ALLIANZ HURLING LEAGUE DIVISION 3A.
Monaghan 2-10, Tyrone 1-13.
The hurling renaissance is under way as a hugely resilient and spirited Monaghan staged an increasingly effective second-half performance to take a share of the spoils against Tyrone in this opening round game in Division 3A of the Allianz Hurling League in Healy Park, Omagh on Sunday last. A point was no more than Monaghan deserved and in fact had they capitalised on a couple of late chances, two from frees, they could have snatched a dramatic victory. Dwelling on that though would be to take away from this spirited performance against the Division 3B winners and Rackard Cup champions of 2014, who would be regarded as being further along the development road than Monaghan who only had a mere two weeks to prepare for this opening engagement. Monaghan were also forced to make a number of late changes with Deaglan Crowe and Fergal Rafter unable to start while Mark Treanor and Padraig Dowdall were both ruled out completely. The home side though with Damien Casey pulling most of the strings had the better of the exchanges in the opening half although Peter Treanor who was switched to police the Tyrone danger man during the first half limited his influence increasingly as the game wore on. Tyrone led at half-time by five points, 1-10 to 1-5 but can hardly have been prepared for the Monaghan resurgence that hit them in tidal waves in the second-half. Ten minutes after the resumption Monaghan actually took the lead, hitting an unanswered 1-3 in that opening period, Tony Forde with his second goal, and from there to the finish it was nip and tuck with the home side not allowed any time or space on the ball as Monaghan chased and harried, hooked and blocked and while some aspects of their game were a little ring rusty their passion and commitment could not be questioned. With eleven minutes of normal time remaining Tyrone took a one point lead through Conor Grogan but they were clinging on approaching the end as Monaghan battled to the very finish and overall a draw was probably a fair enough result. Teams and Scorers: Monaghan: Hugh Byrne 0-1 (p), Kevin Crawley, Patrick Finnegan, Cormac McNally, Aaron Kenny, Peter Treanor, Conor McKenna, Eanna MacSuibhne, Brian Flanagan, Niall Garland 0-1, Ronan Meegan 0-4 (3f), Stephen Lambe 0-3 (0-1’65), Tony Forde 2-0, Ronan Curran 0-1, Martin Murphy. Subs: Deaglan Crowe for K Crawley, Aonghus MacSuibhne for E MacSuibhne, Fergal O’Dowd for A MacSuibhne, Fergal Rafter for R Curran.
Tyrone: John Devlin, Conor McNally, Jason Kelly, Conor Casey, Padraig McHugh, Dermot Begley, Tiernan Morgan, Chris Cross, Aidan Kelly 0-3, Conor Grogan 0-2, Sean Og Grogan 0-1, Gerard Gilmore, Matthew Mulgrew, Damien Casey 1-7 (1-4f), Ciaran McCrudden. Subs: Mike O’Gorman for C Casey, Ricky Kelly for C McCrudden, Darragh Grogan for G Gilmore. Referee: James Clarke (Cavan).
By Majella Boyd Sun 15th Feb
