Greenfield Foods Monaghan Senior Football Championship final
Clontibret v Scotstown
(SUNDAY, St Tiernach’s Park, 3pm)
“We were nervous going into our third (successive final) thinking ‘what Clontibret’s going to turn up?’.”
That was the line Vinny Corey gave Andy Watters and The Irish News just minutes after Conor Boyle shattered Scotstown in the dying embers and lit Clontibret bonfires with his flailing right boot.
That score is a decade old now. Those words and that success too.
Just a year previously Corey and co had faltered at the final hurdle. A 2-16 to 0-07 hiding at the hands of perennial contenders Scotstown was a letdown, bordering on calamitous.
Monaghan were that same year’s Anglo Celt winners. The TG4 cameras were in town awaiting a classic that never materialised.
Those short of memory or short of wisdom can be reminded now that that 2013 title was a first Mick Duffy Cup in 20 years for the men in blue. Their domination since has been stark.
Eight of the last 11 titles have gone their way. This year also marks 12 finals in a row. Quite the achievement.
Back in 2013 it was deemed a masterstroke when Kieran Hughes marked Conor McManus. In 2014 he was relieved of that duty by Mattie McGleenan. McManus struck 1-4.
But early doors Clontibret had found themselves 1-05 0-02 down and a repeat of the previous year’s disaster looked possible if not probable.
This time JP Mone knew it was definitely to be the end. Brought in by Dom Corrigan in the 2013 fixture, he found himself back beside his manager just moments later following a straight red card.
In 2014, he was a driving force at midfield that quelled the impact of the roving Hughes brothers in their prime - all whilst he himself batted away the horizon of a glittering career for 30-odd battling, bruising minutes.
“I was disgusted with myself and I just felt I’d let the club down. I’d let Dom down, all those men that had gone before me, whether it was the 50′s, 60′s, 70′s, 80′s, 90′s….
“The coaches that had coached me down through the years. My own family. It was a terrible feeling I remember at the time.
“We came back in 2014 and again I played very, very sparingly, but I got my chance. Dom was still over the team and I came in this time slightly after half-time and I was able to do my little bit to help Clontibret win that day.
“I’m very grateful I was able to do that just for my own peace of mind, because I probably never would have forgiven myself if the end of my club career had have been the year before and what I did.”
On Mone skipped into the world of retirement, or more likely hobbled, and on came Scotstown. Redemption in ‘15. Revenge in ‘16. History in ‘17.
By ‘18 it’s domination. It’s a legacy and it’s farcical. It’s a masterpiece and it’s mass destruction.
In that bunch was the 2-13 to 1-12 success over Clontibret in 2016. All but two of Clontibret’s scores came from that man McManus.
Earlier that year he had clipped over 0-12 for Monaghan against Dublin in the league in a similar virtuoso display.
This time it was the club, it was the championship, but it was still not enough as Orin Heaphey and Kieran Hughes goaled to make it back-to-back for An Bhoth.
12 months on and Magheracloone are accounted for in the county final. Then Ballybay.
2019 and it’s underdogs Clontibret versus holders Scotstown once more, just as it was five years earlier and ironically five years later.
Five years ago it was the drive for five. If Clontibret were underdogs in 2014, they weren’t to come within a whisker this time.
Five first-half McManus scores sent them on their way. A brilliant Conor Boyle block on a marauding Conor McCarthy rubber stamped Clontibret’s mentality. Then Ryan McGuigan’s all important goal.
Five-star, and a six-point win. Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Now comes a first decider to feature both sides since. History suggests expect the unexpected.
Which would lead you to believe an upset is on the cards again à la 2014 or 2019.
But it’s just very hard to see it.
Scotstown have navigated choppy waters without so much as dipping a toe in dangerous tides. With the exception of Inniskeen, they’ve blown everyone away in the first 30 minutes.
Last year John McEntee’s side beat them in the group, they struggled with ‘Banty’s’ Corduff and they eventually shrugged off a battling Grattans in a superb final.
The general consensus in the county this year was if any side was to beat them internally, it was Inniskeen.
That ship has now sailed, and although the semi-final was a competitive affair, the result never really looked in doubt as the holders blew off some cobwebs following a month-long break.
So now Clontibret lie in wait preparing another ambush. Vinny Corey’s time in white and blue has passed, even a managerial stint, but still his words echo:
“What Clontibret’s going to turn up?”.
The Clontibret that found themselves in the relegation play-offs of this year’s league?
Or the Clontibret that turned over Inniskeen, and blitzed Killanny and Donaghmoyne?
The pitiful Clontibret of 11 years ago?
Or the glorious Clontibret of a decade ago?
Maybe Corey could be their JP Mone of 2024. Maybe Conor Boyle fancies more heroics. Maybe McManus can have another one of those days that he knows better than any.
They’ll need all of it and more.
But in that dressing room there is history and there is heritage as the flags hang proudly from the Braeside Stores to Castleshane Forest once again.
In that dressing room there are winners. In that dressing room there is no fear and there will be no fear. Not on any given Sunday and not on this Sunday of all Sundays.
And that’s a powerful thing as they plot the biggest ambush yet.