O’Rourke warns that Super 8s format will ‘make things harder’
MONAGHAN manager Malachy O’Rourke warned last night that the advent of football’s Super 8s next summer will not address a lop-sided Championship.
O’Rourke watched helplessly as his team were hopelessly outclassed by three-in-a-row-chasing Dublin on a Croke Park evening that underwhelmed.
Dublin followed up Tyrone’s rout of Armagh – who they will meet in a mouth-watering semi-final on August 27th – with a win that was far more emphatic than the final 10-point winning margin.
It was Monaghan’s fourth time in the past five years under O’Rourke reaching the last eight, losing every time.
While revealing that he will not make any rushed decision on his future, he claimed afterwards that scrapping the quarter-final round and replacing it with the Super 8s from next summer will only make it ‘tougher’ for counties to crash through that last eight glass ceiling.
‘If I’m speaking honestly, I think it will make things harder,’ admitted O’Rourke. ‘I just think if you’re playing, especially for the smaller counties with less resources, a really tough game one week and we have to go out again the following week, you’re probably going to have fellas carrying injuries, you might have suspensions and things like that there. Whereas the stronger counties don’t rely on a few individuals as much. They have stronger panels.
‘If you’re asking me my honest opinion, I think it will make it tougher,’ he added.
Then again, it could be argued that O’Rourke’s joyless record in the quarter-finals owes more to Monaghan’s cruel look in drawing Tyrone and Dublin twice.
In truth, his disappointment was rooted more in their failure to muster a serious challenge – although this still represented a significant improvement on the 17-point hammering they suffered against Dublin at the same stage in 2014 – rather than in losing.
‘Coming up we knew we had to play way above what we’ve produced this year, but still felt it was within us to do that,’ he explained.
‘We wanted to make sure we set ourselves up well because we’ve seen Dublin get early goals and end games early. We never really got that and that’s the most disappointing thing – we never really challenged them. We had a lot of possession but had a lot of turnovers, I think it was 15, but our choice of play and execution was off.’
Dublin’s was anything but and while Jim Gavin’s default position is to play down results like this, his satisfaction at such a complete performance was evident.
‘We’re just happy to win a quarter-final and be into semifinal,’ declared the Dublin boss at the post match press briefing.
‘We knew going into the game Monaghan would be battle hardened and the result is a reflection of the respect we gave to Monaghan. We prepared very well and thought the players, in the first half, played well,’ Gavin added.
The Dubs looked controlled and composed and went in deserved leaders at half-time. ‘The preparation in the last two weeks was very good, there was a lot of work done in the shadows,’ he contined.
‘You saw when Monaghan got a bit of a run, they have the capacity and capability to take scores, but our team defence was very strong; 1-11 from play and a lot of wides so we’ve something to work on before the next day.’
He will have an even bigger headache when it comes to picking his team, with Diarmuid Connolly available after suspension, and Paul Flynn and Michael Darragh Macauley – both impressing after coming off the bench – good to go.
‘They have both been in form and you can see that the team is gaining momentum at the right time of the season. We’ll have to have our A game the next day against Tyrone,’ said Gavin, suggesting there is even better to come.