Monahan: Wedding fever won’t disrupt Inniskeen’s preparations

By Shaun Casey

IT’S a busy build-up to county final day for Inniskeen. Attacker Donal Meegan ties the knot on Friday while John McEntee’s side take on Scotstown in the county final on Sunday afternoon and are aiming to claim championship gold for the first time since 1943.

It’s perhaps not ideal preparation for the Grattan’s club, but the wedding won’t distract the team from the main event, insists skipper Michael Monahan. They have their eyes fully focused on the prize at hand.

Inniskeen have been in fantastic form, winning all five of their championship outings this season. They were four from four in the group stages, topping their section with the minimum of fuss, before shaking off the attentions of Magheracloone in the semi-final.

“The build-up has been good – we haven’t really been thinking about the wedding too much obviously,” Monahan said. “We’ll go and we’ll enjoy the day, but the focus is obviously all on Sunday, big time.

“We are all going to the wedding and we’ll support Donal because it is such a big occasion for him and his new wife Eimear. We’ll all be there and then we’ll push on for Sunday afterwards.

“I’d say we’ll all just head home a bit earlier, that’ll probably be the plan. There’s nothing set in stone really yet, but I would be thinking that we’ll be leaving shortly after the food.”

It may be 82 years since Inniskeen were last crowned county champions, but they did compete in the decider just two years ago. That 2023 appearance was also against Monaghan kingpins Scotstown and Inniskeen came up short, losing by three points in the end.

The An Bhoth men also halted Inniskeen’s progress last season at the semi-final stage, winning 0-14 to 0-12 and have been the team to end Inniskeen’s championship involvement in the last three years.

That 2023 decider was their first time lining out on the big day since 1990, so most of the squad will know what to expect come Sunday. The experience should help them settle into the game, although it is certainly nothing new for Scotstown either.

“It was all very new to us in 2023 – there was no one on our team that had previously played in a county final,” Monahan added. “Now, I’d say Shane O’Connor, a young lad in the team at the minute, might be the only person in the panel that didn’t play that day.

“Hopefully that experience will stand to us, but Scotstown have been there so many times too. This is their 13th championship final in a row – it’s just another game for those lads at this stage. We know that whatever we are feeling, they are going to be very calm on the day.

“It’s been a long wait (since 1943). I don’t even know who would have been playing back then, it’s that long ago. It’s not something that is spoken about too often in the community because it has been that long. Hopefully we’ll be fit to put that right on Sunday.”

Armagh 2002 All-Ireland winner John McEntee has been in charge of Inniskeen for three years now and has guided them to a second championship final in that time. McEntee has an impressive CV and will hope to get Inniskeen over the line.

The Crossmaglen clubman won plenty of trophies with the Rangers as both a player and a manager. He also guided Culloville to an intermediate title and an Ulster final appearance in 2011 before claiming the Mick Duffy Cup with Clontibret in 2019.

Doing it for the former Armagh centre half-forward, who won five All-Ireland club medals with Cross, will provide his team with plenty of motivation come Sunday, says Monahan.

“This is John’s third season in charge of us now and he took us to the final in ’23. He was there last year as well when Scotstown put us out in the semi-final and he’s back for another year in 2025.

“He’s a very level-headed man, very composed. He has that sort of aura about him. When John McEntee speaks, you listen. He’s a very good man manager and has a very good way about him.

“It would be nice to do it for him as well on Sunday because he’s put a lot in this year. You have to respect him and it’s massive what he has done before so none of this is going to be new to him.”