RARE OLD TREAT IN THE ROYAL WEDDING
O’Rourke’s battlers turn storied rivalry on its head as Red Hand men are put to sword in fine style
IN the end, we were left scanning through the misty rain which enveloped Healy Park, searching for the blushing visage of whatever television executive decided that this was game best viewed through the radio.
All that fuss over the decision not to show this heavyweight Ulster clash live on TV was given context here.
There were those who made the argument that the audience market is simply not there any more for slow-paced period dramas and that whether this was clashing with the Munster hurling Championship or the Antiques Roadshow, it was still a wise call to spare the wider public 70-odd minutes of Sunday afternoon.
The price for that blind prejudice is that the armchair nation most likely missed out on the best game of ball that will hit your living room any time this summer.
And not only was it candy for the senses, it offered a plot twist at the end which few saw coming, with Monaghan striking against the head in a rivalry which has rolled pretty much all one way in recent years.
This was just their second win in nine meetings over the last 13 summers, which invited the kind of familiarity likely to vent itself in contempt.
But it hardly rolled like that although Tyrone ended the match with 14 players, after Peter Harte’s tackle on Ryan Wylie saw him walk off the pitch and straight out of Tyrone’s first round qualifier game on June 9.
That apart, though, this was a contest which deliriously railed against preconceived notions, leaving its grey and grim history behind it to produce an utterly compelling second half.
Ultimately, though, all that mattered was the result on a weekend when the Ulster Championship railed once more against the accusation that it was becoming too predictable for its own good.
Monaghan ended Tyrone’s charge for what would have been a historic third Ulster title in a row and their reward is a semi-final clash against Fermanagh, who had torpedoed a fancied Armagh team 24 hours earlier.
But it is hard to believe that Rory Gallagher will have been smacking his lips at running into his former Fermanagh team-mate and manager, Malachy O’Rourke, after this.
Because ultimately this was a day of redemption for O’Rourke, who was adjudged to have squeezed all he could from this Monaghan team after his fifth summer in charge concluded with a tame Championship exit to Dublin last summer.
That reaffirmed the growing prejudice that they were an organised but ultimately ordinary team — this gloriously blew that prejudice out of the water, though.
They won this because they had both control of the ball and they had the better players on it.
The only reason the margin at the death was such a modest one was that Tyrone scrambled a goal in the very last play of the game when the ball bounced off the knee of substitute Michael McKernan.
Otherwise, this was a triumph of Monaghan’s quality and as the contest progressed the queue for man of the match became an ever lengthening one.
Rory Beggan was ridiculously good, he nailed four dead balls from deep from five attempts, and his missed attempt came crashing back high off the upright.
He also doubled as a sweeper keeper, building from open play in the back while his long kick-outs down the middle wreaked havoc.
Beggan’s control of this game emphasised the crucial difference between the teams — while Monaghan thrived on his long restarts, Niall Morgan saw 10 of his turned over.
That is not just down to the opposing goalkeepers’ contrasting skill-sets, but it also revealed how vastly superior Monaghan were all over the field in winning their own ball, with Darren Hughes setting the bar with a powerful display.
One of the other reasons there were fears for Monaghan was it was deemed their older players would not have the legs for this, yet three of their senior defenders, Dessie Mone, Drew Wylie and Vinny Corey all got up the other end to leave their mark.
Corey’s contribution would prove the most significant as in first-half injury-time he linked played twice — although it was Conor McManus’s reverse pass which unlocked the Tyrone defence — ensuring he had a free run in to finish Hughes pass to the net.
It gave Monaghan a 1-7 to 0-8 half-time lead, an unlikely turn of affairs after Tyrone had raced into a 0-5 to 0-2 lead inside 10 minutes. But Monaghan found a way to stop the bleeding by pressing up on Morgan’s kick-outs. And with the wind at their backs in the second period, they always looked the more likely.
There is unlikely to be little comfort for Mickey Harte that his team played their part in a thrilling second period, where in defiance of losing two thirds of his inside forward line, Mark Bradley and Lee Brennan, to injury, Conor McAliskey kept them in it.
His two quick-fire points inside a minute in the third quarter got the home team back within two, sparking a fire that raged healthily when he fired over the equalising point from a free in the 65th.
From there Monaghan would leave no room for doubt, they put their shoulders to the wheel once more — none more so than the excellent Ryan McAnespie — and their class shone through.
The superb McManus was effective all afternoon, but took hold of the contest down the home straight, kicking a couple of points — the insurance one a picture from out on the wing.
Or at least it would have been one had you got to see it. TYRONE: N Morgan; P Hampsey, R McNamee, C McCarron (M McKernan, 67); T McCann (HP McGeary, 53), F Burns, P Harte; C Cavanagh (D McClure, ht), C Meyler; M Donnelly; C McShane, N Sludden, L Brennan (K McGeary, 56), C McAliskey, M Bradley (R O’Neill, 19, C McCann, 61)
Scorers: C McAliskey 0-5 (3f), M McKernan 1-1, L Brennan 0-4 (4f), S Sludden 0-2, P Hampsey, P Harte, M Donnelly, C McShane 0-1. Wides: (1) 4 Frees: (12) 23 Yellow cards: N Morgan (35&5), D McClure (45), C McAliskey (47), C McCann (67) Red card: P Harte (70&3) MONAGHAN: R Beggan; K Duffy, D Wylie, R Wylie; D Mone (C Walshe, 64), V Corey, K O’Connell; N Kearns, D Hughes; F Kelly, J McCarron (O Duffy, 60), D Ward (C McCarthy, 41); R McAnespie, K Hughes, C McManus Scorers: C McManus 0-6 (4f), R Beggan 0-4 (2f, 2 ’45), V Corey 1-0, J McCarron 0-2 (1f), C Walshe, D Wylie, F Kelly, C McCarthy, D Mone, R McAnespie 0-1. Wides: (3) 5 Frees: (8) 18 Yellow cards: D Ward (24), K O’Connell (27) R Beggan (31), D Wylie (51), Referee: D Coldrick (Meath).