O’CONNELL’S TREAT
Farney star Karl has got it down to a tea as he turns his full attention to the huge challenge of facing Kingdom
KARL O’CONNELL walked out of Croke Park last weekend with his Man of the Match award after beating Kildare and celebrated with? A cup of tea of course. Gone are the days when players party hard after big Championship wins.
Instead, the in-form wing-back and his Farney colleagues immediately turned their focus to today’s giant challenge.
Welcoming a powerhouse Kerry outfit to Clones is a Championship encounter with all the trimmings and a win would secure a first semi-final spot for Monaghan since 1988.
No surprise then that O’connell wasn’t getting too carried away with the victory over Kildare, admitting: “You just go home, chill out, get a cup of tea and a bit of recovery.
“You can’t get too carried away about it.”
But just try stopping the Monaghan fans from celebrating today if they pull off a win for the ages on their home turf.
For while the county may lack the resources and tradition of Kerry, they are experiencing a golden era and have beaten the Kingdom in three of their last four National League games.
But O’connell warned: “Kerry have got loads going for them – pace, power and scores as well. They’re very strong, they have a great backbone with men like David Moran, Paul Geaney – even the younger lads like Sean O’shea and David Clifford that have come in, Gavin White...they’re just a great team.
“We have to make sure we are ready for the backlash, that we’re really tuned in again.”
Monaghan effectively have two chances to reach a semi-final, by beating Kerry today or overcoming Galway in Salthill in a fortnight.
As for the Kingdom, they know they have to win both their remaining games to avoid an embarrassing Championship exit, having already lost to Galway. It would be just the third time since quarter-finals were introduced in 2001 that Kerry have failed to advance to the last four. O’connell said: “Kerry have been an unbelievable team over the last few years – just because they haven’t won an Allireland for a few years, they’re almost written off. But they’re a very good team and could dismantle any team whenever they want.” O’connell is clearly playing it cautious but boss Malachy O’rourke was happy to praise his players for a job well done so far. For Monaghan are punching way above their weight, with the fourth smallest population in Ireland. And they’ve only got 61 registered adult football teams in the county – half the 122 that are in Kerry.
O’rourke (inset) beamed: “The boys are moving well. The fact that we’ve played Kerry before and we’ve measured up against them in League games, the boys will take a wee bit of confidence from that.
“At the same time, it’s going to be a completely different Kerry team in high summer to what we faced in spring.
“We know we’re going to have to be playing really, really well to be competitive against them.”