By John Harrington

In 2018, Monaghan defender Ryan Wylie established himself as the best man-marker in the game.

In nine championship matches he conceded just five points from play to his direct opponents, while scoring one himself.

That statistic is even more impressive when you consider he was coming up against outstanding inside forwards like Paul Geaney, Ian Burke, Mark Bradley, Ross Munnelly, and Lee Brennan.

2018 All-Star Ian Burke was the only one of those five players who registered a score against Wylie, and that was just a single point.

It was no surprise then to hear that man-marking elite forwards is the sort of challenge that the Ballybay man relishes.

“It's great to be challenging yourself against the best in any walk of life,” said Wylie at the launch of the 2019 Allianz Football League.

“You always want to keep improving and the only way to improve is to be playing the best.

“They're the same as us. They're just another person - they have two arms, two legs like I do. Both of us just go out and the forward's job is to score and my job is to stop him scoring.

“One of us is going to lose out one way or another. It's a good old battle if you're marking somebody and their prime objective is to get a score.

“You get a few tasty battles during the year - that's the exciting thing about it.”

Maybe Wylie likes a ‘tasty battle’ because he found himself in plenty of them growing up in Ballybay.

His older brothers Drew and Brent weren’t inclined to take it easy on him when a ball was thrown in between them, and next door neighbour Paul Finlay wasn’t much more charitable.

“Jesus, I used to be battered and if you went down and somebody called a free, you wouldn’t be happy but that’d be it,” said Wylie.

“Ah sure, it didn’t do me any harm I suppose.

“When you have a couple of older brothers, you can’t be seen crying to Mom or Dad so you just have to take it.

“There was a few injuries out the backyard but nothing serious, it was good craic. They’re the days you want to get back actually!

“Some craic, we have a good few neighbours and we’d all come together, playing games of soccer and gaelic.

“The Finlays were next door, there’s a good few of the Ballybay team along our row but we had good craic growing up.”

You get the feeling that a childhood of having to pick himself up and dust himself down made an indelible impact on Wylie’s personality.

He’s the sort of character who likes to keep on keeping on, and is never inclined to feel too sorry for himself whatever the circumstances.

He works as a radiographer in Mater Hospital which isn’t a job that exactly lends itself to playing inter-county football, especially when you combine long hours and the occasional night-shift with a lengthy drive to and from inter-county training sessions back in Monaghan.

He has to make more sacrifices than many to play for his county, but he’s not complaining.

“That’s just the way it is and there’s no point complaining about it, it’s not going to change,” he said.

“The road from Monaghan to Dublin is not going to get any shorter! I’ve been doing it since 2013 so I’m used to it now, it’s part of my week.

“If you want to find it tough, it will be tough. You just base your week and month on a bit more preparation. That's nearly helping me as well.

“You're nearly more prepared for the week and month. You know what's ahead of you and you base your training all around it. It's grand.

“I'm sure there's loads of other players around the country with tougher jobs. To be honest, personally, it's grand. I get on with it just fine.

“There's the odd time that I'm not able to make training or I'm missing something. In fairness, Malachy's very good. He understands.

“He knows everything that's going on. He'd know that I wouldn't be one to miss it [training] because you're lying up at home. He knows I have a genuine reason.

“He knows that I'd get the work done. He's very accommodating, in fairness. It helps out that way.”

All the effort is worth it when the big matches come around, and they don’t come much bigger than Monaghan’s Allianz Football League Round 1 clash against Dublin on January 27.

Considering he’s a man who relishes a challenge, you won’t be surprised to hear Wylie is already looking forward to testing himself against the reigning Allianz League and All-Ireland champions.

“Definitely,” he said. “The All-Ireland champions for the last four times in a row coming to your home patch, it's always a special feeling.

“Dublin always bring so much support with them. Hopefully, as well, we'll have a decent crowd of Monaghan supporters. I don't think there's a better ground, personally, than Clones when it's full.

“I know they're on about maybe moving the Ulster final but Clones has something special about it. All big games, especially the Kerry game last year, there's just something about it.

“I'm really looking forward to it, just to get the whole thing back underway. It's been a long winter.”