Preview: Monaghan unlikely to stop determined Dubs

Monaghan have long been a byword for resilience and survival instinct but they've seriously pushed the boat out this year.

They've won just six out of 14 competitive games in 2023, only finished third in the All-Ireland group phase, have a negative score difference of -12 across the year and yet they're still alive. They're now preparing for their fifth All-Ireland semi-final appearance since 1979.

In the off-season, Monaghan were one of those counties that couldn't find a manager for a long time, alongside Donegal and Roscommon.

For a while, it appeared that every recently retired Dublin footballer had been tapped up.

It seemed that the prospective pool of managerial candidates had taken a look at Monaghan's general trajectory and decided they didn't fancy their chances.

County stalwart Vinny Corey was eventually appointed, the timing of which was taken by outsiders to mean 'we couldn't find anyone else.'

Most intriguingly, former GAA Director General Paraic Duffy, a selector under Sean McCague for the Ulster winning side of 1985, was drafted into his backroom team.

Only retired since 2019, Corey was at centre back the last time Monaghan reached this stage five years ago, which ended with an agonising one-point defeat to their old nemesis (well, every Ulster team's nemesis) Tyrone.

If the manager was too inexperienced, the consensus was that their best players were too old - Darren Hughes and Karl O'Connell are 36 and 35 respectively, while their greatest player Conor McManus is 36 and is now deployed as a 'finisher' in the modern lingo. Rory Beggan and Jack McCarron have also tipped into their early 30s.

At the beginning of the season, Monaghan were once again touted as the obvious candidates for relegation from Division 1,