Sharpshooter Conor McManus is still Monaghan’s ace
ONE OF THE BEST: Conor McManus of Monaghan celebrates. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
WITH Niall McNamee of Offaly set to get married on New Year’s Eve and his inter-county future still undecided, if he should go quietly into the night, it leaves Conor McManus as the longest man standing in intercounty football.
Already he holds that title in terms of unbroken service.
In January of this year, it became clear that the Stephen Cluxton era was over.
Ross Munnelly will not be back in 2023. It’s the same for Michael McCann and Cathal Cregg. Neil McGee’s race is ran. Brian Malone walked away in January. Paddy Cunningham said farewell to Antrim after this year’s Championship and Michael Murphy – most surprisingly – brought his Donegal devotion to a close.
Which leaves McManus, the lad who first played for Monaghan at wing-back and was later converted to becoming one of the sharpest shooters, potentially the longest-serving player in the game having turned 35 in early December.
“When you get to this stage of your career and this age, the thought comes over your mind as to how much longer this can happen,” he explains.
“But I never actually said to myself that I wasn’t coming back to Monaghan. I didn’t at all. And then I saw with Vinny (Corey) coming in, it eradicated any thought at all. I didn’t think it was going to happen anyway but when Vinny took the reins it pretty much settled me that I was going to stay.” For most players, the constant strain of training and keeping their body injury-free is the root cause of retirement. McManus has gone through his days of pain, when his hips left him wincing when climbing out of the car, but he retains the most important quality for continuing; hunger.
“I don’t see why not. If the body allows you and if you have the hunger, that wee bit of belief in your own ability, there is no reason you can’t.
“I suppose you give to Monaghan and it’s not for the next twelve months. We are training now a few weeks and it will all be over – win, lose or draw – by July time.
“It’s six months or your time. You don’t be dragged kicking and screaming to games. As long as you feel you can contribute.” There’s no doubt in his mind though, that the split season is not ideal for everyone. His club Clontibret exited the Monaghan Championship in late September, losing to Ballybay in the semi-final. But his own need to keep in condition has meant virtually no break.
He wonders what it all means for the players who go deep into the club Championships becoming victims of their own success?
“Look at the number of games David Clifford has played this year?” he pleads.
“It’s ok saying that he is 23 and he is able to do that. Any time at 23 is able to do that. But going forward, I don’t know if that is overly sustainable.” In general, and he knows he might be breaking ranks with the perceived consensus here among current players, but he’s not a fan of the split-season.
As a child, McManus was brought along to Clones to watch the genesis of the great Tyrone-Armagh rivalry at the start of the century, fought out in the Clones turf. Most of those games now are going to be crammed into an unforgiving schedule with little time to digest one game before the next one is up.
“We are playing the league and then out in the Championship one or two weeks later. We have gone from one extreme to another. I think we could have condensed it a wee bit without going over the top,” he believes.
“We could have a gap of three weeks or so. It’s gone from too much of a gap, to no gap at all and I don’t know if that is totally necessary. The Ulster Championship could have been run with two games each weekend.
“The intercounty season is gone now in July. We had been used to having a few weeks of a lead in to finals, to make an occasion of it. A spectacle. But now it is over in July and you open the window up to other sports.
“I am all for people to experience and play as many sports as they can, but we have opened our shop window to other sports.
“I am speaking as a club player. I have played for my club since I was 17 and I haven’t missed a Championship game for Clontibret yet. But people want to be fit to see the best footballers week-in, week-out on the TV. In August and September you want to be able to David Clifford and Shane Walsh or James McCarthy.” That all aside, he concedes that once Vinny Corey was confirmed as the Monaghan manager succeeding Seamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney, he would be devoting himself to his Clontibret clubmate.
“We would be very close. I have been playing with Vinny since I was 17 years of age and he is a few years older than me. Anything I have ever won in my career, he has been on the team,” he points out.
“So, we would be close, yeah. But it is a manager-player relationship now. And that’s where it is at. He has his job to do and I have my job to do. So it’s slightly different, but we still have a tight relationship.”
Last year was one of those bitty league campaigns that gnaws at a player.
He came on late against Tyrone having little training done and was immediately targeted by a succession of Red Hands players.
He started against Mayo and Armagh and was given a straight red card for an off the ball incident that was later – rightly – rescinded. In the second last league game against Kildare he tore his quad muscle and couldn’t play in the Jack McCarron masterclass that relegated Dublin.
Since winning promotion by beating Donegal in the 2014 Division Two final, Monaghan have been ever-present in the top flight. Most of McManus’ playing days have been spent among the most illustrious names in the game.
And yet, they win the games you don’t expect and have fallen into a bad habit of not being able to justify their favourites tag when it is deserved.
It’s a source of winter angst. But once they are on the pitch together, there is always the next ascent to tackle.
“You always feel you have the panel of players there. Have we performed as well as we should have done? Definitely not over the last couple of years,” says McManus.
“In saying that, we lost an Ulster final to Tyrone by a point. We lost to Derry this year by a couple of points and they went on to win the Ulster Championship and were in an All-Ireland semi-final.
“So when you look at it like that, you are not a million miles away but you can also say we are as far away as ever because you have to claw your way out of it.
“There are a few new faces in the dressing room there now. They will get their chance over the next few weeks and months and hopefully they can take their chance and strengthen the squad for the league and Championship.”
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