Before the game, I mentioned Monaghan's defensive record this season and compared it with our own. We had been miles superior. Off the back of this, I reasoned that it might be wise to play to this seemingly obvious advantage - at least in this particular fixture.
I think the management may have been of similar mind, and I can't really fault the rationale nor the approach. Had a ball or two bounced more kindly for us at the death, as they did two weeks earlier against Galway, then we'd all have been heading up the road happy.
All that said, the inability, or refusal, to break from this caution when gifted the advantage of an extra man was just mind-blowing. We had been, as usual, very defensively solid at 15v15, so why was it thought that our spare man would be best utilised as yet another sweeper? What benefit did we gain from this approach? Why was this not the moment to commit the extra body to press the Monaghan possession higher up the pitch? These are the questions for which I would love answers.
I really don't think I've ever watched a more frustrating 10 minutes of football - it was like a slow motion car crash watching that incredible advantage being pissed away. It was just so obvious that the game was there to be won in those moments, but that fear and doubt were winning instead.