Clerkin sides with Farney to win close battle in Clones

Former Cavan senior selector Hugo Clerkin is an admirer of the current Cavan team but he fancies his native Monaghan to work the oracle this Sunday, writes Kevin Óg Carney.

Extrapolation is an inexact science but the stats clearly suggest another Monaghan victory is on the way this Sunday when the Farney County host Cavan in the Ulster SFC at St. Tighernach’s Park, Clones.

Cavan’s home victory last May in the Ulster SFC quarter-final at Kingspan Breffni was a turn up for the books. Monaghan went into the game having beaten Cavan in their previous three Ulster SFC clashes (2013, 2015, 2017) and, in addition, had won the NFL Division One meeting of the two sides the previous March.

Fast forward and Mickey Graham’s side will take to the field as underdogs against Monaghan in a few days time. Hardly surprising though given that Cavan have only won four championship games in eleven years whereas Monaghan have won Ulster titles and played in All-Ireland semi-finals.

Monaghan are slight favourites to advance this Sunday but Cavan will not be without hope. Indeed, Cavan’s conquering of Malachy O’Rourke’s Monaghan in the 2019 Ulster SFC quarter-final represented the third straight year that Monaghan had been upset in the provincial series after defeats to Fermanagh (2018) and Down (2017).

Cavan’s shock victory (1-13 to 0-12) last May over O’Rourke’s charges was helped greatly by the awarding of a controversial early penalty  – and subsequent conversion. .

At Clones this Sunday, former Cavan selector and iconic Monaghan footballer Hugo Clerkin believes the margin of victory is likely to be less this weekend than it was in 2019. His hunch is backed up by the stats too. Prior to the teams’ fifth Ulster SFC clash in eight seasons last year, the average winning margin was just 1.6 points in those four matches.

“I’d be surprised if there’s more than a couple of points between the teams at the end,” the retired Largy College, Clones PE teacher opined.

“Either way, I still think Monaghan will have that wee bit too much for Cavan, all around the field. My head says so as well as my heart.

“Monaghan are the more experienced side and the more settled side and even though we’ve had a change of management and they’re trying to put their own stamp on things, I don’t think it’ll be Cavan who’ll be progressing in the Ulster championship when the final whistle goes.”

Cavan's defeat of Monaghan in the 2019 provincial championship was their first victory on home soil over their neighbours since 1987. With victories in 2013, 2015 and 2017, beating Cavan had become somewhat routine for Monaghan over recent years. Last year’s result saw the tables being slightly rebalanced.

Schooled at Cavan De La Salle Primary School in Cavan town, Ulster SFC medallist Clerkin believes that another surprise victory for the away side this weekend can’t be ruled out. He believes nothing can be ruled out when it comes to championship football in this neck of the woods:

“I’ve always believed that Ulster championship games can go either way, no matter who’s involved, “ says the former man who served as a coach/selector under the Liam Austin headed Cavan senior management team some 22 years ago.

“Anyone can beat anyone in Ulster championship football on their day and, in a derby game especially, it’s very difficult to predict what way it’s gonna go.

“I think things favour Monaghan in a marginal way at the minute. Last weekend, they played fairly well (against Meath) and were happy to be stay up in division one for another year whereas Cavan were surprisingly beaten by Roscommon so you have a division one team taking on a division three team, on paper at least, this Sunday.

“Cavan are a young and mobile team though and they’ve a very strong midfield with the likes of Gearóid McKiernan so Monaghan will get nothing easy around the middle and so it might come down to which team takes their chances the better or even which team gets the rub of the green,” the Scotshouse native added.

The race for the Anglo-Celt Cup is notoriously difficult, with potential minefields and banana skins lurking at every juncture. Clerkin, a veteran of such campaigns, says the way events turned out last weekend in the final round of the NFL proved that you can bank on nothing in football.

“I felt sorry for Mickey Graham last Saturday evening when I saw him being interviewed after what was a real double whammy; being beaten on home ground and then hearing about how Fermanagh’s collapse to Laois had Cavan flying down the relegation trap door.”

But while Clerkin – father of erstwhile Monaghan midfielder Dick - believes that, even if allowing for the fact that Meath came back to eke out a draw last weekend against Monaghan, Seamus McEnaney’s men will have been buoyed by their success in staving off relegation. So will Mickey Graham find it a challenge to lift his players for this weekend’s championship tie after suffering relegation to division three of the NFL?

“If he does then the players will have to look at themselves,” the Currin club stalwart contends. Any player that has to be motivated by someone else for a championship game, especially against your neighbours, shouldn’t be in the dressing-room.”