All-Ireland SFC Round 3: Monaghan 1-28 (1-5-18) Westmeath 2-19 (2-2-15)
Both sets of players were swarmed by their supporters at the final whistle. As Monaghan fans congratulated their team for making it to All-Ireland quarter-finals, Westmeath supporters acknowledged their players for the summer they had given the county.
The outcome in Clones had looked predictable with about 15 minutes remaining as Monaghan opened an eight-point advantage over the Leinster champions.
The sides had been tied at the break, but in the third quarter Monaghan dictated the terms of engagement, dominating the kick-out battle and using their pace to burn holes through the Westmeath defence.
They also made a couple of positional tweaks that nullified Westmeath’s main threats. Matthew Whittaker had scored 1-2 in the first half while Brandon Kelly registered 1-3 – neither added to their tallies after the break.
RM Block
With Oisín McGorman tagging Whittaker, Westmeath lost their main wide-attacking threat, while at the other end of the field the Lake County couldn’t get a handle on Stephen O’Hanlon’s blistering pace.
“There is no doubt in my head we were beaten by the better team today, so it’s not what might have been, Monaghan deserved the victory today,” said Westmeath manager Mark McHugh.
“They have a lot of pace. O’Hanlon caused us a lot of bother. We tried three different men on him but we just couldn’t get a handle on him. The day it was and the way the game was, how open it was, it just allowed him to run down the middle.”
Jack McCarron continues to enjoy one of the best seasons of his storied career, producing another brilliant display here. He finished with 1-5 and his second-half goal was deliciously caressed inside James Mitchell’s near post.
Rory Beggan was faultless from placed balls and scored three two-point frees in the first half.
Indeed, playing with the aid of the breeze in the first half, Monaghan scored five two-pointers, whereas Westmeath could only managed two orange flags over the 70 minutes.
Beggan was taken off in the closing stages, but manager Gabriel Bannigan was quick to play down any fears the goalkeeper could miss next weekend’s All-Ireland quarter-final.
“Rory picked up a knock in the first half, a bad dead leg, and we wanted to see how he’d go in the start of the second half,” said Bannigan.
“We told him not to come up for the frees, just focus on goalkeeping and the kick-outs and continue to produce the goods on that.
“And then there were a couple of high balls coming in from Westmeath that he had to deal with, and he took a couple more hits, so it was a pure precautionary (substitution), we wanted to get him off.”
Beggan had a 100-per-cent retention rate of his kick-outs in the second half – a crucial factor in the winning of the game as Westmeath couldn’t break the home side’s restarts, while also losing nine of their own 18 kick-outs after the break.
“We wouldn’t have been happy at half-time with the amount of breaking ball that Westmeath were winning off us, but we certainly improved a lot in that area in the second half,” Bannigan added.
Westmeath, who had lost to Galway last weekend, handed Mitchell his championship debut between the posts here and both teams made positional switches from the off in front of 21,673 spectators at a sun-drenched St Tiarnach’s Park.
Ryan O’Toole dropped back to pick up John Heslin, while Conor Dillon was initially given the job of marshalling McCarron.
Whittaker moving to wing forward created a battle between the two number sevens, with Conor McCarthy sharing that section of the field with the creative Westmeath man.
Whittaker raced through in the 20th minute for the game’s opening goal before Kelly capitalised on a mistake in the Monaghan defence to make it 2-7 to 0-13 just shy of the half-hour mark.
Monaghan’s ability to hit two-pointers kept nudging them in front, and Beggan sailed over his third of the half moments later. But scores from Kevin O’Sullivan and Kelly sent the sides in level at the break, 2-9 to 0-15.
Robbie Forde edged Westmeath ahead at the start of the second half, but over the next 15 minutes Monaghan outscored the visitors 0-7 to 0-3.
McCarron’s pivotal goal came in the 53rd minute following a 1986 World Cup Maradona-esque run by O’Hanlon, who jinked and wove his way through the Westmeath defence before offloading to his team-mate for the finish.
Monaghan now await Monday morning’s draw to learn who they will face in a quarter-final next weekend. For Westmeath, their season is over, but the trophy cabinet proudly displays the Delaney Cup.
“Credit to the Westmeath supporters and the Westmeath people,” said McHugh, acknowledging the large travelling support in Clones. “They have really backed us this year, we really appreciate that.
“They are out there thanking us, but we should really be out there thanking them because we wouldn’t have won Leinster without them, and we probably wouldn’t have beat Cavan without them.
“It has been a joy to be involved in this group over the past few months.”
MONAGHAN: R Beggan (0-3-0, 3tpf); R O’Toole, R Wylie, D Byrne; D Ward (0-0-2), K Lavelle, C McCarthy (0-0-1); M McCarville (0-1-0), K Gallagher; A Carey, M Bannigan (0-0-3f), S O’Hanlon (0-0-3); J McCarron (1-0-5), A Woods (0-1-0), S Mooney (0-0-3). Subs: O McGorman for Gallagher (23 mins), D Garland (0-0-1) for Woods (52), R McAnespie for McGorman, K Mulligan for Beggan (both 67), R Hanratty for Lavelle (68).
WESTMEATH: J Mitchell; A Treanor, C Drumm, C Dillon; R Wallace (0-1-2, 1′45, 1tpf), S Allen, T Baker (0-0-1); B Cooney, S Ormsby; M Whittaker (1-0-2), S McCartan (0-0-1), K O’Sullivan (0-0-1); J Heslin (0-0-2), S Baker, B Kelly (1-0-3). Subs: R Forde (0-0-2) for Cooney (25 mins), S Corcoran (0-1-1) for S Baker (46), R Connellan for Heslin (54), J Duncan for O’Sullivan (55), D Scahill for Treanor (60).
Referee: Noel Mooney (Cavan).
