Football

Players' man McMenamin warming to the task after tough start in Fermanagh

Ryan McMenamin is going into his second Championship as Fermanagh boss, with the Ernemen taking on Monaghan in today's Ulster quarter-final. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin
Ryan McMenamin is going into his second Championship as Fermanagh boss, with the Ernemen taking on Monaghan in today's Ulster quarter-final. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin Ryan McMenamin is going into his second Championship as Fermanagh boss, with the Ernemen taking on Monaghan in today's Ulster quarter-final. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin

YOU can understand the occasional sigh or exasperated shrug of the shoulders that come every now and again. As transitions into the world of inter-county management go, Ryan McMenamin couldn’t have been handed a much more trying assignment since taking on the Fermanagh job in August 2019.

For the previous two years he had been Rory Gallagher’s chief lieutenant. A players’ man, it was a natural fit.

At a coaching course some years back, Paul McIver – now part of McMenamin’s Fermanagh backroom team – was asked about the widening remit of a Gaelic footballer manager, and how the sensitivities of players’ personal problems often came with the territory.

Going back to his time at manager of Dromore, McIver recalled how that burden seemed to be shouldered exclusively by club stalwart McMenamin. Breaks ups, work issues, family problems; ‘Ricey’ looked after it.

That supporting role was crucial as Fermanagh achieved the unthinkable – getting Arlene Foster to a GAA match.

In the summer of 2018 the then-DUP leader made the cross-border pilgrimage to Clones to watch her native county contest a first Ulster final in a decade. Yet while the Anglo-Celt continued to elude them – riding high in June, shot down… at the end of June – the Erne County were on to something.

Sure, it was horrible to look at, but their doggedness and defensive discipline made Fermanagh a match for most. The following season backed that up when they narrowly missed out on promotion to Division One but then, from nowhere, Gallagher was gone.

Within five weeks he would pitch up at Ulster rivals Derry, by which stage McMenamin had already been tossed the keys to the top job – accepting what many presumed a poisoned chalice.

Becoming number one is a whole different ball game; little did he know how many obstacles lay ahead.

On the field, there were questions over whether the Tyrone All-Ireland winner could move the Ernemen on after consecutive campaigns that had squeezed every drop from the players.

There were early signs of promise in his first League campaign, the ball was moving quicker from defence to attack, but the lack of scoring forwards was a killer. Then the pandemic came and threw the whole thing into flux.

By the time the League was ready to resume, a Covid crisis severely hampered preparations and the slide down to Division Three was irreversible. A handful of youngsters were given Championship debuts against Down but, despite a decent start, Fermanagh came up short.

Some of those, the likes of Sean McNally, Luke Flanagan and Josh Largo-Ellis, have been handed starting spots as the rebuild after the rebuild continues.

From the panel that travelled to St Tiernach’s Park ahead of Arlene three years ago, 16 are no longer there for a variety of reasons. Replacing the experience of the Cullen brothers Che and Lee, the power of Ryan and Conall Jones and the forward ingenuity of Tomas and Ruairi Corrigan is no easy feat for a county seldom overburdened with options, but McMenamin is warming to the task.

Today’s Ulster quarter-final clash with the Farney is a crossroads clash in some respects, the absence of a back door once more a cruel blow for counties in transition, should they fail to navigate the choppy waters of provincial combat.

After that defeat to Down, McMenamin wore the look of a man wondering why, or how, he had got himself in so deep – even suggesting the end could be nigh after just one, albeit fairly chaotic, year.

“I think probably you shouldn’t speak to the media after you lose Championship games. That’s one thing I learned,” he said, smiling at his own resigned tone last November.

“You just don’t know what you’re saying half the time but it’s like everything else, I’m more or less pencilled in here for three seasons.

“It’s just that we are a young squad and we needed to be on the training pitch a lot more. We need a lot, lot more games. You can see signs in training that we are learning.”

The League was another mixed bag, but then what could anybody reasonably expect following so much upheaval?

After beating Ulster champions Cavan they were overwhelmed by Derry in Owenbeg; stepping up to take on a team of Monaghan’s experience will be another a huge learning curve for Fermanagh’s younger crew - and for a manager still learning his trade in unprecedented times.