LUCK OF THE DRAW

Monaghan need to find target against Kerry

COLM SHALVEY REPORTS

Monaghan face another serious test of their credentials when they welcome Kerry to Inniskeen this Sunday in the Allianz National Football League Division One. Having dug out a draw away to an in-form Armagh, Monaghan now face a Kerry side who have gone top of the league on score difference as they bid for a third consecutive title. It’s an unlikely renewal of rivalries for Séamus McEnaney in his second term with Monaghan and Jack O’Connor, who has returned to Kerry for a third stint in charge.

They first faced off in the inter-county arena all the way back in 2006, which O’Connor detailed as a turning point for the eventual All-Ireland champions in his 2007 biography Keys to the Kingdom: “Sometimes the things that turn a season are the things that nobody else sees… Four us this year (2006), I think that day will be the league game against Monaghan in Scotstown. The game brought back memories. You get an instinct. I got a feeling, driving to the ground in the morning.

Driving north on a dreary, miserable day. It was raining and when we got to Scotstown and looked at the place, I said to the lads that this was a cauldron. Eight thousand. Tight ground. “Before, in the dressing room, I told the lads it reminded me of being up in Kingscourt in Cavan in February 1997. On a bad, wet day, the ground in Kingscourt was heavy and we got out of there with a win… after coming from behind. Cavan had 16 wides. It turned our season. We believed….