Rory Beggan and Jack McCarron are edging ever closer to being the last men standing from Monaghan’s bountiful era of the early 2010s.
The perhaps double edged status comes about after former All Star Karl O’Connell became the latest decorated warrior from that era to inform manager Gabriel Bannigan his race at the highest level is run.
In that he joins – depending on how far back you want to go – Paul Finlay, Dick Clerkin, Darren Hughes, Conor McManus and one of the Wylie brothers – I will openly admit to not knowing which one – in adjourning to the easier paddocks of retirement.
O’Connell’s emancipation from top level football is another blow of sorts to the well travelled Bannigan. Though in fairness, he does find himself in a position many would consider to be enviable. After all, while Andy Moran has departed the Farney County setup to take the reins with his native Mayo – hard to know who to feel sorry for in that arranged marriage – there are few more experienced or battle hardened bastions of the side line than he who Bannigan has recruited to fill said void, Andy McEntee.
That, however, was only one piece of compensatory news for the man whose nephew Micheal will once again be a key operator, the other being the return of the other Karl, Gallagher, after his stint in Australian Rules Football came to an end.
One thing you can be sure of with those who represent that capital of mushroom production in this country, though, is that whoever fills the white and blue jerseys will be possessed of something, don’t ask me what because it’s indefinable, which you’d love your teams to be stocked with.
Whatever it is, you can be sure they will be every bit the potential banana skin they always are for those who cross their path.
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