MONAGHAN manager Malachy O’Rourke acknowledged in typically forthright fashion that Monaghan simply failed to produce the level of performance needed against Dublin in Saturday’s second
quarter-final.
‘‘Coming up we knew that we had to play way above what we’ve produced this year,’’ admitted O’Rourke (right) after his side’s 10-point defeat.
‘‘But we still felt it was within us to do that. We wanted to make sure we set ourselves up well because we’ve seen Dublin get early goals and end games early.
‘‘We never really got sorted though and that’s the most disappointing thing. We never really challenged them.
‘‘We had a lot of possession, but had a lot of turnovers, I think it was 15, and our choice of play and execution was off and Dublin just pulled ahead and once they got to eight points up after 27 or 28 minutes it really was over.’’
Asked if the two results on Saturday were an indication that there are two or three teams way ahead of the rest, O’Rourke responded: “I suppose you can’t really argue with that. We knew coming up here we were going to have to play a lot better and I suppose the level of expectation in Monaghan has gone up as well.
‘‘We’ve been at the quarter-final stage before and felt we hadn’t done ourselves justice and we knew it was a really tall order against Dublin but we felt we could put it up to them and that’s probably the most disappointing thing
‘‘With Armagh getting well beaten in the first game there are a number of counties who are getting that bit stronger and pulling ahead of the rest.’’
O’Rourke added that the six-day turnaround from his side’s round four Qualifier win over Down could not be used as an excuse.
‘‘To be honest we’ve been preparing now for five years and we knew that this was the toughest stage possible that we could have been on.
‘‘It wasn’t just a case of having six or seven days because we have done a lot of work to get back here and to try and be really competitive here and that again is the most disappointing thing because we expected a lot more of ourselves.’’
Dublin manager Jim Gavin, meanwhile, believes his side is gaining momentum’ at just the right time as they keep on track for three All-Ireland titles in-a-row.
“From a management point of view you can see that the team is gaining momentum at the right time of the year,’’ said Gavin.
‘‘We’re just happy to win this quarter-final and be into a semi-final. We knew going into this game that Monaghan were battle-hardened and the result is a reflection of the respect we gave Monaghan.
‘‘We prepared very well and I thought that in the first half we played, very well. The team looked controlled and composed and went in deserved leaders at half-time.”
Gavin isn’t worried that his side haven’t been tested at this stage, pointing out that the work they do away from Croke Park and the television cameras is preparation enough to take on the biggest and best teams.
“The preparation the last two weeks was very good,” he said.
“There has been a lot of work done away in the shadows. You saw when Monaghan did get a bit of a run that they have the capacity and capability to take scores, but our team defence was very strong. We’ll have to have our ‘A’ game against Tyrone the next day though because 1-11 from play and a lot of wides is something to work on.”
Diarmuid Connolly, who is currently serving a 12-week ban for an incident in the Leinster SFC win over Carlow, will be available for that semi-final but Gavin refused to be drawn on whether he would start or not, pointing out that former Allstars Paul Flynn and Michael Darragh MacAuley were sprung from the bench against Monaghan because of the good form they were showing in training games.
