NORTHERN LIGHTS
Longest serving bosses in game battle for final
GAELIC football’s longest serving managers will go head to head when Tyrone take on Monaghan.
But Monaghan boss Malachy O’rourke admits there were no guarantees about staying on for a sixth season after last year’s loss to Dublin.
O’rourke has been in the job since September of 2012, leaving him second on the list of long serving bainisteoirs behind Tyrone chief Mickey Harte.
Jim Gavin comes next in the league of longevity having been appointed in October of 2012.
O’rourke said there’s been some speed bumps along the way, like losing to Longford in the 2016 qualifiers and last year’s 10-point All-ireland quarter-final loss to Gavin’s Dublin.
O’rourke said: “There would have been. Last year, when we were beaten by Dublin in Croke Park, we were very disappointed that day because we felt we’d be a lot closer to Dublin.
“We went down and we felt we could have a real good go at them.
“After that, when Tyrone went up against Dublin and Dublin looked so strong again, it sort of put things into perspective for us.
“Everybody was keen to go again. The boys are a real resilient group, real ambitious, real hungry.
“They were keen that everyone stuck together and went at it again. When you see that, you kind of judge for yourself if the hunger is going or not and whether the boys need a change. So far, the boys seem to be responding well to us so we’ll just keep hammering away.”
It’s Monaghan’s first Allireland semi-final since 1988 but they’ve got their eyes on next month’s final.
They’ve already beaten Tyrone once this summer and, aside from being caught by a late Fermanagh goal in Ulster, have been on an upward trajectory since losing to Dublin a year ago.
O’rourke said there was no need to alter their strategy after that setback and he’s been proven right.
He said: “I don’t know if there’s anything different about us. The boys just realised we’ve put in an awful lot of work over the last number of years and they want to keep pushing on.
“We felt we had a very good year up to the Fermanagh game, we finished third in the League, had a really good victory against Tyrone and then came the Fermanagh game. “You could feel sorry for yourself but we approached it in a positive frame of mind and said let’s attack the qualifiers and see where it brings us. Hopefully it doesn’t end here.”
The boys are a real resilient group, ambitious and hungry..