Monaghan switch into championship mode

Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan has been impressed by the efforts of his squad and management team to date. He spoke with Michael McMullan ahead of Sunday’s clash with Donegal

GABRIEL Bannigan has another Monaghan session in the bank. It’s time for home. Like all his interviews, there is positivity. You can sense a camp growing on the back of a return to Division One.

Now it’s different. A switch has been flicked. This is championship. It’s over a week to the visit of Donegal. Clones is judgement day. But, like his squad, Bannigan is excited by it.

It’s two days since his spin to Ballybofey to run his eyes over the Ulster champions in their win over Derry.

A quick rewind to reflect. There is a buzz. Finishing the league on the steps of the Hogan Stand, that’s nice.

“Getting a bit of silverware, it’s Monaghan’s first in 11 years,” Bannigan begins. “Trophies, national trophies, they don’t come along that often, so it’s good to get them when you get a chance.”

There is also the benefit of a run out at Croke Park. There is the hope they can return later in the summer. Dylan Byrne was man of the match in his first season. Aaron Carey made his debut in Croker and, at the other end of the scale, Micheál McCarville, at 30 years of age, had his first HQ experience.

“With the help of God, we will get back there at some stage during the year,” Bannigan points out. “If we do, that experience is going to stand the other boys in good stead but it’s also a big help in terms of confidence going into the championship.”

There is excitement in Monaghan. After dining on Division One football for so long, they are back. Inside the bubble, it wasn’t the main priority this season.

“I did say, from the moment I got the job, and started the league and right through the league, that my number one goal and number one priority was to get the lads playing well,” said Bannigan, a selector last season under Vinny Corey.

“To get them playing good football and to really develop the squad.”

That was the bread and butter. Box ticked. Promotion, another tick. The same for winning silverware.

Combined, it has brought excitement to the county. A positive vibe among the fans who may have questioned how quickly they could bounce back from relegation. Throw in the retirement of Conor McManus.

There was a concern of doing a Kildare and dropping to the third tier. Bannigan recalls how every wish of luck when he took on the role was followed by a warning. He was a brave man. There was a job of work to do.

“So, look, I’m not getting carried away,” he added of their progress. “I’m just hoping that we can build on that and bring that into the championship now.

“Obviously, in Gaelic football, it’s all about the championship. So, I’m under no illusions about that.”

Is there a secret to Monaghan’s progress to date? An obvious question throws up an obvious answer. Nothing isolated or definitive. They laid one brick at a time.

“It starts with the players; the players have been brilliant. Their attitude has been brilliant. Their application has been brilliant,” he said.

“Then it’s the men around me, in terms of the quality of the people I have working with me on the backroom team.

“All of them, to a man, have played a very important part. If I was trying to list out everything, there’d be a long list.

“It’s trying to be brilliant at the basics. That’s what we’ve been trying to do in everything we do. That, I think, leads to improved individual performances in the team, improved team performance and improved results.”

Bannigan can see similarities in what Donegal offers under Jim McGuinness. It comes with a combination of factors.

The Farney boss knows what his side face on Sunday. A “phenomenal” team with “frightening” pace. Fitness levels. Attacking and defensive cohesion. He lists them all.

“Donegal are further down the road,” he adds. “This is Jim’s second year back. They were brilliant last year. They won the Ulster Championship last year.”

An All-Ireland final was within touching distance and they’ll have the focus is make another step this season.

“I’m under absolutely no illusions about what’s coming down the track,” Bannigan said, “but this is what we want.

“We’ve enjoyed our Division Two campaign. We’ve enjoyed our league final. We’ve enjoyed lifting that trophy.

“We want to take it up a level now, to pitch ourselves against the best in the land. Donegal are, without any shadow of a doubt, as good a team as there is in the country at the moment. No question of that.”

Bannigan makes a very valid point about having the game in Clones. He is happier it’s not in Ballybofey, Donegal’s fortress.

Monaghan don’t play there as often as Donegal have graced St Tiernach’s Park. And they played there in two of the last three Ulster finals. Games that have gone the distance. Throw in semi-finals and a Qualifier defeat to Armagh.

“From my perspective as a manager, in terms of preparing the team, I just want the lads to perform,” Bannigan sums up.

“That’s all I want. I just want us to perform.”

He accepts it a cliché but all any manager wants is their team to deliver what they can.

He doesn’t know if his team’s best will be enough, but that’s all he can ask.

“If I can get each player to do himself justice and go out and perform against Donegal, I’d like to think that would be enough to give them a hell of a game,” he concludes.

“Whether it will be good enough to beat them or not, who knows? We need a wee bit of luck and we need a few things to go our way. There’s no question about that.

“Donegal are hot favourites and rightly so, but I just want our lads to embrace the challenge and not to fear anything, to go out and give the very best they can.”

Pull quote

“Obviously, in Gaelic football, it’s all about the championship. So, I’m under no illusions about that.”