Ulster SFC: Monaghan dedicate victory to Under-20 captain Brendan Og Duffy
- Published
Brendan Og Duffy had captained Monaghan to the Under-20 Ulster Championship final just hours before his death
Monaghan manager Seamus McEnaney has paid tribute to the county's Under-20 captain Brendan Og Duffy, who was killed in a car crash on Friday.
The 19-year-old had helped Monaghan beat Donegal in the Ulster Under-20 semi-final earlier that evening.
Monaghan fought back to beat Armagh in the closing moments of Saturday's semi-final to reach a first senior Ulster decider since 2015.
"My overriding emotion is sadness. It's devastating," said McEnaney.
"Brendan Og was my captain in 2018 when we won the Ulster Minor Championship and only those who have a captain-manager relationship can understand it.
"The trust, the loyalty and the love that was there - for me personally it is devastating."
In a thrilling encounter at Pairc Esler, which went ahead with a sombre backdrop following Duffy's death, Monaghan scored four first-half goals to race into the lead against highly-fancied Armagh.
Kieran McGeeney's men fought back from an eight point deficit to lead with five minutes to play, but two late points from Conor McManus and Stephen O'Hanlon's score helped Monaghan to a two-point victory.
Several Monaghan players were visibly emotional after the full-time whistle and McEnaney dedicated the victory to the Duffy and his family, describing Brendan as a "fabulous young man with a fabulous future ahead of him".
"In 2018, I let the players pick him as captain. Out of a 30-man panel, this is how highly he was thought of, he had 24 votes out of 30.
"It's devastating for his family. We also lost our main sponsor during the week, Philip Traynor.
"Not only have we lost a supporter, a financial supporter, I have lost one of my best friends."
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In the circumstances, McEnaney said he was pleased with his side's effort and added Armagh have "some serious talent".
"I expected them to respond and we worked really hard for today's game," he said.
"We even spoke about it at half-time, we knew this would go to the end and could go to extra-time. We would have been glad to get to extra-time with five minutes to go.
"I didn't have to build any leaders because they were already there. Cometh the hour, cometh the men. When we needed scores they stepped up and done it for us."
Monaghan captain Ryan Wylie said he was "lost for words" when he found out that Duffy had lost his life.
"It was incredibly difficult, I woke up this morning to the news and my heart sank," he said.
"When you see things like that, a young lad at the peak of his powers just after a great game and win, then everything just changes. It was great to get the result, but it is irrelevant and it puts everything in perspective.
"We gathered this morning and we were thinking of him. The last five minutes, that's the way Brendan Og would have played, with heart, and that was for him."
Should the game have gone ahead?
Prior to the match, All-Ireland winner and BBC pundit Oisin McConville questioned the decision for the match to go ahead following the death of Duffy.
"There's no right or wrong decision as to whether the game goes ahead. The decision has to be taken out of players' hands. You don't know how you are going to feel until you get out on the pitch," said McConville.
"Sport is an emotional thing and nobody wants to take that emotion away, but in circumstances like this, to ask players if they want to play, of course they are going to say yes.
"What would be wrong with giving these lads a week to take stock and go again when things are a little bit clearer in their minds?"
'Cometh the hour, cometh the men' - McEnaney on emotional win over Armagh
Following Monaghan's victory, McEnaney said his side were not given the option to push the game back to next weekend.
"We were never offered the opportunity and it was never mentioned. We had to go ahead with the game, that was my reading of the situation," he said.
"We had to park the emotion. We talked about it at our team meeting. I worked really hard on myself this morning to get ready for the team meeting because I had to be loyal to this group of players.
"I dealt with that early this morning to get ready for today's game. We had to focus on the job at hand today."
Wylie added: "Nobody came to us about the game. It was difficult, but if Brendan Og was in the same shoes he would want to go out and represent Monaghan with all his heart."