Former Donegal captain Barry Monaghan has urged the county to be ‘sensible’ in the wake of last night’s heavy defeat to Galway.
The Four Masters man – who represented Donegal 117 times, including 42 Championship games – was among the big Donegal crowd at Markievicz Park, where the season unravelled in a 4-17 to 0-14 loss to Galway.
“Everyone is very raw now,” Monaghan told Charlie Collins following Four Masters’ Division 1 defeat to Milford at Moyle View Park today.
“Everyone now has an opinion and everyone knows where we went wrong.
Donegal have been spoiled for the last seven years, when we’ve been competing at a very high level.
“Players just run out of gas sometimes. I know we had a good League, but maybe it was a false dawn.”
Monaghan knows all about the flak that comes from defeats like last night, but says that some of the criticism has been over the top.
Monaghan played under the likes of Brian McIver, who was forced out of the county in 2008, John Joe Doherty, Mickey Moran, Brian McIver and Declan Bonner, all of whom felt the heavy pang of defeat at times.
Now, Rory Gallagher is the man in the firing line and Monaghan said: “Rory is the manager and the finger will be pointed at him. That’s not necessarily too fair either.
“It’s a case of we’re not at the top table anymore and we need to accept that and go back to rebuild.
“Everyone has to be sensible. We can all point fingers and blame someone, but they’ll take on that. They had all the accolades when things were going well, which is fair enough as well. When you’re representing Donegal, you’re there to be shot at. You have to be prepared to take the stick and the boys have all got broad shoulders.”
Monaghan insists that it’s not all doom and gloom, however.
He said: “I do think there is some great talent in the county ready to be pushed forward. They’re very young and it’s the first year on the panel for a lot of them.
“ No-one will like the manner of the defeat, especially the players and management. Time will go by, they’ll get back to the clubs and get backed renewed again. It is a rebuilding process though and it might take a couple of years.”
Listen to the full interview below …
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