Gabriel Bannigan will manage Monaghan in the Dr McKenna Cup for the first time this weekend.
The 2025 All-Ireland quarter-finalists will travel to face Cavan on Saturday and will host Fermanagh on Sunday week. Beyond that? Who knows.
If Monaghan fails to make it through to the last four then that could very well be that for Bannigan in the near 100-year-old preseason competition.
Because when Congress rolls around at the end of February, the January tournament that regularly draws thousands to its games – almost 30,000 attended McKenna Cup games at the start of 2024 – may be chopped for good. Along with the rest of the GAA’s preseason competitions.
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The motion seeking to extend the footprint of the All-Ireland senior championships into August comes with the rider that preseason competitions at the other end of the season must go.
The Gaelic Players Association (GPA) aren’t wild about the extension into August but there’ll be no revolt, provided January competitions get the boot to allow for a full preseason training programme, away from competitive games, leading into the National League. Put plainly, scrapping the preseason competitions is a non-negotiable.
“I can understand where the GPA are coming from but in terms of preparing intercounty teams, I think the McKenna Cup is very, very important,” said Bannigan, speaking at the launch of the Bank of Ireland sponsored competition.
“I think you have to have a preseason competition before your National League. And I don’t think it’s that long. With the McKenna Cup, you’re only talking about two games for some teams, a maximum of four for the finalists. You’re going to be having challenge games anyway. So I definitely think there’s space in the programme for your McKenna Cup competition before your National League.”
[ Former Meath and Antrim manager Andy McEntee joins Monaghan’s backroom teamOpens in new window ]
The GPA has always rejected the “sure we’ll be playing challenge games anyway” argument. They maintain there’s a big difference between a challenge game and, say, tomorrow evening’s McKenna Cup opener between Tyrone and Armagh.
Back in 2006, almost 20,000 watched the same counties in that season’s McKenna Cup final. A crowd of between 5,000 and 10,000 this time wouldn’t surprise anyone.
That’s a big stage to perform on and, on the second day of January, there are obvious injury risks.
Still, from Monaghan’s perspective, Bannigan feels the games are vital. He’s without 14 players due to the retirements of Darren Hughes, Kieran Duffy and Karl O’Connell, injuries to the likes of Killian Lavelle, Bobby McCaul and Mick Hammill and the Scotstown contingent participating in the All-Ireland club series.
“That’s 14 of last year’s 26 that I’m starting the season without,” said Bannigan. “That’s the challenge. Now tell me that I don’t need the McKenna Cup! With all the new players that I need to look at, of course I need the McKenna Cup. I need those games, I need those opportunities, the players need those opportunities. Because we need to unearth some new faces for the season ahead.”
Intercounty teams have been permitted to train collectively since November 21st, affording them the six weeks that the GPA believes is vital before competitive games. Bannigan has an interesting take on that one too.
“It’s not really six weeks because what people must remember is that for intercounty players, they’re getting married in that period at the end of the year, at the end of the club season, which is in that six-week preseason time,” he said.
“We had three weddings and two stags, in those six weeks. If you think about our weekend preparation, because a good portion of the panel were involved in those events, we had small numbers at training.”
Monaghan’s last competitive game was over six months ago, the All-Ireland quarter-final loss to Donegal. They led that game by seven points at half-time and ultimately lost by six.
Bannigan identified the injuries that forced Ryan McAnespie and Conor McCarthy off in the second-half at Croke Park, as well as Gary Mohan’s fatigue after coming back from injury, as significant.
“We needed more legs, not less legs,” he said. “Our first-half performance versus our second-half performance was night and day. The challenge for us as a management team, and as a group of players, is to take the learnings from that and try to, if we get back to a big game like that this year, put two halves together, of the way we performed in the first half. And if we do that, we’ll give anyone a game.”
