Monaghan are fixed on Tyrone radar

THE ULSTER SFC has long been (and rightly) hyped as the only truly competitive provincial championship, but that may be about to change.

I will be keeping a close eye on Monaghan today in Killarney because with Donegal in apparent terminal decline, they look about the only team that might put it up to Tyrone this summer.

Monaghan, with the exception of last year, always seem to cause us a lot of problems and they beat us well in the League two years ago in Tralee.

While Conor McManus (above) – a sublime talent – is the obvious ace in their pack, he has not necessarily been the one who has inflicted the most damage on us.

One of the reasons Monaghan have been formidable opponents for Kerry down through the years is that they know our weak spot.

Teams who have run hard at us have always caused us difficulty and Monaghan are less inclined to go direct to McManus these days because he is so heavily policed.

They are built for the running game, not least Darren Hughes who is one of the strongest ball carriers in the game.

It will be interesting to see how the home side, who give up too many frees when run at, cope with that. I expect a Kerry win today, but the defensive performance will be as important as the result.

This is also as good a place for Monaghan to show that Ulster is not going to be the one-horse race that so many believe it will be this coming summer.