Allianz National Football League Division Two

Monaghan v Kildare, Sunday, 2.30, Clones

 

Monaghan will be hoping to bounce back from their opening-round disappointment when they host Kildare at St. Tiarnach’s Park in round two of the NFL. Monaghan’s wasteful finishing cost them dearly in a six-point defeat away to Meath, while Kildare also got off to a losing start when Tyrone finished strongly to secure the points in the first part of last Saturday’s Croke Park double-header.

Kildare qualified for the O’Byrne Cup Final last month – they are still waiting for the decider to be played after the original fixture against DCU fell foul of the weather – so they have already built up a bit of momentum. The counties’ paths have not crossed too often over the years, but it is Kildare who have held the upper hand recently, winning in Clones in the 2009 NFL and knocking Monaghan out of the championship in a fourth-round qualifier at Croke Park 16 months later.

Both teams will need a much better return from their full-forwards, as Monaghan’s inside line managed just two points against Meath and Kildare’s front three were held scoreless by Tyrone. Paul Finlay’s role for Monaghan is even more crucial than before in the absence of Conor McManus, but he will also need support from the likes of Kieran Hughes and Christopher McGuinness. Owen Lennon is unavailable due to work commitments but he could be replaced by Dick Clerkin in midfield, where James Turley and Neil McAdam will also have to contribute, while current captain Darren Hughes is sure to backbone the defence, along with Dessie Mone and Vincent Corey. Ronan McNally showed well on his NFL debut as an early substitute last Saturday and could be in contention for a first start.

Kildare, whose attempts to bring in Cavan native Seán Johnston have been making headlines in recent months, are attempting to reduce the scoring burden on Johnny Doyle, but the veteran forward is still capable of running up big tallies. Mikey Conway, scorer of six points against Tyrone, Eoghan O’Flaherty, James Kavanagh are also capable of kicking scores, while big target man Tomás O’Connor is a handful on the edge of the square. Dermot Earley is a long way from his comeback, but Kildare still have strength at centre-field in Darryl Flynn and Ronan Sweeney and Peter Kelly, Michael Foley and Hugh McGrillen are strong and reliable at the back.

In spite of last weekend’s defeat, Kildare look very sharp for this time of year and they will be going all-guns blazing on Sunday and will be hard to stop.

Sunday’s game will again be tweeted live on the official Monaghan GAA twitter page from 1.30pm.

 Monaghan Team: Mark Keogh; Donal Morgan, Darren Hughes (Capt.), Colin Walshe; Dessie Mone, Vincent Corey, David Hughes; Owen Lennon, James Turley; Neil McAdam, Owen Duffy, Mark Downey; Paul Finlay, Kieran Hughes, Christopher McGuinness.

Subs: Rory Beggan, Ronan McNally, Dermot Malone, Karl O’Connell, Matthew McKenna, Dick Clerkin, Ciarán Hanratty, Stephen Gollogly, Bernard O’Brien, Shane Smyth, Drew Wylie.

Bord Gáis Ladies National Football League Division One

Cork v Monaghan, Sunday, 2.00, Whitechurch

All attention in the Ladies NFL will be on Whitechurch outside Cork city, which will host a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland SFC Final.

Monaghan were unfortunate to lose narrowly to Cork in that decider at Croke Park, so they will be keen to send out a signal of intent here and continue their impressive start to the season. That All-Ireland final defeat was one of just two since Gregory McGonigle took charge of Monaghan at the start of last year and they have already lifted the Dowd Cup in 2012 before getting the better of ‘bogey team’ Laois in the first round of the league. Cork also started their campaign on a positive note, taking full points from a long trip to Donegal.

Monaghan have been fielding a mixture of youth and experience so far and it is the established players like Sharon Courtney, Cathriona McConnell, Therese McNally, Ciara and Aoife McAnespie and Amanda Casey who will need to be on form if they are to take anything from the trek to Cork, who will be looking for big performances from the likes of Juliet Murphy, Nollaig Cleary, Bríd Corkery, Deirdre O’Reilly and Annemarie Walsh.

Shamrock Cup Round Three

Tyrone v Monaghan, Saturday, 2.00, Omagh

 

Monaghan and Tyrone have both already qualified for the Shamrock Cup Final for the second year in a row, but they must first meet in the last round of group games at Healy Park on Saturday.

Monaghan followed up a hard-earned win over Antrim by comfortably seeing off Meath, while Tyrone also had too much in the tank for Meath and Antrim. With nothing riding on this game, there could be an element of ‘shadow-boxing’, but it should be a welcome chance to experiment, with the Ulster championship just over a month away.

Monaghan should be able to welcome back their Scotstown contingent after the Blues’ narrow Ulster Club Under-21 Championship defeat to Omagh. Rory Beggan, Daniel McKenna, Keith McEnaney, Peter O’Hanlon, Shane Carey and Owen and Shane Coyle are among the main men on the Farney side, while Tyrone could be able to call on promising players like Ronan O’Neill, Harry Óg Conlon, Shay McGuigan, Conan Grugan, Conor Clarke and Niall Sludden.

All three Monaghan representatives in the Táin Club League for hurling clubs from Ulster and a few from Louth, Longford, Leitrim and Sligo are at home on Saturday, as Castleblayney host Seamróga in Division 3B, Carrickmacross take on Knocks from Fermanagh in Division 5A and Truagh face Lurgan Seán Treacys (Co Armagh). All games are due to throw-in at 2pm.

Truagh’s game is followed at 3pm on Saturday by the north-Monaghan club’s footballers’ match against Derry side Bellaghy in the Ulster Club Senior Football League Group A. Castleblayney travel to Celtic Park in Derry to take on locals Steelstown in Group C on Sunday at 2.