Fermanagh really put it up to Monaghan in their Ulster SFC semi-final but there was no pleasing a couple of prominent RTE pundits.
Football is back on our televisions, this championship summer, as Monaghan did battle with Rory Gallagher’s Fermanagh at Healy Park, Omagh. The Maguire County won out after Eoin Donnelly got a late goal to make it 1-8 to 0-10.
Malachy O’Rourke’s side had eliminated Tyrone while Fermanagh had accounted for Armagh and a place in the final was up for grabs. The Farneymen had been in scoring form against Tyrone but their semi-final opponents were giving them nothing for free.
Fermanagh led 05-01 at one stage and only a couple of Conor McManus frees kept his side in touch. It took 32 minutes for Monaghan to score from play and they trailed 06-04 at the break.
With the game being covered on RTE, fans were not expecting Joe Brolly or Pat Spillane to lavish the feisty encounter with praise.
Joe Brolly and Pat Spillane giving it loads on @TheSundayGame today. pic.twitter.com/4aOXiuEdmF
— Daithi Carroll (@DaithiC787) June 3, 2018
Fermanagh leading by 2 at half time you’d have to say it’s been a good 35mins for us, but I’d say Brolly and Spillane will be losing their minds now in their analysis 🙄 #FermanaghVMonagahan #UlsterChampionship2018 #GAA #GAAGO
— Patrick Quaile (@PatrickQuaile) June 3, 2018
Sure enough, neither pundit was happy with the fare. Speaking from a studio space down in Limerick, Spillane began by saying it was ‘a very, very poor game’.
“This is the way the game has gone,” Brolly chimed in.
“A blanket defence makes a lesser team competitive,” the former Derry forward continued as he claimed Fermanagh had sucked the life out of the contest and packed their defence. True, Fermanagh were well organised but they did show some attacking purpose and were not purely about counter-attacking.
With Brolly and Spillane wringing their hands and lamenting the direction in which the modern game was heading, host Joanne Cantwell stepped in with a novel suggestion:
“Why don’t you show us how they’re setting up?”
Finally, after a lengthy sermon on the ills of football, we got some analysis.
'This is a very dangerous game for Monaghan,' says Joe Brolly. pic.twitter.com/4M8tsUzEZl
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) June 3, 2018
It was mainly negative about Monaghan and Brolly declared Dublin would not tolerate Fermanagh’s stifling tactics. There was no talk of Che Cullen marking McManus out of the half, Patrick Cadden’s spot-on kick-outs, Ryan Jones’ coolness in possession or the excellent point scored by Conall Jones.
“It wasn’t just their defensive system.,” Cantwell interjected. “Fermanagh in the first half had a few good scores.”
At that the lads had to admit, yes, Fermanagh had done a couple of good things. But Brolly was not going to go too far:
BROLLY: “Fermanagh have not penetrated the Monaghan defence once… they are scoring from distance”
CANTWELL: “But it’s working for them.”
It was, but why focus on the positives when you can have a good aul’ moan on a Sunday afternoon?
As for the game itself, Fermanagh won 1-8 to 0-10.
