in different counties. Success in Cavan wouldn't be winning an All Ireland in the near future - that's fantasy. What McEnaney did is the best we can hope for. No, Banty didn't deliver an Ulster title for Monaghan, a county whose rich tradition - a tradition second only to ourselves and Down in Ulster - was in real danger of extinction. But he got dragged the county into a position where anything less, clearly, wasn't good enough. From no-hopers, he made Monaghan into a side capable of holding their own with the best. Here in Cavan, can we, to paraphrase Marlon Brando's famous speech in On The Waterfront, grow to have class, to be somebodies? To be contenders? If Terry Hyland and Val Andrews replicate here the work Seamus McEnaney did there, then we will. Forget talk of winning titles and do what Carr promised and what Banty actually achieved - make a proud county competitive again. That's real success.