Erne must overcome pain to achieve ultimate Ulster gain
The elusive chase for their first-ever Ulster Championship success may dominate talk in Fermanagh at present but, as Ryan McCluskey tells Eamonn O’Hara, the National League tops the immediate agenda...
IT is never going to be any easier on the eye to watch, a bit like switching on to see a re-run of the 1970s paranoid thriller in which Dustin Hoffman’s title-role character is interrogated by a Nazi SS dentist and diamond smuggler played chillingly by Laurence Olivier.
The sequence in Marathon Man when the dentist drills into Hoffman’s teeth without anaesthetic is excruciating to watch.
Thinking about last summer, the ongoing marathon Fermanagh football is involved in, the uncompleted challenge the county hopes to finish some day soon, brought the film title to mind.
The tooth-drilling bit did not appear far removed, in the context of the 2008 Championship, from the agony Fermanagh experienced in missing out on the Ulster title followed by a shattered team’s All-Ireland SFC Qualifier exit.
Watching the footage again of the drawn Ulster final with Armagh, how a terrific effort failed to wrench a certain monkey off the county’s back, how the best team on the day didn’t take enough of their chances, they were so, so close to something brilliant.
Armagh improved for the replay, Fermanagh faltered badly, squandered opportunity after opportunity. Unfortunately their free-takers were all out of sorts and couldn’t buy a point. The performance against Kildare at Croke Park was by a forward line with its confidence utterly fragmented.
Malachy O’Rourke could not do anything about it. Players’ self-belief was running on empty.
“It was very, very disappointing in the end. To go so close...”
Ryan McCluskey, their 27-year-old twice Allstar nominated centre half-back, said it was obviously a bitter setback to try and come to terms with and refocus on the challenge with fresh ambition and renewed hunger.
“It was hard, but we had our chances and you can only hold your hands up and applaud Armagh. When it comes to the Ulster Championship, they are the benchmark. You have to learn from the experience,” he said.
The search for a priceless piece of silver goes on. As expeditions go, this one has lasted more than four decades of unfulfilled dreams.
When the ground quickens and the turnstiles again trade in tickets and cash during the summer months of prime-time Championship billings, Fermanagh football dusts itself down again to try and find what this county desperately seeks.
“It is our main aim, just like last year,” says McCluskey. “We had a number of goals at the start of last season and winning the Ulster title was the main one. We were close to it. It is still our main goal. It would mean so much if we could achieve it.”
The silver referred to, of indescribable value to Fermanagh football, is the Anglo-Celt Cup. They remain the only one of the nine not to have won it. Others may be going through droughts, Antrim’s being the most considerable period without an Ulster SFC title win of the other eight, but none come near to the Ernemen.
TYRONE and Kerry will again be jockeying for the tag of bookies’ favourites for the biggest title of all, the All-Ireland, but while McCluskey has ambitions at that level too (Fermanagh took Mayo to a semi-final replay in ’04), it is the provincial issue that is uppermost in his and their thinking.
“Around Fermanagh all the talk is about the Ulster Championship. To get our hands on the Ulster title would be bigger than any feat. I would swap anything for it,” he said.
The first goal manager O’Rourke set them in his debut season in charge was promotion. They started the year in Division Three. They needed to get themselves up a level, playing better opposition to prepare for the next summer’s challenge.
The NFL objective was achieved. Unbeaten during the regulation phase, they and Wexford were promoted. On Sunday week, life in Division Two begins against Monaghan. Both of last year’s All-Ireland semi-finalists are in their group. Their rivals include the Ulster champions and Munster champions Cork.
McCluskey continued: “Division Two is going to be a big challenge. If we can do well, then that sets things up for a good crack at the Championship. It is going to be tough because everyone in the National League can beat each other.
“So, realistically the first plan is to try and get enough points to stay in the division and work towards the summer and see how we develop from there.
“We had a good National League last season, achieved our goal, though it was disappointing that we lost the League final to Wexford. We had a good Ulster Championship, could have won it, and I think we realise that a good League in Division Two is something we seriously need to help prepare for the Championship.
“I’d like to think we will be there or thereabouts again in the Ulster Championship this season but we have a very tough draw at home to Down. In Ulster there are a lot of decent quality sides,” said the Enniskillen Gaels ace.
“We’re under no illusions. We haven’t a good record against Down. It is something we need to put right if we want to try and win Ulster, and if you want to be the best you have to beat the best to achieve that.
“Malachy (O’Rourke) is doing a great job with Fermanagh. He’s come in and brought a lot of confidence to the players, and that also comes from winning games.
“He has brought a number of players in but, knowing Malachy, if it doesn’t happen he will be very keen on shifting them out because everyone has to put their shoulders to the wheel.
“I doubt if there will be any red carpets left for anybody, and it is good that everybody has to play for their position. That’s the way it should be.”
The unfinished marathon begins its next phase in May at Brewster Park.
FOOTBALL LEAGUE FORM 1998/99-2008
THE VERDICT
MALACHY O’Rourke (above) steadied the ship on his arrival last season as manager. Division Three offered good conditions to develop a first choice team and squad and Fermanagh’s players put a couple of poor seasons behind them by securing promotion.
It was almost perfect in the Championship, an early upset over Monaghan, victory over Derry and Armagh struggling to cope in the Ulster final. A first title for the county appeared in their grasp, only for too many missed chances to let it slip.
So many squandered opportunities were punished in the replay and the rest of the Championship was something to forget. That task begins next week against Monaghan in Division Two. Meath and Cork follow.
Fermanagh possess one of the best half-back lines around in Kelly, McCluskey and McElroy. Double Allstar Barry Owens will hopefully be fully recovered from a knee operation and feature before the end of the League.
Goan, Lyons and McDermott are other strong, experienced defenders, McGrath and Murphy big players in the middle third. Fermanagh are a match for one and all in Division Two, but the issue the NFL will examine and the Championship demand better from, is the forward unit. Maguire (2-11 SFC and NFL), Little and McElroy (2-10 in SFC and NFL), the Keenans (Ryan scored 10 points in SFC and 1-3 in League), Cadden (1-7 NFL), McBarron etc, plus a few newcomers.
Retaining Division Two status will ask a lot from them. The biggest goal of course continues to be the quest to win a first Ulster SFC title. Whether that’s a runner this summer or not, O’Rourke will be in a better position to assess after Down pay a visit to Brewster in May in the opening round.
If they can overcome that formidable obstacle, things just might shape up interestingly, if they can develop reliability in the high pressure area of free-taking and threat around the edge of the square.
2009 NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE PANEL
NFL panel subject to change: Hugh Brady, Christopher Breen, Pat Cadden, Ryan Carson, James Connolly, Enda Ferris, Rory Foy, Ronan Gallagher, Shane Goan (right), Michael Jones, Paul Johnston, Damian Kelly, Ryan Keenan, Daniel Kille, Mark Little, Niall Leonard, Shane Lyons, Eamon Maguire, Liam McBarron, Shane McDermott, Ciaran McElroy, Tommy McElroy, Martin McGrath, Darren McQuaid, Shane O’Brien, Ciaran O’Reilly, Seamus Ryder, James Sherry, Peter Sherry, Paul Ward
THE NEW BREED
PAT Cadden emerged last season with some impressive work in the forward line during the NFL, seven points in two games influencing wins over Louth and Longford, 1-7 in three games. But injury and surgery sidelined him from the Championship.
The forward unit is an area the management will strive to improve the chemistry of, the missing ingredient last summer a level of consistency under pressure in regard to free-taking accuracy. Cadden may gain further opportunities to establish credentials.
In the Dr McKenna Cup, Seamus Ryder put down some impressive markers as did Enda Ferris, Ryan Carson, Daniel Kille, Rory Foy and Michael Jones.
All are pushing for inclusion in the League panel and to be given a chance to see what they can do in the more intensely competitive environment of the NFL.
All-Ireland SFC third round Qualifier:
Kildare 0-11 Fermanagh 0-5
National Football League
Division Two
Rd 1: Fermanagh v Monaghan (Sunday, Feb 1);
Rd 2: Meath v Fermanagh (Saturday, Feb14);
Rd 3: Cork v Fermanagh (Sunday, March 8);
Rd 4: Fermanagh v Armagh (Saturday, March 14);
Rd 5: Laois v Fermanagh (Saturday, March 21);
Rd 6: Fermanagh v Kildare (Sunday, March 29);
Rd 7: Wexford v Fermanagh (Sunday, April 12)
2009 Ulster Senior Football Championship
Preliminary Round (Brewster Park, Enniskillen): Fermanagh v Down (Sunday, May 17)
Winners to play Cavan in
quarter-final
Erne must overcome pain to achieve ultimate Ulster gain
Antrim
Armagh
Cavan
Derry
Donegal
Down
Fermanagh
Monaghan
Tyrone
