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Have Monaghan qualified as well ?

no. Lost the opener to Derry by 4pts. I'm not sure if a win against Fermanagh would even be enough for Monaghan.

For Monaghan it's good to see some of the new players making their mark. Ryan Wylie has been one to watch ever since he put the brakes on Conor McMcManus in the 2012 Monaghan SFC final. He's certainly proving he's up to this level of football and should be given a good few NFL games to continue his place in the team. Paudie McKenna should get a run against Fermanagh - again he's got the ability to nail down a wing back slot in the team. Vinny Corey and Kieran Duffy ought to be worried retaining their places.

Sadly Johnny McGuigan injured his hamstring against Louth in an U-21 challenge. Hopefully he gets his chance, as he's a natural leader. With Neil McAdam in Oz, the CHB position is up for grabs and it's McGuigan's natural position.

In attack, Jack McCarron has huge ability and his tally against St Mary's indiactes he'll be given an extended run at CHF during the NFL. Midfield is a concern and there is no obvious talent coming through in this sector.

Also good to see Pete Dooney doing well for DCU in Leinster. Dooney struggled to make an impact as a forward last year. Perhaps half back (where he's playing with DCU ) is his best position?

Monaghan have announced their squad.

As expected some of the older players are sitting it out.

New faces include Cremartin's Damien Lavelle in goals. Lavell's club mate Johnny McGuigan and Truagh's Paudie McKenna and Conor Boyle (Clontibret) are new additonas to the defence. New forwards include Shane Carey (Scotstown), Daniel McMahon (Emyvale) and Tommy Kerr (Ballybay). They are recalls for Shane Smyth (Harps) and Daniel McKenna (Truagh).

Glad to see McGuigan and Paudie McKenna getting call ups. McGuigan I expect to break into the team this year, maybe in half back line. He's impressed the past two years for his club and is a leader. Shane Carey has the potential to claim a half forward spot if he can keep his cool. Daniel McKenna is a mecurially talented player but a bit of a show pony. He's had a good season for his club so maybe he's finally gained some consistency and curbed the unnecessary flashiness.

[2013]

2013
What a year for Monaghan. With the announcement of Malachy O'Rourke as manager I was optimistic that Monaghan could get out of Div 3 and make it to an ulster final. It was obviously the players believed it too, as in the trials and McKenna cup every club player who should be there, was there. This was not the case for Eamon McEneaney who had players opting out.

It took O'Rourke a while to know his best team, and for the most part of the year, they played some sparkling attacking football. The Ulster Final will live long in the memory.

Minors
Arguably the best year ever for Monaghan at minor level with both the ulster championship and ulster league captured. Again optimisim was high for 2013 after the 2012 team got to the ulster final and 5 forwards from team were again there in 2013. These forwards were the foundation of the team's success. This Monaghan team scored heavily througout the season barring a couple of occassions. It made up for a pourous defence and mediocre midfield which were all at sea on many an occassion.

U-21's
At the beginning of the year I hadn't much hope for this team but as they progressed they gained belief though the pre season Shamrock Cup and came oh so close to knocking out Cavan. A few injuries to key players before the Cavan game hampered them but they battled manfully before falling in extra time.

2014
Seniors2014 will be a tough year for Monaghan. Div 2 will be very competitive and Down or Tyrone in the Ulster first round is a nasty one. The trick will be whether the players have the same belief in O'Rourke and have the same hunger. Crucially O'Rourke needs to blood 3 to 4 new players into the team. Some of the older players have had a hoodoo about Tyrone for a decade and I know the younger players don't have the same hang ups. O'Rourke has been tactically astute for most of the season but he needs to refine the gameplan for next year. Hopefully a Div 2 campaign where Monaghan win more than they lose and serveral new players have bedded themselves into the team. The Ulster campaign rests solely on getting past the first round. It's a massive ask for Monaghan, but fingers crossed O'Rourke will have learned enough to navigate Monaghan past it. After that anything is possible.

MinorsThe minors will find it very difficult to replicate 2013 and with only a handful of the 2013 team returning in 2014, getting past Tyrone or Down in Ulster is a longshot. There is some talented lads there but it's difficult to tell at this level. I suppose the minor league will show their potential.

U-21'sI'd be hopeful of the U-21's reaching the Ulster final. They have a lot of quality players but there's a worry that there will be too much of a reliance on the attacking players who backboned both the 2012 and 2013 minors.

Monaghan IFC semi finals

Currin v Truagh
Donaghmoyne v TYholland

Have to expect the winner of the Currin /Truagh game to go  on and win it out

Currin and Donaghmoyne into the Monaghan IFC semi finals. Who they meet is still to be decided. Tyholland/Clones/Cremartin/Truagh are battling for the other two semi finals spots.

Monaghan junior FC final is between Blackhill and Emyvale. Blackhill have suprisingly been the form team in junior, but Emyvale's brilliant young minors may carry them over the line.

Monaghan intermediate FC will be closer with league pace  setters, Truagh, having to negotiate the back door route. They are still a formidable team in the competition but Dick Clerkin's Currin are the dark horses. If  they keep their first 15 fit, they'll win it out but they have a paper thin squad where as Truagh have greater strength in depth.

Very dissappointed for the Monaghan lads, but congratulions to a very good Mayo team. Monaghan can be proud of their acheivements winning the Ulster league and championship. More importantly Monaghan have a number of players from this team who sould grace the senior side for a long time. Hopefully they are not rushed into senior ranks too soon.

The Monaghan management did get their line out wrong yesterday. The team's achilles heel of midfield and defence finally got exposed to the point that the team's wonderful forwards couldn't cover it up.

I still think Monaghan will get a token All star for being ulster champions. Probably Wylie at corner back or McManus at corner forward.

I remember back in the late 90's the GAA had a clamp down on county players flying out for long weekends just to play a game in New York. No proper transfers or anything. It made the national papers and all back then. It stuck with me as a lad in my class at college was one of those lads, but he was never higlighted as one of the illegal transfers - the club in New York flew him out and back 4 weekends in a row as they were a couple of replays included. And his girlfriend too as he said he couldn't travel without her, ha!.  He'd be back in class in college on a Tuesday as normal. At the time, his local club were not contenders for their local championship so it was a bit of craic for him and as for county football, he played for Waterford (later on played for Cork) so summer football was always short in Ireland. It does make a farce of the system. No harm with lads going over for the J1 but looks like some of the bullshit is back.

I was in Longford for the Monaghan - Tipp semi final. A good tight game with Monaghan's substitions shading it against a good Tipp team. The Monaghan management recongnised they ahve problemns win defence and especially midfield but after yesterday's performance, that is still an issue. The return of Cremartin's Mark Magee from long term injury is a huge boost as his physicality, fielding and mobility and experience (full back on last year's team) is badly needed in the middle of the pitch. Dessie Ward and Mickey Murnaghan, worked hard but neither are midfielders at this level. Defensively Mervyn Brown helped tigthen the half back line up, though the corner back positions are still a problem. Full back Kevin Loughran must feel like he's fighting the battle on his own back there. Up front yesterday, the ball going into the Monaghan forward was very poor, with passes balloning wildly into the air, especially in the first half. The McCarthy/McMahon axis which has proved so deadly for Monaghan had a meagre supply to work off, but when decent ball was supplied in the second half they again delivered.

For the Mayo semi final - the Monaghan mangement will need to start Magee as for the third straight game they've been wiped out of it in the middle of the pitch. Against Mayo that wouldn't be good enough and they can't reply on the forwards to simply rack up a huge tallies like they did in Ulster to cover up deficienes in midfield and defence.

Absolutely delighted to see Monaghan win the minor title at long last. The penalty decision looked dodgy when I seen it at the game, but is very soft after watching TG4 last night. Tyrone can be rightly pissed off at the ref. The Monaghan minor management need to sort out the team's midfield, they've been regularly wiped out of it this year. It's only for the frankly ridiculous scoring totals from the forwards that has brought them the ulster league and championship minor titles this year.

The key worry for me is Monaghan's indiscipline. They've had quite a lot of dismissals this year and are prone to giving away soft frees in handy positions. Given how lethal McFadden and Murphy (from distance of the ground) are, that could prove very costly. Donegal are much cuter on that regards and tactically foul further out. Yeah, we all give out about it, but most teams do it now unless they are stupid.

In terms of physicality, I'm not worried at all for Monaghan who are no shrinking violets. Lennon, Corey, the two Hughes', Clerkin, Doogan are big lumps of lads, not afraid to mix it.

I think it'll be a close game similar to last year. Monaghan have a good few players from last years team, particularly in attack. The league game between was 3-14 to 3-11 or something like that in favour of Monaghan.

I think Tyrone's strength is midfield which irconically is Monaghan's weakness. Tyrone will start as favourities as they have such a fantatsic record at this level and are a boogie team to Monaghan.

Right, I think it's time for a bit of serious chat about this game.

I've put a lot of thought into it and have decided that this is the team that must start for Monaghan.

Goals: Rory Beggan.

Full back line: Drew Wylie, Darren Hughes and Colin Walshe...
Half back line: Dessie Mone, Vinny Corey and Karl O'Connell...
Midfield: Dick Clerkin and Eoin Lennon...
Half forward line: Stephen Gollogly, Paul Finlay and Gavin Doogan...
Full forward line: Tommy Freeman, Kieran Hughes and Conor McManus...

I'm convinced that this lineout gives us our best chance of winning this game.

I'm not convinced that Dick Clerkin and Tommy Freeman have a full game in them, which begs the question who would replace them. Neil McAdam for Dick? I haven't been convinced by his recent performances. I'd definitely give McGuinness the nod over Freeman, and would like to see Hughes playing full forward, testing their full back line.

Freeman isn't fully fit yet. For now, best to keep him reserve. McGuiness has a great goal scoring record - the team have too often not picked up his great movement earlier in the year (they were looking for McManus inside), but are adjusting to him. O'Connell for all his pace, lacks the footballing brain for this level. He too often loses his man when turned and relies on his pace to try save his skin and is a lazy tackler prone to fouling.

I  honestly feel Doogan makes a better half back than a half forward - he has huge workrate and commitment but offers zero in a scoring sense. Dick's form has been hit and miss all year - he's definetly not getting through the amount of work he used to. Neil McAdam has had a good year overall , but the Cavan game was one of his poorest - his decision making was poor and wasn't releasing possession quick enough (he got subbed after tunneling into 3 Cavan players). I'd still start him against Donegal.

I would like to see Dermot Malone back in the team. He's over his knee injury he picked up in the league final. The big question is whether Eoin Duffy will be fit - he's been having his best year in the Monaghan jersey yet and a huge scoring contribution from half forward. He was definetly a loss against Cavan. Have a feeling Mone will mark McFadden , Walshe on McBrearty and Wylie on Murphy. Corey while having the physicality lacks that burst of speed over 5 yards to match any of those 3 (witness what Conor Laverty did last year to Corey).

No doubt about it, Donegal are the ultimate test for any side. Monaghan have found it tough to play against two sides whose whole mentality was very defensive. Even Tyrone found Roscommon a tough nut to crack - it's a bloody hard system to get through. Donegal bring that to the next level while offering a huge attacking threat.