TWO of Ireland’s sharpest football brains will be in opposing dugouts tomorrow, but Rory Gallagher and Malachy O’Rourke once sang off the same teamsheet and the Fermanagh natives have been the architects of some memorable Ulster Championship wins against Monaghan.
As a player, Gallagher scored 3-9 when the Ernemen blitzed the Farneymen back in 2002 and, as Fermanagh manager, he led his county to a dramatic Ulster semi-final win over Monaghan last year.
Between those two victories, O’Rourke, the Monaghan manager since 2013, guided Fermanagh to a 2-8 to 0-10 over his adopted county at the Ulster semi-final stage in 2008.
Former Monaghan forward Paul Finlay still gets a sick feeling in the pit of stomach when he recalls that loss.
“I knew you were going to bring that up!” he says with a chuckle.
“Och, that was of the worst days I had in the Championship. We went down to Brewster with high expectations and I still maintain that was one of Monaghan’s best teams of the last 20 years.
“Brewster was always worth a couple of points to Fermanagh and the boul Malachy (O’Rourke) plotted our downfall.
“We never got into any rhythm at all and I came out of it with a suspension. Frustration got the better of me. Frustration was the name of the game because Fermanagh just stopped us doing what we wanted to do.”
Better memories were made two years later in an Ulster semi-final that Monaghan won 0-21 to 2-8 with Finlay scoring six points. Gallagher scored 1-3 but it was Monaghan, striving for a provincial breakthrough, who progressed to the Ulster final. They lost it but the recruitment of O’Rourke in 2013 proved to be the catalyst for their current run of success that has included Ulster titles in 2013 and 2015 and an All-Ireland semi-final last year.
That was the second semi-final Monaghan were in last year and both ended in defeat. In Ulster the Farneymen were two points ahead with time almost up when Fermanagh’s Eoin Donnelly leapt highest in their square to punch a Hail Mary punt past Rory Beggan and win the game.
Defeat was absolutely gutting for Monaghan but they recovered their poise and gathered momentum through the Qualifiers and then the Super8s and pushed Tyrone to the pins of their collars in the all-Ulster All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park.
Again losing was a massive disappointment but reaching the last four in the county is not to be sniffed at and the same was true for Fermanagh last year. Donnelly’s dramatic winner sent the Ernemen through a surprise Ulster final (only the sixth in the county’s history) and, although they were well beaten by Donegal, getting there was something to build on.
This year threatens to be anti-climactic for both counties. Fermanagh looked good, for a while, in Division Two, while Monaghan, for a while, looked great in Division One but fell away after beating Dublin in their opener.
They needed to beat Cavan to stay up but the Breffnimen avenged that defeat in the Championship last month. Meanwhile, Fermanagh beat Donegal in Division Two but the lost the Championship meeting and then got absolutely panned by Joe Brolly for their men-behind-the-ball tactics.
Will that criticism force Fermanagh into a change of tactics tomorrow?
Nope, says Finlay.
“Rory Gallagher is a strong enough character and manager to make his team focus on what they know and what they have worked at,” he said.
“They have a plan. Yes, they remain ultra-defensive but I don’t think they go out to only score 10 or 11 points. They are always trying to get their attacking game going – some days it bears more fruit than others – but I think the criticism they’ve had will focus them and give them motivation to go out and prove people wrong.
“Over the last couple of seasons they’ve been able to put in big performances to topple so-called bigger teams – we saw that with Monaghan last year – and they’ll be looking to go with the same plan. As long as they get a big performance and a win, they’ll not mind what way it comes.
“Fermanagh won’t mind if it’s tight going into the last 10 minutes but I think both teams will expect the game to go into that final quarter or the final 10 minutes.
“It’ll be about which team can be most efficient and take their scores because as we saw with Donegal, they eventually started kicking good scores from distance and that broke Fermanagh down. “Monaghan will have to do something similar whereas Fermanagh will look to come out, get a bit of lead in the first 20-25 minutes and then hold on to that, invite Monaghan on to them and then try and frustrate them and hit them on the counterattack.
“Everybody is aware of what to expect, how it pans out depends on how the teams perform.”
Like a lot of Monaghan supporters, Finlay is nervous. The parts are all there but they aren’t working like they were somehow. Since that win against Dublin in the League, Monaghan have struggled for fluency, searching for the missing spark they need and Finlay worries that Fermanagh may sense weakness in the Farney ranks.
“It’s a really difficult game,” he says.
“Monaghan have a chance to get back on track but there are question marks over Monaghan at the minute. We’re all hopeful of the team hitting form but until we see it we can’t be too confident.
“It could be the like of a Fermanagh that could frustrate a Monaghan team that’s not firing on all cylinders and maybe come out with a win. That’s the danger.”
“The Clones factor could swing it for Monaghan, it’s open which should free up a bit more space and I think that will help, but it is still a very, very tricky tie for Monaghan and they’ll still have to get their game up to a level that we haven’t seen this year yet.
“There were tight games in the League, they got a win against Cavan but the last day against Cavan they didn’t get anywhere near what they had worked for and planned for.
“Guys will go out and try to prove themselves and the team will try to prove themselves and there’ll be motivation from the hurt of last year will help get them up for the game.
“Fermanagh are maybe feeling they could put a final nail in this Monaghan team, I’m sure Gallagher will have them well pumped for that. The Monaghan guys are fighting for their lives. This team could stay on track or else it’s going to be a short season and who knows what to expect whether it’s the management or key players? It’s a big game.”
It’s a big one alright and there is so much at stake. The end of the road will come for one of these counties tomorrow and that’s never a good thing in early June.
