DARREN HUGHES likes having things in his own hands. As a farmer, the versatile Scotstown man can have long days, but at least enjoys the flexibility to be able to play county football.
It might not feel like it right now, mind. Calving season is upon them. Two-thirds of the 90 cattle on the farm he owns with his father Francis, the mark reached as he answers the phone on a busy Monday afternoon. He’s after birthing twin calves, and just has time for a quick chat before heading back to the field to check on them.
Another couple of weeks will finish calving season in Ballinode, by which stage Monaghan’s National League fate will be decided. It, too, is in their own hands. While three successive defeats has put a huge dent in their campaign, they finish off with two home games.
The first of them is in Clones on Sunday, against a Kerry side whose campaign is finding its annual spring warmth. They come up the road with six points from their last three games, with summer stars filtering back in all the while, and they are looking towards a potential semi-final if they take anything home from St Tiernach’s Park.
“Kerry’s Kerry, they’re one of the top teams in the country year in, year out," Hughes said.
“You know what you’re going to get from them. They’re a strong outfit and we can’t afford to give them a start like we did against Cork. They will [let you play], but it’ll be a physical, footballing game.
“Kerry have big men and they can back it up with great footballers. You have both sides of the coin to contend with, you just can’t go defensive against them because they will break you down, they have the quality up front. At the other end, we have to get more scores too. We’ll put a plan together this week and do our best to fulfil it this Sunday.”
The plan they had for Cork a fortnight ago unravelled very quickly. With no Ulster team having won a league game in the Rebel county since 2007, Malachy O’Rourke sent his side out to keep things tight for the first 15 minutes.
They ended that portion of the game 1-5 to 0-0 down, and lost by seven: “We did the opposite of what we were supposed to do. We said we’d keep it tight for 15 minutes and go from there," Hughes added.
“I think we were 10 points down and we were playing catch-up the whole way from there. Although we got a goal, Cork always had enough up top to get the scores when they needed them.”
It has left the Farney men in a spot of relegation bother. Wins over Roscommon and Down in their opening two games opened the window to another semi-final, but they now find themselves needing results to keep their heads above water.
“From a positive point of view it’s in our hands, but there’ll be nothing simple about it," Hughes said.
“We’ll be confident going in at home against Kerry and Donegal, but the performance from the last three games will have to be upped because that’ll not be good enough in the next two weeks.”
While they did famously win that 2013 Ulster title from Division Three, it was an exception to the modern-day norm whereby success is almost always shared among the top eight of the league.
After a few years of consistency, faces are just starting to freshen a bit on the Monaghan side. For Hughes, there is no better classroom than the top flight: “We’re there and we want to stay there. We don’t want to be seen as a flash in the pan," he said.
“We have a lot of good young players coming through and for their progression over the next couple of years, Division One is the place for them. If we can keep the more experienced players and bring in the young players, you need to be in Division One to have any realistic chances of silverware in the summer.
“We’ll be going full throttle to stick to the plan and win on Sunday.”
