Kevin McManamon says training performance dictates selection

Leinster SFC final

There’s a running joke within Leinster football circles that the toughest game of football Dublin get within their province each year is from their B team in training.

Results would suggest it may not be too far from the truth with Jim Gavin’s side winning eight of their last nine provincial championship games by double digit margins.

In that period, stretching back to the beginning of the 2013 campaign, Dublin’s average winning score has been 16 points.

Against that background, Gavin has unsurprisingly looked to his A versus B games for real intensity, the sort that will sustain them in bigger games down the line. As a sweetener, he makes it clear to players that whoever performs well in those matches will get a jersey on Championship day.

“That’s basically it,” said Kevin McManamon.

“I remember saying last year to someone after the Leinster final, and I’d had a good game against Meath, that there was a chance I wasn’t going to play in the All-Ireland quarter-final.

People were laughing at me, but it’s true. You have to perform week in week out in training and in those games and that’s the only way to pick a team.

In fairness to Jim, he says at the start of each year that it’s how he’s going to do it, it’s how he’s going to pick his team, on form, and he’s been consistent.

“I respect that, a lot of players do, and it kind of adds that bit of pressure to perform on a Sunday morning when no-one’s watching, just as much as when there’s 40,000 or 50,000 people there.”

Gavin is ultimately looking to the bigger picture of the All-Ireland series when, he hopes, his team’s keen edge won’t have been dulled by another canter through Leinster.

McManamon is content that Dublin are a better team and doesn’t subscribe to the theory that overhaul was necessary after being methodically picked apart by Donegal in last year’s All-Ireland semi-finals.

“For me, the players came up with a game-plan in tandem with the management and we stuck to it for 25 minutes that day and in patches of the second-half,” said the goal poaching forward. “I still think had we stuck with it, we would have won the game.

“So I would be reluctant to really have a go at the system. Players are out on the pitch, players need to be reacting to these things. At the end of the day it was clever tactical moves by Donegal but we still didn’t do what we said we’d do.

“What we said in the calm of the meeting room and then what we did in the heat of the battle (were different).”

Asked if he’s confident such a defeat won’t happen again, McManamon shrugged.

“I wouldn’t say that. I just think we have gotten more variety in our play. I think if we were to meet a team with a similar plan we would be able to deal with it a little better. Instead of losing by six points, we would be closer.

“That’s what I think and we have tried to add a few things to our game-plan as well. So yeah, I think we are better equipped.”

Westmeath captain Ger Egan has already made it clear that they will go toe to toe with Dublin during Sunday’s Leinster final which means the holders are unlikely to be asked the same sort of questions posed by Donegal. McManamon maintained they can only engage with what is front of them though he admitted he suspected it would be Meath they would be facing.

“I probably left the stand with about 45-50 minutes gone in their semi-final match because it was before ours and I think Meath were seven, eight or even nine points up at that stage.

“I have to admit that when I got brought off in our game itself and I then heard people behind me shouting, ‘Up Westmeath!’ I was a bit surprised. But look, people might have jumped into it thinking that Meath were a shoe-in to win that game. Westmeath’s experiences over the last few years would have stood to them, the likes of playing in Division 1 last year.

“I think they were kind of slowly waiting for us. I know they stumbled with one or two inconsistent games during the league but it was a big performance from them and they’re here on merit. We’ll see what happens.”