GAA go head-on with Champions League final

Consistent Farney men ready to break beyond the last eight

THE Leinster SHC round-robin fixture between Offaly and Wexford will not be moving to avoid a direct clash with Saturday night’s Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. Leinster chairman Jim Bolger recently stated that the provincial council would be open to a change of time but it is going up against the prime-time soccer decider, along with two other important GAA fixtures — the Ulster SFC quarter-final between Down and Antrim at Páirc Esler in Newry and the Munster SFC quarter-final between Tipperary and Cork at Semple Stadium. All have a 7pm throw-in with the Champions League final kicking off at 7.45pm in Kiev. ‘I suppose we have our fixtures made at present but if we thought it was going to help our supporters, we would be open to accommodate them if it was going to have a significant impact on us,’ said Bolger at the Leinster SFC launch. A precedent was set in 2011 when Offaly’s Leinster SFC first round clash with Wexford was moved to a 5pm start to avoid a clash with the Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona. Clearly, the mood for change wasn’t strong enough among the relevant parties now.

THE biggest surprise is that Monaghan continue to astonish. The Championship was shaken up for the first time this summer at the weekend and it was no shock that the source of the tremors was up north.

Inside 24 hours, Armagh and Tyrone — the two counties who represented a powerful duopoly in the noughties — were cut down by Fermanagh and Monaghan.

Still, shock might be an adjective too far, especially as far as Monaghan are concerned, as their derailment of Tyrone’s bid for a third successive title demands to be framed in less dramatic terms.

True, they were 2/1 outsiders to win at Healy Park — that price based on Tyrone’s dominance, which had seen them win seven of their previous eight meetings — but the long grass should no longer provide cover for one of the most consistent teams in the land.

After all, if management is ultimately about results, Malachy O’Rourke has left everyone else —with the exception of Jim Gavin — in the shade over the last five and a half seasons.

Neatly, O’Rourke was appointed in the autumn of 2012, the same time that Gavin took over in Dublin and Éamonn Fitzmaurice succeeded Jack O’Connor in Kerry.

The difference was that O’Rourke took over a county in the bottom half of the game’s pack. Rooted in the Allianz League’s Division 3, the group was still traumatised after giving up a nine-point lead to Down in that year’s Ulster Championship.

Added to the mix was a small playing pool (the county has a population of 60,000) and lack of success — 24 years had passed since their last Ulster title win.

So if he was told then that five and a half years later, Monaghan would serve as the meat in a Dublin/Kerry sandwich, he would most likely conclude that there could be worst places to be positioned.

Monaghan have gone from the lower reaches of the pack to the second most consistent team in the game.

Sunday’s win over Tyrone was O’Rourke’s 42nd competitive win in 71 games as Monaghan manager, which translates into a 59.1 per cent strike rate.

Yes, it is well shy of Gavin’s utterly ridiculous win rate of almost 81 per cent, but is better than everyone else over that time.

It beats Fitzmaurice (58.3) and Mickey Harte (56.4) and even the Mayo collective of James Horan, Pat Holmes, Noel Connelly and Stephen Rochford (54.3 per cent).

There is enough in that to suggest Monaghan have arisen and taken their place as a genuine power and that stands up in other ways, too. They are now the oddson favourites (4/5) to win a third Anglo-Celt Cup in six years while next spring will be their fifth consecutive season in the League’s top tier.

Nor have they struggled to stay up, however such consistency has raised many questions.

O’Rourke’s win record has been fattened on League success and despite reaching four of the last five All-Ireland quarter-finals, they still have to break through that glass ceiling.

That failure has found its expression in absolute caution.

Even the thrilling manner of last Sunday’s win ensured that no tongues raced wildly.

‘It is a first-round game in the Ulster Championship and it is nothing more than that,’ insisted their on-field leader Conor McManus afterwards. The caution is well placed. They have been beaten for the last two seasons at the semifinal stage in Ulster — last year inexplicably by Down — but they have also reached a stage in their development where they know their true measure can only be gauged outside the province. One of the accusations thrown their way in the past is that they were a hard team to beat rather than genuine contenders. They were seen as being too cautious, too defensive for their own good and ingrained in a system that took its blueprint from Jim McGuinness’ Donegal.

There was truth in that but there is a sense of ambition and purpose about them all year, and most evidently last Sunday, which suggests a change of emphasis.

They have racked up higher scores than 1-18 in the Ulster Championship under O’Rourke — they had 19 points to spare over Down two years ago — but this was against Tyrone. And it was the manner of it which charmed, based as much on individual brilliance as much as organisational nous.

Rory Beggan’s control off the tee and in front of the opposing posts, Darren Hughes’ midfield dominance, Dessie Mone’s ceaseless running, Ryan McAnespie’s energy and, of course, McManus who closed out the win with a point stamped with his genius — all made this a footballing triumph.

It has not happened by accident, either. O’Rourke has introduced the likes of Karl O’Connell, Ryan Wylie, Fintan Kelly, Jack McCarron and Conor McCarthy over the years to add speed and menace to his team.

And with a new format in the All Ireland series, which is set up to reward consistency, this might be their best chance yet to burst through that last-eight ceiling.