McEneney: ‘We’re not in a position to be turning down the opportunity of medals’

Saying that it’s not the winning that counts, but the taking part, is a notion that we’ve all heard down the years.

For Monaghan, their Dr McKenna Cup campaign consisted of both, with Seamus McEnaney’s side winning Saturday night’s final against Donegal on a 1-11 to 0-13 scoreline, although it probably shouldn’t have been so close.

Monaghan led by nine points early in the second half, although when the dust settled, both McEnaney and his opposite number Declan Bonner would have at least been happy with the competitiveness the fixture offered. 

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“Monaghan is not in a position to be turning down the opportunity to be taking any medals or lifting any cups, its 19 years since we won the McKenna cup but the experience we got for 2022 has been fantastic for us, we played 32 players throughout the campaign,” the Monaghan manager said at Healy Park.

“We played 31 the first weekend, 25 on Tuesday and again tonight 24 players and it was about getting time into lads who can make a contribution next weekend and putting the test to them.

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Neil McGee, Hugh McFadden, Stephen McMenamin and Oisin Gallen have yet to see action in 2022.

"Obviously we’d be disappointed with how the last 20 minutes went but when you start putting in seven eight nine subs - you are trying to balance that with game time for players and trying to take out players who need rest after a full 75 minutes on Tuesday.

 “The level of intensity the game was played at in the first half and part of the second half would be pleasing for us but how it developed on wasn’t. But getting another game this week was brilliant for us, it’s better than playing an in house game or a challenge game, it was a competitive match against one of the best teams in Donegal.”