There’s always a strangely innocent feel to the Division Two final of the Allianz Football League. Both teams are already back up with the big boys – promotion the only prize which truly matters in the division – and neither team wants to blow too much steam now ahead of the championship.
Sunday’s meeting between Monaghan and Donegal might just be a little different – at least given what happened in Clones last July. There, against all expectations, Monaghan fairly well destroyed Donegal, beating them 0-13 to 0-7, not just taking their Ulster title but also revealing the cracks which ultimately resulted in Donegal losing their All-Ireland title, too.
That might suggest Donegal will relish the chance to put some of that record straight on Sunday. Indeed they’ve already beaten Monaghan in the league, by a full seven points, and Jim McGuinness won’t want to reveal any obvious cracks ahead of Donegal’s Ulster showdown with Derry, in just over four weeks’ time.
Yet Monaghan have plenty of incentive too, including the fact they’ve an equally difficult opening game in the Ulster championship, against either Tyrone or Down, on June 15th. For long-serving midfielder Dick Clerkin there is also the underlying sense that Monaghan have had breakthrough periods in the past, only to let them slip just as suddenly, and he for one is no longer in the mood for the so-called moral victories.
“There is that comment about Monaghan, about giving a good account of ourselves, and that is something we need to get beyond, especially when you get to Croke Park,” said Clerkin.
“We’ve done that a few times in the past, like back in 2007, 2008, but we need to push on now, especially when we get to the latter stages of the championship. We need to be winning games. We’ve had too many moral victories, coming down here to Croke Park, or playing games that we could have won and didn’t. People would be patting you on the back, but we need to start winning those games.”
'Very disappointed'
One such game was last year's All-Ireland quarter-final against Tyrone. "In that Tyrone game, yes we did give a good account of ourselves, but we didn't win," agreed Clerkin.
“We were very disappointed with that, and in some ways it took some of the tint off last year’s success in Ulster. Because we definitely felt it was a game we should have won, and could have won on the day. So it’s great to be back here again, and hopefully be back here again for the quarter-finals weekend, next August, and put all that right again. Because that’s the stage Monaghan wants to get to, competing and winning in Croke Park on a more regular basis.
“And to do that you need the experience of winning, and this stage of the national league competition is one way of doing that. It was a great stepping stone for us last year, coming down here for the Division Three final and beating Meath.”
Monaghan certainly justified that promotion last year, and actually finished level with Donegal at the top of Division Two, on 11 points, although with a slightly inferior scoring difference. “It was a very satisfying campaign, building on last year. It wouldn’t be uncommon for say the smaller counties who get that bit of success to take a step back again, and if you look back over the years that probably has happened in Monaghan. We don’t have the strongest of resources and maybe if you do take you eye off the ball you can slide very quick, and that probably did happen to us in the previous two years.”
