The Monaghan side have won 10 county titles since 2013 and take on Down champions Kilcoo in this weekend’s Ulster Club SFC final
Ulster Club SFC final: Kilcoo (Down) vs Scotstown (Monaghan) (Saturday, 6.15pm, Box-It Athletic Grounds, live on TG4)
Scotstown is to Monaghan what Kilcoo is to Down. Both are the dominant forces in their respective counties, albeit Scotstown’s recent run of success hasn’t been as sequential as Kilcoo’s.
Still, 10 county titles since 2013 is an impressive achievement when you consider that they also reached the final in the three years when Clontibret (2014 and 2019) and Ballybay (2022) emerged victorious.
That 2013 season is when it all changed for An Bhoth. They’d won 14 Monaghan titles and four Ulster Club titles up until 1993. They’d gone 20 years without silverware before former Tyrone star Mattie McGleenan came on board.
Their current manager played under McGleenan and David McCague says he changed the culture at the club and helped them return to the pinnacle of Monaghan club football.
“We weren’t really serious about our football. We weren’t living the lifestyle of winners and that changed,” said McCague.
“Give credit to Mattie McGleenan who came in at the end of 2012. Mattie introduced a new regime and high levels of discipline and commitment, and that really set us on a different path. I give him great credit for that.
“And it wasn’t easy on him at times and some of us weren’t particularly easy on him at times in terms of maybe how we responded to him.
“I think it just showed us a different way of preparing and a different way of living that has maybe transformed the culture of the senior team. Obviously, that’s paying dividends now.”
He added: “And great credit has to go to the likes of Donal Morgan and people like that, who around the time of maybe 2011, 2012, weren’t particularly happy with how we were going and were really honest with ourselves in terms of the effort we were making as players at that time.
“Donal he was back in our managing team this year after retiring last year and he’s added a huge amount to the experience of those younger players in setting the norms of the culture that exists within the squad.”
While McGleenan helped bring back the glory days at county Championship level, the goal for McCague’s charges this weekend is to bring the Seamus McFerran Cup back to the north Monaghan side for the first time since 1989.
Scotstown have lost three provincial finals since 2015 and they were thumped by Kilcoo at the semi-final stage last season, losing 5-10 to 0-14 at the Box-It Athletic Grounds.
The sides return to the Armagh City venue on Saturday evening with the Ulster Club title on the line.
McCague says that Gaelic football is essentially a new game, therefore, they won’t dwell too much on the mistakes of last year’s loss to the Magpies as they look to claim a fifth Ulster crown.
“Legacy is part of that culture as well – it’s a very positive one for us and gives us something to aspire to,” said McCague.
“My father played in 1979, was in the squad in 1979, and that’s a famous day in our club. That’s something that’s driving every generation of Scotstown players, to emulate those men and their achievements. I think it’s fantastic that we have that legacy to live up to and aspire to and we’re doing that every day. I think we’re very lucky to have that tradition.”
On last year’s defeat to the Down kingpins, he states: “I think the new rules have added a different dimension to the game. I love my football. I could watch football all day and all night if time allowed.
“But I think there’s a stark contrast in the game now, and the game as it was 12 months ago.
“The games I’ll be focussing on is the game in 2025, and not the game as it was in 2024 really.
“There’s definitely elements that we can learn from, that we can use in our preparation to be better.
“We always ask the question at every training session, how can we improve? Be that from the previous training session or the previous game, that’s where the focus will be.”
