By Cian O'Connell

Monaghan manager Malachy O'Rourke that this defeat would be classed in the harrowing category. So near, but yet so far from September football.

A rollicking Monaghan adventure ended at Croke Park, but O'Rourke's team contributed immensely once more.

"Look, all the defeats are hard," O'Rourke responded when asked was it the hardest of them all to take. 

"At different times, and there is different contexts. It was such a massive day for the lads, for the whole county, to be in an All-Ireland final. 

"I didn’t think we played our best football, but the character of the team – they just refused to go away. Kept battling back. That’s what makes it so disappointing.

"There was a chance there to go in to the All-Ireland final for the first time -for everybody involved, the 36 lads who have committed so much to it, it would have been a great thing. That’s football. You have to take it."

How Monaghan continued to battle back throughout the game was admirable, but they still came up short. "Seriously disappointing," O'Rourke admitted.

"Just the boys showed the character - we knew they would. They kept coming back, we probably played better than this year we did today, but even that second half it took us a while to get going but the boys battled for every ball.

"We got ourselves a point ahead, we were in a good position, Tyrone got a goal and even the goal we got Darren made a diving block, Walshie was there as well it just rolled out and Niall Sludden put it away, but even when we were down two points again

"The boys refused to give in we kept battling back even in the second half and we were on the front foot." Tyrone, though, held out to set up a September 2 meeting against Dublin.