ANDY MORAN’S most visible outing in the colours of Monaghan came on a murky Saturday night at the end of June last year.
He was the team’s coach under the management of Gabriel Bannigan, and Moran sparked with energy in the warm-ups and along the sideline during the game.
Monaghan played brilliantly for long stretches of the game, leading by seven points at half time and giving Donegal a proper scare, before eventually losing to the favourites by six points.
That was Moran’s last involvement with the team, a single season in which he made a big impact and was popular with the players.
Monaghan’s proficiency in two-pointers was credited to Moran’s coaching, and they kicked five in that match against Donegal, with the winners managing two.
Think tank: Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan (left) and selector Andy Moran before the Allianz Football League Division 2 match between Roscommon and Monaghan last year
The improvement in Mayo’s poor record from two-point shooting was one of the big takeaways from their league campaign, with Moran’s influence in that area apparently evident in his native county now.
But in their miserable defeat to Roscommon in the Connacht semi-final, Mayo managed just two two-pointers, both from frees, and long before the end of that game, Moran looked spent on the sideline.
There was none of the windmilling energy that has characterised his move into management, and which was urging on the Monaghan players in Croke Park almost a year ago.
Monaghan, meanwhile, after a spring of unremitting misery, have not only rebounded in the championship, but have shown an attacking verve and an expertise in long-distance shooting that makes them deadly dangerous opposition for Moran’s Mayo visitors this Sunday afternoon.
Not only have they survived the departure of Moran, but the quality of their attacking play points to the coaching influence of Bannigan that has probably been under-appreciated.
Comeback: Tensions run high at the end of Monaghan’s clash with Derry at the start of May
They have played three championship matches so far this season, defeating Cavan, shocking Derry with their brilliant comeback in the Ulster semi-final, and then losing the provincial decider to Armagh after extra time.
The quality of their scoring has been a consistent feature in all three matches, even in the defeat to Armagh.
Take two-pointers again as a measure: they have scored 14 across those three games, while their opponents have scored five.
They out-gunned Cavan 3-2 on that score and then blitzed Derry 7-1. Long-range scores were the difference in that match, from Jack McCarron’s all-timer of a free from the sideline to force extra time, to the mighty Rory Beggan winning the game with a two-pointer.
In the Ulster final, they scored four to Armagh’s one.
It wasn’t enough to get them across the line in that game, but that they were competing against one of the best teams in the country in the first place, as they did against Donegal in an All-Ireland quarter-final, is because they identified an advantage and have worked hard to maximise it.
Hats off to him: Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan celebrates the win over Derry
Beggan is a remarkable weapon from distance, mostly from placed balls but occasionally in play, too. He led the two-pointer scoring charts for 2025, across league and championship.
Beggan finished the season with 25 two-pointers to his name, ahead of attackers renowned for their kicking from distance like Shane Walsh of Galway, Down’s Pat Havern, Sam Mulroy of Louth and Luke Loughlin of Westmeath.
One of his best came in that Donegal match, with a swerving two-pointer after the buzzer to give Monaghan that seven-point lead at the break.
There’s no weapon like him in the game, and Bannigan uses him accordingly.
But Monaghan have other players that have shown themselves accomplished from a long way out. McCarron, Dessie Ward, Andrew Woods and Stephen O’Hanlon have all been accurate from distance as well.
Marginal gains is the pursuit of any possible advantage that helps an individual or a team to succeed, but there is nothing marginal about trying to work opportunities that can bring such big rewards.
It is an example, though, of a manager understanding the strengths of the squad at his disposal and planning accordingly – a sensible approach that isn’t as common as many think.
And it was just one part of their game that was handicapped by a wretched run of injuries during the league.
They went down with seven defeats from seven matches, and a scoring difference of minus 67.
That experience was an illustration of what happens when a squad drawn from a relatively small playing pool is hit by fitness issues.
Bannigan gave 16 players debuts, a figure which would be remarkably high in a superpower county like Kerry or Dublin; when the manager of Monaghan has to do it, then difficulties are bound to follow.
Finding a way: Conor McCarthy of Monaghan passes the ball under pressure against Armagh
Twenty of the players that helped Monaghan win promotion from Division Two last year were unavailable at different times.
On top of this, he was dealing with the departure of a popular coach in Moran, drafting in former Meath and Antrim manager Andy McEntee to help fill the gap.
‘When you’re blooding as many new players as we were, I felt for them because they’re great lads,’ Bannigan said of the league campaign.
‘All of them would have benefited so much from having more of the experience around them.’
By the start of the championship, sick bay was beginning to empty, and Bannigan was able to pick close to the team that ran Donegal so close ten months earlier.
That was a match fraught with danger against local rivals. If it was no surprise to see them come through that, they weren’t fancied to beat Derry in the Athletic Grounds in the semi-finals, and certainly not when they trailed by 10 points at half time.
Even Beggan was suffering as Derry’s sky-scraping middle-third players feasted on his kick-outs. Derry actually stretched their lead to 12 in the second half, but Monaghan’s recovery, even before McCarron’s equaliser, was invigorating.
They shot four two-pointers, perfectly illustrating how the scoring option has changed the meaning of big leads in football.
If Derry thought they were half-way to the final, they didn’t count on Monaghan’s accuracy – or their spirit.
Because when they tumbled out of Division One at the end of March, they looked a beleaguered team, and given the run of wearying defeats they suffered, there were questions about morale.
They were answered over an Ulster campaign that, if it ended in disappointment, also provided reasons to be cheerful.
And it also showed that Andy Moran’s loss wasn’t the grievous blow some might have suspected.
Gabriel Bannigan was underrated last season, Monaghan’s run attributed to the influence of a big-name coach.
The way he has brought this group back into contention shows otherwise.
Moran wouldn’t have needed reminding of the qualities of his opposite number this weekend.
And as he brings a fragile Mayo to St Tiernach’s Park, he will know that real danger lurks within the picture-postcard setting.
