Ulster Senior Football Championship final: Monaghan v Donegal (Sunday, Clones, 2pm)
COLIN Walshe was included in the leaked dossier of Monaghan players that did the rounds recently, but his profile didn’t make the newspapers.
It wouldn’t be hard to knock one up about him though, something like: ‘Good engine and pacey, strong robust defender, tenacious tackler and man-marker, reads the game well…’
Maybe it’s too soon to add: ‘A threat breaking forward’ after the 2013 Allstar broke his Championship duck with a point against Cavan in the Ulster quarter-final clash at Kingspan Breffni Park.
That game was his comeback after almost a year on the sidelines recovering from a torn cruciate ligament picking up against Dublin last season.
“I had a long enough lay-off,” said the Doohamlet clubman, who is itching to make up for lost time.
“But at this stage I’ve been back in full flight since late March so I have a good spring in my step coming to training every night and I’m looking forward to the year ahead.
“I took the recovery stage by stage. It’s 10 months now since the operation and I got the all-clear a good few months ago.”
The point he scored against Cavan turned out to be the winner after his side battled back from the brink to overhaul their neighbours at the death. Scoring was the last thing on his mind when he raced on as substitute nine minutes into the second half.
“When I got on the field I just wanted to make sure that I did what Malachy was looking off me,” he said.
“The first thing he wanted was a performance that would help the team. They were leading by four points at one stage but the boys dug deep.
“In those games the momentum can to-and-fro and we finished with strong momentum.”
Victories over the Breffnimen and Fermanagh in the semi-final saw Monaghan through to a third Ulster final on-the-trot but, on paper at least, their achievements this season pale in comparison to Donegal who have already beaten Tyrone, Armagh and Derry.
“People would have felt that we were favourites to come out from that side of the draw but they were tricky games to get through,” said Walshe.
“On the other side you couldn’t have predicted who would come out. You were looking at Donegal and, fair enough, they were in an All-Ireland final last year, but when you saw the route they had to take not too many people would have been putting money on them.
“They’ve done very well. They’ve bounced back from last year and they are in a fifth final in-a-row.
“We’re disappointed with some of our performances we felt we didn’t play to our potential.
“But at the end of the day it was about getting results and we got our two wins and we’re back in the final and we’ll have to look for a huge performance to win it.”
Of course Walshe has watched Donegal’s progress with interest. The Tir Chonaill outfit did what they had to do to beat Tyrone and Derry but it’s their majestic performance against Armagh that he’ll prepare for.
“They’ve been very impressive from what I’ve seen,” he said.
“I’ve seen bits of all their games and they gave the most complete performance from any team I’ve seen in the game against Armagh.
“Going into the game people were thinking that Armagh were going to turn them over and, in fairness, I thought it would be a lot tighter than it was.
“But they completely blew Armagh away that day and didn’t show any sign of letting up, so that’s the kind of team we’re going to have to prepare to face in the final and we know ourselves that the performances we’ve given so far aren’t going to be good enough.”
Donegal and Monaghan have run into each other regularly in recent years. As well as the last three Ulster final meetings they met twice in Division Two in 2014 and again in the top flight this season.
“There’s a healthy rivalry,” says Walshe.
“It’s the luck of the draw that we haven’t met each other before a final in the last three years. They’ve won one, we’ve won one so I suppose this year is going to be the decider.
“There’s not too much that we don’t know about each other and this year they have shown that they’ve got to a higher level and they’re probably a bit further down the road.”
This time last year that assessment certainly looked accurate because Donegal never really looked in any trouble as they reclaimed their provincial crown with a three-point win. Walshe rejects the suggestion that Monaghan, who went into the game as Ulster champions, were complacent.
“On the day we didn’t fire on all cylinders and once Donegal built a bit of a lead up we seemed to get frustrated,” he said.
“Going into the game last year we had tough battles with Tyrone and Armagh and Donegal definitely were the better team that day and they deserved the win completely. We had no complaints – we didn’t perform.”
As for that dossier: “I didn’t see my name on it, so I was happy enough,” said Walshe with a laugh and admits it provoked a bit of banter in the dressing-room.
“There was a bit of slagging about it. I’m not sure if it’s common practice but I suppose every team is doing their bit of analysis on the opposition and trying to get as much information as they can before a game.”
