Conor McManus the best I’ve played with, declares Farney’s Dick Clerkin

Dick Clerkin has been knocking about Monaghan’s senior panel for 16 years and the veteran midfielder has little doubt that Conor McManus is the best player he has soldiered with in all that time.

It’s an eye-catching claim given, and not just the fact that he has been on the scene since the year before the millennium turned, but for the sheer volume of players who have worn the county jersey in that timeframe.

In recent years alone, Monaghan have benefited from the input of top-class forwards such as Tommy Freeman and Paul Finlay, but McManus has emerged in recent times as one of the most capable and consistent attackers on the inter-county scene.