SEAMUS McEnaney has heaped praise on the ageless Darren Hughes after the Monaghan midfielder produced another brilliant display in last Saturday’s draw with Armagh.
At the end of last season the Scotstown clubman, who turns 35 this month, was asked time and again whether he would be stepping down from county duty after 16 years.
The answer was a resounding no – and the topic of retirement was never breached between manager and player either.
“If you’re going down a dark alleyway night or day, you’d be taking him with you anyway, that’s for sure,” McEnaney said of his midfield enforcer.
“Darren’s an absolutely fantastic fella. He’s a serious leader in the dressing room and I’d say 20 times he was asked in the month of October was he going to give it another year; it was never in question.
“I didn’t even need a conversation with him. Listen, we’ve a lot of men in that dressing room with serious experience – Colm Walshe, Darren Hughes, Fintan Kelly, Conor McManus – I could go on and on – but those boys aren’t handing over the baton very easily.
“They want to play for Monaghan. It’s very easy managing Monaghan because any man who is capable of playing for Monaghan wants to play for Monaghan.”
McEnaney added that the team culture is set by the older members of the squad and if any of the younger players step out of line, they know what’s coming to them.
“We’re big on standards within the group and the senior players set the standards,” said McEnaney, now in his second managerial stint with his native county.
“I don’t even have to set the standards, and if the young fellas step out of line they’ll not be too long finding out what’s going on. I’m only a facilitator, I’ve a great backroom team with me and a really good group of fellas. Everything Monaghan wants the county board backs.”
Ryan McAnespie who posted his “best performance of the year” in Saturday's draw will almost certainly miss Sunday’s Division One clash with Kerry in Inniskeen after pulling up with a hamstring injury on 50 minutes.
