Monaghan’s Michéal McCarville: Making up for lost time

Michéal McCarville is a latecomer to the Monaghan team but the Scotstown man is making up for lost time. He spoke with Michael McMullan

ANY youngster dreaming of wearing a county jersey can learn so much from Michéal McCarville. When he steps off the Monaghan bus on Sunday, the juice will have been worth the squeeze.

Progress doesn’t always walk in a straight line but the most important thing is to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

In terms of being an inter-county footballer, McCarville is a late bloomer. While he has Ulster minor and U21 medals, he lost out on a starting place as the business end of both seasons arrived.

At club level, he stepped out of minor the same year Scotstown ended a 20-year famine to lift the Mick Duffy Cup in 2013.

Conor McCarthy was the only minor to immediately make the cut, scoring 0-3 as they strode past Clontibret.

Darren Hughes: A footballing warrior

The midfield zone was going to be hard to break into. There was McCarville’s hero Darren Hughes and his brother Kieran. Frank Caulfield. Men in their prime.

James Turley was another. David McCague was in the mix too, a man who has steered McCarville’s career more than most.

McCarville came off the bench when they accounted for a Magheracloone team that included his cousins, the Kieran brothers, as Scotstown made it three-in-a-row in the 2017 decider.

There was a late cameo the following year before manager Kieran Donnelly converted him to a full-forward in 2019 when Clontibret dashed their hopes of a fifth title in a row.

He showed enough for his Godfather Seamus McEnaney to offer a county senior trial but not enough to warrant a place on the squad.

While another full year of club football would’ve been a perfect bridge, a freak injury while playing soccer in the off-season tore his knee to pieces.

Covid was about to close the world down. If there was a time to begin a recovery journey that was the year, with no league football or no Ulster Club.

McCarville was at a crossroads in his career. Park his dream or go all in. He chose the latter.

By the time he was looking over the sidelines as Scotstown landed title number 20, McCarville was on the path that takes him to the midfield battlezone on Sunday.

Since his league debut against Kerry at Clones in 2024, McCarville has played a part in all but one game.

His only Monaghan goal, against Galway back in March, wasn’t enough to keep them in Division One.

By the time Donegal came to Clones seven days later, a knock saw the management err on the side of caution with league safety now gone. It was championship time.

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Michéal is the youngest of Gerry and Margaret McCarville’s three children.

James, the oldest, is a regular at games when he isn’t whizzing around the rally car circuit. Sister Aoife loves her football too.

They were never going to miss with Gerry being one of the county’s most famed players and Margaret a McEnaney from Corduff.

Her brother Seamus is a former Monaghan manager. Frank played at midfield while Pat was one of the country’s top referees.

“They are all just huge football people,” Michéal said of his extended family.

“Dad obviously played with Monaghan for years and (uncle) Martin won championships with Scotstown.”

Gerry was a successful manager with junior or intermediate teams or clubs in other counties. Anyone who’d not be locking horns with Scotstown.

Michéal was often in the car, with his boots packed, an impressionable kid pretending to be Darren Hughes or kicking off the left, a la Paul Finlay.

“Whatever championship was on at the weekend, we could have gone to three matches on a Saturday and a Sunday in Armagh, Tyrone or Derry,” Michéal recalls.

“The fact that my family had such an interest in GAA, it was bred into me from a young age that this was going to be a big part of my life.”

Playing for Monaghan was always the dream. He recalls his father’s time as a senior selector when a Finlay free dropped through a Meath defender’s grasp and into the net with the last kick to clinch the Division Two league in 2005.

“I remember being in the stand that day and the elation, the tears in people’s eyes,” Michéal explains. “Experiences like that, they just make you want to be part of it.”

Now that he is on the inside, he can see what it means to his family, friends and the people of Monaghan.

His cousins and rivals on the Magheracloone and Corduff teams are among the first to fire across a text on the weekend of Monaghan games.

After games, they’ll offer a pat on the back in victory or a caring arm and word in defeat.

“I wouldn’t tell him it too often but my father is obviously a hero of mine too,” Michéal adds.

“If Scotstown won a game, uncle Martin and cousin Brian would be at the house with him, dissecting every part of it.

“If we lost, it’s like a board meeting. It was just bred into you, and that fed into me wanting to play for Monaghan.

“I can’t stress enough how many great memories I have as a child. There are special memories going to games all around the country with him,” Michéal added of this father.

“Eamon McCluskey, a friend of his, used to go with. They are memories I’ll cherish forever.”

ON THE ROAD…Michéal McCarville with his father Gerry (left) and family friend Eamon McCluskey at Monaghan’s Ulster SFC game with Tyrone in Omagh in 2011

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County minor football is often perceived the first step of the inter-county ladder. Michéal McCarville and Conor McCarthy were part of the 2013 St Macartan’s Monaghan side beaten by St Paul’s Bessbrook in the MacRory Cup semi-final.

From the Bessbrook team, Greg McCabe and Aaron McKay will bound out of the Clones tunnel on Sunday. Connaire Mackin and Ciaran O’Hanlon also have All-Ireland medals with Armagh.

McCarville was part of the Monaghan minor panel on a memorable day later that year in Clones when the county won the minor and senior double.

“We were seven points down in the minor final,” he recalls. “A Fergal McMahon penalty and another goal pulled it back for us. It was crazy after that game.”

Seated behind the dugouts for the senior game, he looked on as Jim McGuinness and Rory Gallagher strode up to offer their congratulations to the Monaghan manager Malachy O’Rourke just before the final whistle.

“They knew it was the last couple of plays and the game was over,” he added.

“It was just bedlam after that. Everyone in Monaghan, if they could fit on the pitch, it seemed like they were all on it.

“It was a bit like an underdog story with Donegal having won the All-Ireland the previous year.

“Whenever you look through the Monaghan team and the 10 years following that, they were just absolute warriors.

“Boys like Dermot Malone, who is on the sideline with us, they epitomised Monaghan football for years.”

For McCarville, county senior wasn’t even close. It took until 2019 to nail down a championship spot in a Scotstown team coming into their prime.

“I definitely had the want, but did I believe or do the training required to make that step up? I suppose, at the time, probably not,” he admits.

That’s why his injury at the end of that season was a turning point between being on and off the team, and going on to become a regular axis on the way to Ulster glory.

After not making the Monaghan squad ahead of the 2020 season, McCarville threw in his lot in with Killylough FC in his local parish of Tydavnet. A bit of soccer would help build his fitness over the winter. Or so he thought.

After a morning training session with Scotstown, he was in the Killylough midfield as they eased towards victory.

“In the last couple of minutes, there was no malice in it, but a boy went to clear the ball and kicked my leg instead,” he recalls.

It was carnage. Ligaments torn. To make it worse, the tackle tore both the hamstring and calf. There was also a broken bone.

“At the same time, it was probably the best year it could have happened to me because of Covid,” McCarville added.

After going under the knife in April 2020 and following two weeks of down time, recovery and rehab became the magic words. Physio Dermot Foley and conditioning coach Barry McKenna were now his stabilisers.

“They were very good to me that year, I worked hard and they kept me accountable,” McCarville said. “I just remember that year was probably the turning point.

“Collie McAree was over us (Scotstown), along with Diarmuid Scullion. They were very supportive and facilitated an awful lot for me.”

Mornings meant running. Evenings were in the gym. Michéal would snap a photo of his food and fire it off to Barry. Every tiny detail mattered. This was what all-in looks like.

“With Covid, I was working from home at the time, so you can nearly train as a professional,” McCarville added. “Anything that I was told to do, I’d do even more if I could.”

When Scotstown were crowned champions again in 2021, Gavin McPhillips, Shane Carey, Darren and Kieran Hughes formed the midfield in their win over Truagh.

Another big man, wearing the number 12 jersey, was Michéal McCarville. He had 60 minutes in the legs but the smile he wore in the winning team photo was more than about winning another county medal. After a mangled knee, he was back on the road again.

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As Monaghan manager Seamus McEnaney was putting his plans together for the 2022 season, he needed a backup goalkeeper.

David McCague was part of the coaching ticket. From his days with ‘The Sem’ and Scotstown, he knew what McCarville could offer.

“It was probably a job that nobody wanted,” McCarville said, referring to the excellence of Rory Beggan and the number of sub goalkeepers who had failed to dislodge him.

“I used to kick frees to the ground and I was comfortable enough on the ball. I don’t know, that was maybe the reasoning for taking me into the panel.”

While Darren Hughes was the player he looked up to inside the county, outside of Monaghan, it was Peter Canavan and Oisin McConville.

McCarville looked on as McConville would perfect his run up and kick pressure frees. Now, kicking off the ground was a passport to inter-county football with Monaghan.

With no real interest in being a goalkeeper, McCarville looked on it as a chance to get his foot in the door.

When he walked out at Owenbeg, wearing number 16, for the 2022 McKenna Cup draw with Derry, Northern Sound commentator Sean McCaffrey asked McCarville if it was mind games.

“To be honest, I saw it as an opportunity because obviously I’d dreamed of playing with Monaghan since I was a child.”

“I said ‘right this is my chance’ and I was going to take it and hope I would get a chance out the field at some point.”

Michéal’s father Gerry won a championship in 1974 with Scotstown. There was the famous day in Casement Park when Darren Hughes ran out with the number one jersey.

Michéal didn’t follow suit. His goalkeeping displays came only in training and sitting on the bench for games if needed.

“One night in Cloughan, there was a very heavy press put on a kick out of mine at training,” Michéal recalls with a laugh.

“I had three or four minutes of a meltdown and I think the goal-keeping days were over for me after that.”

Darren Hughes and Shane Carey could sense McCarville’s panic and intensified the press even more.

“I was putting them over sidelines and putting them over boys’ heads into the opposition’s hands, thinking, ‘Jesus Christ, I don’t know if this is for me.’”

The closest he came to being a goalkeeper was in the dying embers of their 2022 league draw with Tyrone in Omagh.

In a late goalmouth scramble Rory Beggan jumped for a ball, only to hit his head off the crossbar. “Michéal……..” came the call up into the stand.

“If they had a heart rate monitor on me that day, I’d say my heart never beat as fast,” McCarville recalls.

“Beggan got up, I was never as happy not be on a football field before in my life.”

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By the time Monaghan met Derry in the Ulster semi-final later that year, McCarville was in the matchday 26 as an outfield player.

Through a combination of good training form outfield and a few injuries elsewhere in the squad, his foot was further inside the door. What next?

Persistence was the new word.

The 70 McKenna Cup minutes he got against Down was the only action he saw in 2023 but he was still winning championships in the blue of Scotstown.

Two more McKenna Cup appearances followed in 2024 before looking on as an unused sub when Monaghan shocked All-Ireland champions Dublin in the league opener at Croke Park.

Goals from Ciaran McNulty, Stephen O’Hanlon and Jack McCarron worked wonders in a potent running game. Joel Wilson and Gary Mohan were the midfield pairing.

Kerry came to Clones a week later. When Wilson was replaced in the 43rd minute, McCarville came on for his league debut and kicked a point from his overall Monaghan career tally of 1-8.

Monaghan were decimated with injuries the following week against Derry with McCarville also missing out.

Their Division One status was under pressure but he kicked another point against Roscommon in Round Four.

Aside from time spent on Scotstown duty and Gabriel Bannigan not rushing him back from a knock for the Donegal game this year, McCarville has played in every Monaghan game since.

His championship debuts didn’t go to plan. After starting against Kerry in the 2024 All-Ireland series opener in Killarney, he was one of two players replaced at half-time as they trailed by 11 points.

FIRST TIME…Michéal McCarville up against Joe O’Connor on his championship debut on 2024 in Killarney

When Monaghan were defeated by Cavan in the first round of Ulster the following year, fellow Scotstown skyscraper Gavin McPhillips replaced him before half-time.

McCarville did what he has always done. Put his head down and kept on trucking all the way to the recent Ulster semi-final win over Derry.

Rory Beggan’s catch led to the game changing goal for Mícheál Bannigan. Jack McCarron kicked the dramatic equaliser before Beggan became the final hero with the late, late winner.

Before that, it was McCarville’s two catches at midfield that steadied Monaghan in a rocky first half. When he landed a two-pointer within seconds of Andrew Woods doing the same, Monaghan were back in business.

“I’d probably just done my apprenticeship a bit longer than I’d have liked,” McCarville said of eventually becoming a regular.

“We’d lost a few players in the last couple of years in the likes of Darren Hughes and Barry McBennett, guys that were in the same position as me.”

McCarville still goes back to the ACL crossroads. Pack it in or venture down the extra mile needed to succeed at the top.

“I played the whole league from 2024 to now,” he said.

“You back the bit of work that you’ve done and you’re just trying to believe that you can mix it with the boys that you’re going out to play on.”

In that regard, Division One is the acid test. For Monaghan, 2026 was the perfect storm of missing key players when competing the cream of the country.

“I’ve turned 31 this year so you just have to get on with it,” McCarville said. “I am enjoying every moment, that is the way I’m looking at it because it took me long enough to get in.”

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Away from football, life is busy. Training occupies the evenings. Support of those around is important as well.

Michéal’s girlfriend Ellen Deery is from Truagh, a football fan involved in some coaching herself.

When his career in sales came to a close with companies laying people off during Covid, it was time to revisit his draw to become a teacher.

A liberal arts degree took him to St Mary’s in Belfast where he captained the Sigerson Cup team, before staying on for a masters in PE.

Last month saw the completion of his studies with Hibernia College, securing a qualification to teach in the south.

He jokes about thinking he’d be 40 before getting the necessary stripes in place.

Nine years ahead of that, McCarville is now a fully qualified primary school teacher.

He has three years experience in the bank from subbing, including a spell back in his alma mater, St Macartan’s. There was a stint of work experience in Scotstown.

He is currently working St Tiernach’s in Clones, tucked along the Roslea Road, diagonally behind the Hill and Eastern Stand of a stadium that will be rocking on Sunday.

“Majella Beggan is the Principal and she has been brilliant to me,” he said.

The main focus will be on what happens inside the white lines on Sunday.

While victory over Derry has brought a tremendous buzz to the county, McCarville points to the reality.

Nothing is won and he feels Armagh will have a serious motivation as they look for the Ulster title that they narrowly missed three years on the trot.

TWIN TOWERS…Michéal McCarville and Gavin McPhillips celebrate Scotstown’s Ulster title

The support structures behind a player are the nuts and bolts nobody will see.

Chatting in the days after the semi-final win, McCarville recognises the level of commitment required by players to follow their dreams.

His family and friends are important but he also acknowledges the input from Scotstown.

“Every player in the country will always say that their club is where they come from first,” he said, looking back on the club’s recent gala to mark their Ulster success.

“Whenever you see 600 or 700 people at a function like that for a club, a lot of them would have been at all the games.

“Some may not have a family member as part of the team, maybe not even a neighbour part of the team,” he pointed out.

“There arepeople coming from up the country to watch games that have maybe left the parish. Just real Scotstown people – only for them would we be anywhere near where we are today? Definitely not.

“When I think of David McCague, I wouldn’t like to put anyone in tiers or levels, but he’d be one of the main men that had a huge effect on me.

“Growing up, he was a teacher in ‘The Sem’, he was over some of our school teams and at underage level in the club.

“I have an awful lot to thank him for and the dozens of other coaches that I’ve had.”

That’s the beauty of this week and Sunday. Monaghan might win, they might not and there will be hundreds of millimetres that will determine whether they will or not.

Beyond that, are the faces of Ulster final day. Players, management teams, family members and fans. The extended network that got them there. When Michéal McCarville emerges from the tunnel on Sunday, he will have Gerry, Margaret, James, Aoife and Ellen with him every step of the way.

That’s the example people can take.

Not everyone steps out of a minor team with an injury and obstacle free road to the top.

That’s why we can learn so much from Michéal McCarville.