Monaghan face daunting trip to Croker

Preview

Colm Shalvey

The National Football League is just two rounds in, but already Monaghan’s task has become a daunting one ahead of this Saturday’s trip to Croke Park to take on Dublin.

Monaghan go into this one on the back of two defeats in the league, most recently in a topsy-turvy second-round game in Roscommon. Both promoted teams would surely have earmarked their clash as a pivotal game in their return to Division 1 and it was Roscommon who got off the mark, a week after they were very unfortunate to leave Killarney empty-handed. Mark Dowd has had to fend without his St Brigid’s players, but Roscommon have made a bright start to the campaign, stealing a march on the current bottom two of Monaghan and Dublin, who will go head-to-head this weekend.

Roscommon’s third-quarter scoring blitz ensured that the recent pattern of the NFL games between these counties going in favour of the home team would continue. Monaghan have now fallen to five consecutive defeats at Dr Hyde Park, including three in as many seasons, since their last win at the Roscommon Town venue in 2007.

After the one-sided loss to Armagh, Monaghan at least managed to keep the result in the balance for longer, leading by two at the break after keeping the Rossies scoreless between the 18th and 35th minutes, only for it to all unravel later on. Monaghan converted eight of their ten first-half shots, but their conversion rate dipped below 50% after the restart, partly because they had to chase goals during the final quarter, having been blown away in the previous 15 minutes.

Roscommon’s shooting stats almost mirrored Monaghan’s, as after taking less than half of their chances before the interval – seven from 16 – they turned 14 second-half attempts into a tally of 2-10, including a pair of two-point frees (one of which punished a breach of the ‘three-up’ rule by the visitors). That was just one of the errors that contributed to Monaghan’s downfall, with all three Roscommon goals coming after they pounced on cheap turnovers to counter with real pace.

The powerful Enda Smith accounted for two of those – one from a penalty – as well as putting the other one on a plate for Diarmuid Murtagh. Smith was inches away from a hat-trick, as Daragh McElearney made a goal-line clearance to deny him in the 24th minute, while the pacy Darragh Heneghan also caused headaches to Monaghan’s back-line.

With Ryan Wylie (second only to keeper Rory Beggan in inter-county experience on the current panel) yet to appear in this year’s league, and with Ronan Boyle making his NFL debut in place of the injured Dylan Byrne, Monaghan’s starting defence at the Hyde featured four inexperienced players with a combined total of just three league starts. For every silver lining, such as the return of Beggan, another dark cloud seems to appear for Monaghan, who played the last few minutes of that game with 14 men after Ryan O’Toole limped off with all five substitutions having already been used.

It’s still early days in the season, but the injury list is giving unwelcome memories of 2024. The two-week break could have given an opportunity to the likes of Shane Hanratty and Fionán Carolan to recover from injuries, plus some more of the Scotstown contingent to make their way into the starting team, but Killian Lavelle, Conor McCarthy and David Garland are among those set to be out long-term. Louis Kelly, who had made his senior county debut at Dr. Hyde Park last year, started brilliantly last time out by scoring 1-1 inside five minutes, but he had to go off early in the second half after suffering another hamstring setback.

There was a fatalistic sense to the pre-match chatter among Monaghan supporters in Roscommon and the result there will have done little to change that, although the county’s league record against the Dubs in recent years – four wins and a draw since 2018 – may offer some crumbs of hope. Dublin have been finding their feet under new manager Ger Brennan, who has cast the net wide in search of new players and has stated publicly that some former All-Ireland winners could be among those to be cut from his panel in the coming weeks.

It remains to be seen whether Brennan, who led Louth to a first Leinster title in 68 years last summer, will follow through on that, but he has already shown his ruthless side by making a triple substitution at half-time of their defeat by Donegal and replacing three players by the end of the first half as they lost to Mayo.

Brennan, who led Louth to a first Leinster title in 68 years last summer, has form for that kind of in-game surgery, having made a quadruple substitution just under 12 months ago when the Wee County hosted Monaghan in the league.

Con O’Callaghan could return for the Dubs after missing the Mayo game, with Ciarán Kilkenny and Seán Bugler in line to start after coming on in Castlebar. While some of their most successful ever players have left the stage, they can still call on the likes of Brian Howard, Niall Scully and David Byrne, while Luke Breathnach and Nathan Doran are among those putting strong claims on starting places.

The Dublin match starts a run of three games in as many weeks, which will also see Monaghan go up against a revitalised Mayo – flying high under Andy Moran – and All-Ireland champions Kerry. It’s a daunting run of fixtures on current form, but Monaghan have form for defying expectations.