MONAGHAN haven’t budgeted for a Championship run this season but manager Seamus McEnaney insists that money will be found to cover team expenses for as long as their season lasts.
The Farneymen begin pre-season training on September 15 with a six-week training budget in place that will take the side up to their Ulster Championship opener against Cavan on October 31 and no further.
But if the Farney county come through that knockout game, funds will be found to expenses right up to the All-Ireland final in December should Monaghan get that far, insists McEnaney.
“We had a budget set aside, albeit it has changed dramatically,” he said.
“I hope we have a budget problem in mid-December, because I think there’s a lot of good people in Monaghan interested in the Monaghan team.
“If we have that problem in December, we’ll be able to solve it. In relation to the budget, we only have five or six weeks of a budget until the Cavan game and that’s the only part we are thinking about. But we really don’t see a problem with our budget until after the Cavan game.”
McEnaney denied that the Monaghan senior team budgeting had been shaped by cutbacks due to the lack of income available to the county board this season.
“No (there are no cutbacks) because the lack of input from my management team and all the travel expenses and all that goes with it,” he said.
“The clock only starts again on the 15th of September, so I really hope we have too much of a problem. But at the moment we only have six-week of a budget to look after and that’s all in place.”
The Monaghan senior championship semi-finals will be played on Sunday with the county final a week later. McEnaney is confident that getting his squad together on September 15 gives him “loads of time” to get ready for National League games on October 17/18 and 24/25 and the Ulster opener against neighbours Cavan on October 31.
“I think it is enough, even the players that are out this weekend I'm encouraging them to rest up and put the (kit) bag in a corner,” said the Monaghan manager who won't be able to call upon injured Jack McCarron this season.
“We'll have four weeks until our National League game against Kerry and six weeks until our Championship match, that's loads of time.
“I know for a fact that the clubs have put in serious work, I've seen it, (I've seen) four or five games every weekend for the last few weeks and I've watched every single game on the great facility that Monaghan has put in place with the livestream so it gives us an opportunity as a management team to see everything and yeah, I'm delighted with the shape our players are in.
“I'm really delighted with the way the clubs have handled the whole thing, our players have applied themselves to the club championship and it's loads of time, loads of time.”
Now in his second spell as Monaghan manager, McEnaney who has also taken Wexford and Meath, is adamant that a Championship needs to be played.
“I think it is very important for the GAA family that there is an inter-county championship for a bunch of reasons,” he said.
“Nearly all games are streamed and will be streamed and all the inter-county games will be on TV or streamed live. That is a social outlet for people and I think there is also a financial implication there. The TV rights are important to the running of the GAA.
“I think the inter-county championship from county board’s point of view, the sponsors will want an inter-county championship and that is worth between 100,000 and 200,000 for most counties. I think that is very important. As for the players themselves, you look at Darren (Hughes) and he has not 10 seasons left in him so he won’t want to miss one and loads of other players like him.
“In relation to the virus, we are going to have to learn to live with it. It looks like it could still be here in 12 months’ time with us.
“We can’t write off all our social life, all our interests, all our GAA world for the next two years so we are going to have to live with it. My belief is and my way from September 15 is that the safest place in the world will be at Monaghan training.”
To watch this weekend's Monaghan championship games, go to: www.monaghangaa.ie
