MONAGHAN manager Malachy O’Rourke says that none of his players were “whinging or complaining” about Down’s physicality when the sides met in Ulster.
They will meet for the second time in this year’s Championship when they come face-to-face in Croke Park for their round 4B qualifier on Saturday evening.
It will have been five weeks to the day since Down sparked the summer into life with a dazzling display that mixed brain and brawn on a memorable evening in Armagh.
Much was made of the Mourne side’s physicality in the aftermath of their victory but Monaghan have never been shy of that side of the game and O’Rourke says there was no issue made of it within his camp.
“That wasn’t a big thing for us. Down did absolutely nothing wrong. They’d good physicality about their play but it was a Championship match.
I know certainly none of our boys were whinging or complaining about it afterwards. That’s what you expect in a Championship match.
“We felt that Down took over the game and played better quality football, and were able to get scores at crucial times. In the overall picture, it’s the quality of football we wanted to improve more than anything else.”
A key element that evening in the Athletic Grounds was the wastefulness of Monaghan’s start. They created nine scoring chances in the first 12 minutes, but scored just two points in that time.
They hit 3-23 the next day out against Wexford but under more duress in Carlow, there was again a worrying element of wastefulness, particularly about their first half display.
“Against Wexford we kicked very few [wides] but you maybe have to take into account that there wasn’t as much pressure on the boys,” said the Enniskillen-based PE teacher.
“Against Carlow in the first half we did kick wides. We know we have a lot of quality forwards and on our day we can put up big scores, as we did in the National League.
“It’s obviously a thing we’re working on continuously. It’s a number of things – decision making, shooting at the right time, execution, working the ball into better shooting positions. We’re working on all that.”
The dynamic of this meeting is different, though. Monaghan are coming off the back of a couple of wins while Down will have had just 13 days to recover from a tough second half of the Ulster final, where Tyrone blitzed them to win easily.
Of the 64 provincial final losers that have dropped into the Qualifiers in the 16 seasons since their inception, 24 have recovered to win (37.5 per cent), with the other 40 (62.5 per cent) losing their next game.
Monaghan themselves have recent experience, and a very positive one at that, having lost their Ulster title to Donegal in 2014 only to then beat Kildare in extra-time in their first win at Croke Park since 1930.
They’ve been much more regular visitors to the venue since and it’s hoodoo that’s long been forgotten, but there have still been more bad days than good at the business end.
The 2-22 to 0-11 defeat by Dublin that followed the win over Kildare was a sobering affair, while Tyrone have twice taken their scalp in All-Ireland quarter-finals at the Jones’ Road ground.
“We’ve played well in Croke Park on a number of occasions. There have been days too after winning Ulster finals, it wasn’t so much we didn’t play well but on a couple of occasions we played Tyrone and once we played Dublin, they were just better teams than us on the day.
“We feel we’ve played well in League finals and in Championship matches down there, so it’s not a worry.
“It’s where everyone wants to play football, the more times you get a chance the better. It’s a great opportunity. You want to go down there and play as well as you possibly can but that’s not an end in itself.
“We know Down will have been disappointed not winning the Ulster final and they’ll be coming with a determination to get their season back on track.
“It’s very much a 50-50 game. They’ll be very confident after the way they played and beat us the last day. It’ll be a tough Championship game.”
