Marc Ó Sé Former Tyrone enforcer is setting the tone in Fermanagh

Former Tyrone enforcer has given Erne men extra bite

THERE’S plenty of romance in the story of Fermanagh as they search for their first Ulster title but Rory Gallagher and Ryan ‘Ricey’ McMenamin will not be going out to win any popularity contests in Clones today. Remember that disaster movie Armageddon about the asteroid that’s on a collision course with Earth? There’s a scene in the film which always reminds me of Ricey. The crew are in the NASA space centre about to head onto the shuttle when Billy Bob Thornton’s character is asked what they should expect if they land on the asteroid.

‘It will be 200 degrees in the sunlight, minus 200 degrees in the shade, canyons of razor-sharp rock, unpredictable gravitational conditions, unexpected eruptions, things like that,’ he explains.

To which Owen Wilson’s character pipes up: ‘Scariest environment imaginable. Thanks — that’s all you gotta say. Scariest environment imaginable!’

For any corner-forward who played in the noughties, that’s the line that sums up Ricey. For 70 or 75 minutes or however long he happened to be your shadow, it was the scariest environment imaginable. Those who played with him, loved him because he just tormented his marker, usually the opposition’s best forward. But if you played against him, you hated him. And he caused us an awful lot of bother in Kerry.

In the closing stages of the 2008 All-Ireland final, Darragh’s man left him and went up to score. Tyrone probably already had the game won but I remember Ricey running over to Darragh and shouting: ‘The legs are gone. Go home, Ó Sé! Your legs are gone!’

We were having a pint that evening and I said to Darragh ‘I thought you’d run over and nail Ricey. Why didn’t you?’ Darragh replied: ‘I would have if I could have caught the f **** r. But he’s probably right. The legs are gone.’

McMenamin was the enforcer on that Tyrone team but he was more than that. He symbolised their bloody-minded defiance. He played on the edge and made no apologies for it. Still doesn’t. He said last week that every great team has players that skirt the edge and know how to get away with things.

In the same interview, he said that the charge in Fermanagh had been player-driven. They decided where they wanted to go and what they wanted to achieve. The players themselves knew that they needed to be tougher and had to man-up a bit more. There is no better teacher of that than McMenamin,

He and Gallagher make a fascinating managerial tag team. The cerebral Gallagher, who has always seemed to be a deep thinker about the game with Ricey the enforcer by his side. They clearly complement each other. Gallagher has Fermanagh playing a brand of football that is not easy on the eye (it was fairly dull as they suffocated and nullified Monaghan) but he has also has them playing with structure and organisation. Maybe Gallagher (left with McMenamin) realises his team’s limitations and playing this way is the best method to achieve success. They have plenty of good footballers – the likes of Che Cullen, Eoin Donnelly, Tomás Corrigan and the Quigley brothers who are the sort of inside-forwards you could watch all day long — but what Gallagher has done more than anything is get them well organised. One of the sub-plots to this Ulster final is that Gallagher knows so many of these Donegal players inside-out. It is always fascinating to me when you hear players in interviews go out of their way to praise different members of the backroom team. When Donegal went on that AllIreland winning journey under Jim McGuiness, that is what many of the players did with Gallagher.

We did the same in Kerry when Donie Buckley was there. He was incredible.

Every night we trained, it got better and better in terms of drills, whether they be tackling, moving the ball at pace or supporting in numbers.

The Donegal players spoke about Gallagher in the same way we spoke about Donie. And having worked in close proximity with those players since 2011, he will know what they are good at, what they are poor at, which players don’t like being run at. All of those things are crucial when an underdog is trying to take down a heavyweight.

Declan Bonner has his team playing a refreshing brand of football that has given a lot of his more experienced players a new lease of life. Michael Murphy, Frank McGlynn and Paddy McBrearty are all rejuvenated under their manager.

It was interesting to hear Bonner specifically mention Ryan McHugh ahead of this game. McHugh is a special player and he has been subjected to special off-the-ball treatment by opposition. It was obvious in the Down match. By mentioning it in passing at the pre-match press conference, Bonner is planting the seed in the referees’ mind ahead of this game.

Donegal are well-versed in blanket defence having played it under McGuinness and Gallagher, so they will know how to break it down.

But the most impressive thing about Fermanagh against Monaghan was how disciplined and crisp their tackling was. It will need to be the same again because they cannot afford to give McBrearty or Murphy any frees.

The absence of Neil McGee will be felt by Donegal especially with the two Quigleys hovering but I think they have the firepower and the quality off the bench that is needed, to just get over the line in Clones. But Fermanagh will make them work for it every step of the way.