Conor can come back at any time
BOSS COREY INSISTS DOOR WILL BE OPEN FOR BUSY ACE BOYLE
VINNY COREY says there is more in key defender Conor Boyle, who has stepped away from the Monaghan squad this season.
Boyle was a regular starter in the run to last year’s All-ireland semi-final and his loss is a blow with Monaghan currently down a whopping 10 frontline players for a variety of reasons.
“Conor Boyle did two months of the pre-season and then he stepped away,” said Corey, a Clontibret clubmate.
“I’m not sure if it’s retirement but he’s stepped away this year. He’s building a house, he’s getting married, his job is very intensive and he was struggling to keep up with the rigours of county football.
“But I definitely think there’s more in Conor if he came back. I’d be hesitant to say he’s retired. I’d say he’s stepped away for a year, that might be more accurate.”
Conor Mcmanus, Conor Mccarthy and Darren Hughes – who played no part in the weekend victory over Dublin at Croke Park – all trained last Saturday morning.
“They’re training hard,” Corey (below) continued. “We’ll pace those boys a wee bit different, they have a lot of miles on the clock but we do want to blood players as well. We have to have one eye on the bigger picture with Monaghan. We don’t need to be playing all those boys from the start and maybe neglecting the blooding of new players.
“It was the perfect time to do that and those new players will take a lot of confidence from what they did against Dublin.
“But it’s a learning curve, they’ll know that themselves in National League football. They’ll go out the next day and it mightn’t be as open and as free.
“They have to learn that and we have to put them out there to learn that. That’s what we intend to do. We’ll see the other boys in the not too distant future.”
Corey was delighted with the directness of his forwards in the Dublin win, with Stephen O’hanlon wreaking havoc, Michael Hamill winning a penalty and Micheal Bannigan driving hard to set up a goal.
The former Monaghan star said: “We have a lot of boys with pace. Stevie really took the game by the scruff of the neck, he took men on, went on overlaps, created fouls and probably could have got a few more frees.
“He was really intentful, no different to Michael Hamill. It was good to see them expressing themselves.”
Meanwhile, Corey has paid tribute to retired duo Shane Carey and Fintan Kelly.
He said: “Finty has been a brilliant servant to Monaghan football. Like a lot of Monaghan players over the years, he probably did his thing quietly.
“Finty has been exceptional for us and so has Shane Carey.”