THERE were tears in his eyes as he spoke. Seamus McEnaney normally projects an air of uncomplicated confidence but he had to pause and compose himself as he reflected on a cruel last few weeks for himself and his county on and off the field.
Understandably, it was all too much for the Monaghan manager. This month he lost his friend Philip Traynor and then his protégé Brendan Og Duffy. Without ‘Ogie’, Monaghan fell just short in the Ulster U20 final on Friday night and then, on Saturday, Tyrone bested Banty’s battlers by a point in thrilling senior decider at Croke Park.
The emotion came pouring out…
“I couldn’t be any more proud of the group of players,” said the Corduff native.
“I’ve been proud to be from Monaghan this last month.”
McEnaney’s team will bounce back from losing the Ulster final but the loss of Phillip Traynor and Brendan Og Duffy will be felt for ever-more in Monaghan.
McEnaney said the county had endured “a difficult couple of weeks” which is an understatement.
“Philip Traynor was a supporter of Monaghan, a financial supporter of Monaghan,” he said.
“He was everything you would look to be good about Monaghan and he was also a personal friend.”
The tragic death of 19-year-old Brendan Og Duffy also shook the county to its core and McEnaney reflected on the loss of a fine young man and a bright footballing talent.
“We have spoken a lot about Ogie of the last couple of weeks and maybe something that was missed, was how good of a footballer he was,” he said.
“He started with Monaghan U20s for three years in-a-row. He started with me three years ago, he started last year and he started this year.
“This man had an awful lot give to Monaghan and he had an awful lot more to give.
“And that’s disappointing… He’s a lad that’s going to be missed out of our dressing room and I’m disappointed we lost him in such circumstances.”
Turning to Saturday’s game, McEnaney lamented an under-par first half performance. His team trailed by five points at the break and he said his team hadn’t brought “enough energy, enough aggression” to the battle.
“We talked about it at half-time and we looked for fight and we looked for all those things and we got all those things,” he said.
“We said before the game it was a 50/50 game and it would be down to small margins.
“It ended up being down to very small margins. Maybe a shot option or a pass here, or a pass there that went astray.
“We fought tooth and nail. We took it down to the wire - we took it down to the last seconds.
“We missed a couple of opportunities to equalise. I had no doubt in my mind with 60-65 minutes gone that we were going to win.
“We have been in a lot of tight games this year and I had no doubt we had the legs to win the game but I am really immensely proud of what the Monaghan players brought to the table.”
Success at underage level and the emergence of young players like Micheal Bannigan, Killian Lavelle and Stephen O’Hanlon bodes well for Monaghan’s future. ‘Banty’ is confident that veterans including Conor McManus, Karl O’Connell and Drew Wylie (all 33), Darren Hughes (34) will remain on the panel.
“A lot of people wrote off a lot of those players,” he said defiantly.
“These boys were supposed to be dead and buried in 2018 and 2019 and they keep coming back for more.
“The one thing about the Monaghan players is that you get every ounce of energy from them and the great thing about them is that every single player who is capable of playing football for Monaghan, wants to play for Monaghan and are playing for Monaghan.
“I think that energy, the energy from the U20s last night, will drive any player on because this is a special group and to be playing inter-county football for Monaghan is a very special place to be.”
