Kevin McManamon: Prior Dublin success adds pressure on the team

KINGDOM SLAYER: Kevin McManamon scores the dramatic, and decisive, Dublin goal to edge the epic All-Ireland SFC semi-final in 2-13. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

As if it has to be said, cut open Kevin McManamon and he bleeds blue.

Dublin’s substitute extraordinaire wants his county to succeed. He was performance coach when Dessie Farrell led them to their last All-Ireland three years ago. He is now helping out U20 manager Jonny Cooper as forwards coach.

But as Dublin have struggled and failed to get past the All-Ireland quarter-final stage the last two years, the Waterford-based sports psychologist understands if what the eight-time All-Ireland winner and his team-mates achieved is being seen in a greater and fairer light. No longer are people looking for the county to be split. Financial doping has become an extinct phrase.

At the same time, McManamon appreciates the achievements under Jim Gavin and Farrell casts a shadow over the present-day team, so he doesn’t want to dwell too much on the past. But that money argument sure vexed him.

“I knew it was nonsense at the time and we were being baited. I remember going to one interview down in Carton House, and it was just about money. I remember fuming. So, that was the narrative that was kind of written, so I didn't really buy into it at the time.

“We were a really good team that came along together at the right time, we won a few All Irelands by a point, we drew two final so it could have been different, but we really had a really good few years.

“I don't have anything to say, because I know the team I was involved in adds a lot of pressure to the current team, so it is what it is. It was a few years.

“Dublin won one All Ireland in the 80s, one in the 90s, and zero in the decade after that, and we've already won two this decade, so all going well, we'll have maybe one or two more this decade.” 

McManamon recalls Dublin’s success bringing out the drama in some people. “It was a shortcut that people were making. Certain people were jumping on the bandwagon – people that I've never seen in a GAA press conference in my life – and then all of a sudden they were jumping on a bandwagon because Dublin were winning the All-Ireland. It was a bit dramatic. That was why I was calling bullshit on it at the time.

“Those guys (on that Dublin six-in-a-row team) were successful because of the effort that was going on around them. I don't think it was a money thing. Maybe the team not winning as many All-Irelands, that might draw more attention to the guys but that’s not the narrative I'd be writing.” 

Dublin’s surprise win over Roscommon last day out gives them a chance of avoiding the drop from Division 1. Saturday’s penultimate game against fellow strugglers Armagh is crucial.

McManamon worked with the set-up when they were last in Division 2 and it hardly hurt them. Still, it’s not something he would like to see happen again this year.

“I'm sure it would be a setback. It means you've lost five out of seven games or whatever it is. We won the All-Ireland from Division 2 in 2023, so it's not a death sentence. But I think Dublin need to be playing in Division 1 – Division 2 potentially for a year here and there over the next 20 years.

“I wouldn't be too stressed this year and where the team is at if they went down. I think they'll be fine in championship. I think the players that are there, they aren't a group of players that would let that affect them too much.” 

In his Laochra Gael to be screened on Thursday night, McManamon tells of how Gavin tried to assuage his discomfort with his substitute’s role. Gavin compared McManamon to a matador who came in to kill the bull after the clowns had tired out the animal.

“It wasn't about I had this conversation and I felt 10 feet tall, or anything like that,” he recalls. “I was just generally respected. So how did it make me feel? I remember I was just a bit like, ‘I know what you're doing here. You're not going to reverse 28 years of me being told, “If you start, you're good. If you don't start, you're not so good.”’ 

“But I have to say it was a bit like turning the Titanic slowly. You did believe it and you did support it. A lot of the encouragement I would have got was also from team-mates. So, like little conversations with lads going, ‘I know you don't like it, Kev, but like, jeez, it really helps when you come on.’” 

* “Laochra Gael – Kevin McManamon” will be shown on TG4 at 9.30pm tonight