Make or break for Monaghan against Fermanagh (2024)

The week before they lost to Cavan, the mood around Monaghan was strangely flat, almost forbidding. The hop-ball across the border lacked the usual zip. Unlike other years Monaghan were holding back, speaking in plain language about injuries and worries over form, lingering over the dread fear that all the years of tight wins and general supremacy meant Cavan were due something.

This wasn’t Monaghan, early spring slayer of Dublin, breakers of chains and All-Ireland semi-finalists, residents of the top four and hero warriors of the underclass. This was Monaghan yielding meekly to reality. The middle of their team had been ripped out by injury. Their strike players were struggling for form, leaving Monaghan leaning heavy on the straight-up honesty of their water-carriers in attack to keep the flow of ball moving to Conor McManus.

Although regularly celebrated as the GAA’s model for détente when finding middle ground between club fixtures and inter-county obligations, by the end of April the clubs were being petitioned to defer league games to slow the attrition rate. Clontibret and Ballybay agreed to play a league game with an equal number of inter-county players on both sides. A couple more games were postponed. Anything to ease the stress.

Losing to Cavan shocked no one, but Monaghan’s performance rattled their bones. For 20 minutes they played like ghosts, allowing Cavan run through them. Apart from a single score by McManus from play, only Shane Carey provided anything else. Nothing worked off the bench. The successful blunting of Monaghan’s few attacking blades promoted Rory Beggan’s long-range free-taking from luxury item to staple part of their diet. All the years trying to evolve from a classically-formed underdog team, hard-working and durable with McManus as a spear point, has achieved limited results. On the night they needed something different, Monaghan had nothing.

It’s in keeping with their status that no team in the first-round qualifier draw should concern Monaghan, but Fermanagh are the most contrary blind date imaginable. A few weeks break hasn’t given Monaghan much room to reignite their form. Their injury problems haven’t improved much, turning their shallow squad into a puddle. Suddenly a random qualifier against Fermanagh has the potential to become a referendum on Malachy O’Rourke’s future as manager and a handful of players.

For the last six years the rough outline sketch of Monaghan as plucky, defiant outliers valiantly beating the odds became the finished piece. Their pick was small. If Banty McEnaney revived the fire within them a decade ago, O’Rourke channelled that energy through a generation of better players.

They have made five All-Ireland quarter-finals in six years and one All-Ireland semi-final, won two Ulster titles and taken up a long-term residency in Division One. They finished last year among the top four teams in the country. But behind all that was always hidden the potential for more.

In parallel with all that advancement Monaghan also fell to Fermanagh last year in Ulster. The year before it was Down. In 2016 they were knocked out of the qualifiers by Longford. Those Ulster titles were clouded by some weak performances against Tyrone in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

That weakness was magnified again this year against Cavan, and before. Having beaten Dublin on their first day out, they moved through the league almost unnoticed. Being able to avoid relegation while missing a few load-bearing players was considered a reflection of their stability as a top-eight team, but they still only used 27 players. They picked their strongest team when they could, while digging a little more depth into their panel.

That lack of options did for them against Cavan. Last year against Fermanagh they got stranded between mirroring Fermanagh’s defensive approach and pushing forward to dictate the terms of the match, ended up looking flat and out of ideas and got suckered by a goal in the last minute. But that summer still ended up a kick away from an All-Ireland final. They need to take back control today.