VINNY Corey is doing the right thing in trying to place some responsibility on Monaghan’s youth, believes his former team-mate Dessie Mone.
For the second year running, a collapse against Kerry has left them in a precarious position, sitting bottom of the table with the worst scoring difference in the league.
Monaghan have gotten themselves out of plenty of scrapes in their eight-year stay in the top flight but in recent years, their summers have been flat. Whether the efforts expended in staying up have contributed to poor championship showings, it’s hard to say.
But despite losing the services of Niall Kearns and Ryan McAnespie for the year, and Drew Wylie and Colin Walshe retired, new manager Corey – who served as selector under previous boss Seamus McEnaney – has resisted the temptation to go too strong too early.
Conor McManus and Kieran Hughes are yet to be seen. Darren Hughes was an unused sub in Killarney, despite perhaps being the man to shore things up when the game started to get away. Fintan Kelly was injured in the warm-up before the Armagh game and Jack McCarron started but lasted just a minute.
They might not be back in time for Sunday’s clash against Donegal but they’re trying to avoid the panic button.
Thomas McPhillips, Kevin Loughran, Colm Lennon, Ryan O’Toole, Killian Lavelle, Joel Wilson and Karl Gallagher have all had starts in the league.
Throw in the returning Stephen O’Hanlon, their best performer across the two games, and Mone, who has been at the games on co-commentary duty for Northern Sound, understands what it’s all about.
“When you’re playing you want to win matches, and pushing to stay in Division One, it’s a good status. But you’re trying to balance that with trying to find new players to go with the older boys.
“It can be a plus as well to try and rest some of the boys that have been there for the last decade. Monaghan are always trying to get that player or two but they end up playing the likes of Darren and Mansy.
“You can see this year, they haven’t played either of the two league matches, that’s not like them. They always want to play. I was just looking at the programme against Kerry and so many of the players I played with weren’t playing.
“There’s a big change coming there at the minute and that’s up to the Monaghan management, to find out who’s up to that standard of football.
“Darren was togged out in the Kerry match but they didn’t use him, which was the right thing to do, there was no point chucking him in.
“You might start to see some players coming back now over the next week or two. Some people will say Donegal’s a big game on Sunday, some will say it’s not a big game, but players and management will want to win.
“When you win, you bring confidence into the squad too.”
From the high of an opening day win over All-Ireland champions Kerry, Donegal were brought back to earth in Omagh and travel to Clones amid their own injuries and uncertainty.
It starts a big period of games for both teams.
Monaghan have Roscommon at home after this and then a Galway side still likely to be depleted. The fact that this is the first time since they came up to Division One in 2015 that they’ve failed to pick up a point from their first two games isn’t an irretrievable situation, Mone believes.
“If you can pick up two points it could set you up nicely for the next few teams.
“Some teams have been picking up injuries already, there’s a few Donegal boys coming back, but you’ll find a wee bit more intensity over the next three to four weeks. Teams will be losing players.
“If Monaghan could pick a win here it could stand to them. It would do them a world of good going into the next two games against Galway and Roscommon. They’re three winnable games, I think.
“Galway have picked up a few injuries with Comer and Rob Finnerty, and Walsh away, that’s three big forwards gone. If they could pick up something on Sunday, it would be a good start for Monaghan.”
