Making The Most Of Circumstances

Every Game An Away Game by Bluebeard

(first published in the May 2011 Monaghan United match programme)

In recent years we seem to have played Monaghan a ferocious amount of times. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that in recent years Monaghan seem to have been a tough prospect for us, thus forcing us to acknowledge our games against them in a way we have not had to for a time. And despite losing their excellent and highly respected manager Mick Cooke, they seem to be doing alright again this year – the seeds of his work continuing to bear fruit, bolstered no doubt by the arrival of their hugely experienced new boss.

What is most remarkable about Monaghan’s current team is how the club has risen to some prominence within the division, and that it appears to be sustaining this success. One must remember that this is a small club from a not particularly populous town in a county that too often has been forgotten. Monaghan Town was just over 6,000 large in the 2006 census, compared to Limerick’s 52,500. In the four seasons since then, Monaghan have moved gradually from the bottom 3 to the top 3, while Limerick slid from 4th to mid table. Indeed, looking back to last year, they also finished above prominent teams from Dublin and Cork.

One should contrast this with the supposed sustained success of Longford Town in the early part of the last decade. Commencing with the work of another excellent manager in Stephen Kenny, Longford seemed to have become an unshakeable, and somewhat ugly, member of the Premier Club. However, there were some factors that had a more significant impact on the development of Longford at the time than may be ordinarily recognized. Chiefly among these were the improvement of the N4 / M4 to Kinnegad – affording players who had their choice of a number of clubs to commute easily to Longford from Dublin as many of them would go on to do with Drogheda (if I recall correctly, of the 2004 team, only Alan Kirby and Sean Prunty lived in Longford); the western expansion of the commuter belt increasing the size of the town considerably between 1996 to 2006 – giving it a larger potential support base and making it a more attractive investment; and the co-incidence of these two factors with the economic bubble leading to money being available to spend on playing staff. When the bubble started to deflate in 2006/07, so did Longford.

Monaghan’s recent growth as a team shares some of these reasons. For one, the N2 is much better than it was, and the commute time is down to roughly an hour and a half, despite still being comparatively poor a road beyond Meath. Similarly too the town has grown somewhat over the past few years, though aside from the cross-border petrol trade, there is no economic bounce to boost the club.

A major factor that both Longford and Monaghan share – and one which has certainly aided both – is the absence of another major sporting team. Longford are never significant in the GAA for more than a month at most during the Summer, though regularly less than half a game, and are nothing in the Winter. Aside from the women, Monaghan’s Gaelic footballers have ultimately been nowhere since the ’80s, and for all anyone knows may all still have ridiculous quiffs and wear leg warmers under rah-rah skirts.

Ultimately Monaghan is doing well because they are an excellently run small club that operates within its own peculiar circumstances. One of the major factors, in my opinion, is the development of Gortakeegan and particularly the club bar. While not exactly Barcelona’s mini social empire, the club’s bar seems to be providing a very steady income, and something of a connection with the community, given so many events are held there. Building from this near guaranteed base funding, the club can make longer term plans that those of us who are reliant on attendance and on voluntary contributions cannot. And given that recent attendances this year are around the 260 mark, (according to one generally trustworthy source), any reliable source of additional income is welcomed.

Another club using maximizing the use of their ground is Dundalk. The Lilywhites took a dilapidated Oriel Park six years ago and dramatically revamped it, went for an all weather pitch, and overhauled the other facilities, significantly two of the lounges. Also of note is the Youth Development Complex, which held the European Senior Badminton Championships last year, and the development of another larger bar. These have all granted the club regular streams of income through pitch and facility rental, and the hosting of events – this weekend, they have the Snooker Legends tour in, preceding the Champions League Final, and should make a packet on that, as well as strengthen their standing in Dundalk. Considering what they were like in 2005, or worse still 2003, there has been a mighty turn around.

Sadly for us, while the idea of revamping the RSC and making it fit the Gortakeegan or Oriel model is desirable, it clearly is not possible currently: we are merely tenants. Their models are very much tailored to their situation, both sporting and geographical. The management of both Monaghan and Dundalk took a risk choosing to develop the grounds of struggling teams, risks that are currently paying off. These were both lengthy strategic plans, coupled with several other shorter term policies that have all combined to eventually bear fruit. Are they sustainable or not? We cannot tell yet. Longford took certain risks too, as did Drogheda, and right now these seem to have been unwise.

Thanks to the Management Committee here, we have stability for the first time in years. This must be our base point; we must always ensure that whatever else we have we maintain this stability as it is the first phase of a sustainable return to the top of Irish Football. This alone will not be enough to raise us from the First Division, but from this place of stability we can plan on developing further. Making any major progress will be a long and slow process, but identifying, exploiting and developing our unique circumstances will prove a vital, if difficult part.