Bannigan ready for action in his second Ulster final

Interview

Colm Shalvey

Monaghan football captain Mícheál Bannigan is set to make his 100th senior inter-county appearance this Sunday by leading the team out for the Ulster SFC Final against Armagh in Clones.

Bannigan is under no illusions about the challenge that awaits Monaghan when they take on an Armagh side that he rates as one of the top teams in the country.

“The high was nice on the Saturday night [after the Derry game] into Sunday morning until we watched Armagh and started to get into the headspace again of looking at their strengths and weaknesses and what we can do. They are obviously favourites.

“They have been consistently one of the top three or four teams in the country. They were beaten by the All-Ireland winners last year and they won it the year before. They might say the pressure is on us because they’ve been there four times since our last one. We haven’t been at that level.”

Recalling their first-round league defeat to Sunday’s opponents, he says.

“We hadn’t been there in a year and had an okay McKenna Cup, but that was a welcome to Division 1. I think we improved incrementally as the league went on, but that was a reminder of the level the top teams are operating at.”

The Aughnamullen forward knows that Monaghan will need a more complete performance than they have managed so far this season, including last time out, saying.

“The Monaghan crowd found their voices in the last 15 minutes when we started to play. We didn’t really give them anything to shout about in the first half or do ourselves any justice. We were flat and we had no energy. Derry had twice as many shots as us in the first half and twice as many possessions.

“You’re never going to do well against a top side when they have the ball twice as much as you have. A few choice words were said [at half-time]. We worked hard to get more pressure on them in the second half and get our hands on more ball.”

Mícheál is in his second season as captain, with his uncle Gabriel as manager. He says their relationship hasn’t changed too much during that time.

“We have always been close; the dynamic probably didn’t change a whole pile. He was in as a selector with Vinny [Corey]. He’s hard on people when he needs to be, but he isn’t shouting and roaring and banging tables. That isn’t really him, he’s calmer than that, but he has boys in the backroom team who will do that for him. I’m just doing what I was doing before I was captain. It’s lucky to be in that position because we have so many leaders and former captains along with you. Ryan Wylie and Ryan McAnespie are natural leaders; they take massive leadership roles.”

Rory Beggan is another leader in the group as one of the vice-captains, along with Ryan McAnespie. Bannigan had no doubts that he would kick the two-point free that decided Monaghan’s semi-final extra-time against Derry.

“If he could have picked a place on the pitch to kick one, it probably wouldn’t have been far from that angle, so I had 100% faith in him once he connected with it, that it was going over.”

Bannigan admits that he thought that game was over amid the drama at the end of normal time, before Jack McCarron’s two-point sideline that brought Monaghan level with the very last kick. He credits David Garland, who “knows the rulebook inside out” as a club referee and Beggan for intervening to remind referee Noel Mooney that there was still time for the last kick.

“I shook hands with a few Derry players; I thought the game was over. I asked [Noel Mooney] was it worth one or two and he said it was worth two. Jack asked, ‘do you want me to hit it’ and I said ‘yeah’. I got him a ball and handed it to him and that was as much of a role as I played in it.”

The 2025 All-Star nominee’s only previous appearance in an Ulster final came in 2021 at a sparsely-populated Croke Park amid Covid restrictions, with Monaghan losing to Tyrone. He is much more established at county level now.

“You probably have a lot more belief in yourself that you can operate at this level. In ’21, only a couple of seasons into playing regularly, you’d have had doubts about whether you were ready to play at this level, so now it’s just about performing.”

Bannigan was a county minor in 2015 when Monaghan last won the Ulster SFC and he was in the crowd on final day, as he had been two years previously.

“I was in the Pat McGrane stand for both of them [2013 and 2015] and I have unbelievable memories, they were two brilliant days. It would mean a hell of a lot to us. We haven’t won one in 11 years, so most of this squad don’t have one.”

Bannigan has scored 9-200 in 99 senior appearances for Monaghan, including three goals in their last four championship matches. Monaghan will most likely need him to add to that tally on Sunday afternoon.