McManus says Farney army will rise again
CONOR McMANUS is confident that Monaghan’s entire playing panel and management will remain in place for 2019 and that their patience will ultimately be rewarded.
Monaghan qualified for a first All-Ireland semi-final in 30 years this month having previously contested five quarter-finals since 2007 and lost the lot.
They came up a point short of Tyrone though instead of breaking up a core group of players that have soldiered together for years, McManus is confident the near miss will inspire them to come back stronger next year.
McManus, who has played for Monaghan since 2007, confirmed that he will be back for another season and that he expects all of his colleagues to join him along with manager Malachy O’Rourke.
‘Definitely, I’ll be back,’ said McManus. ‘Hopefully there are no changes of any sort and that we can bring a few young lads in and hopefully go again. That has to be the key.
‘You can look back at a lot of the successful teams over the years, the breakthrough doesn’t come in one, two, three, four or often five years even, it can take a lot more than that and this team has been knocking on the door a while now.
‘I feel as if we are playing as well as we ever played over the last six years under Malachy. If we can improve again who knows where next year could bring us?’
O’Rourke took over Monaghan in September 2012, making him the second longest serving intercounty football manager behind Mickey Harte. Jim Gavin took over Dublin a number of weeks after O’Rourke landed the Farney post.
McManus, picking up his PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month award for July, baulked at the suggestion that former Fermanagh manager O’Rourke might walk away over winter.
‘I can’t see any reason why he wouldn’t go again at this stage,’ said the International Rules star. ‘Obviously I can’t speak for Malachy but hopefully when we all meet up there will be no changes.
‘I haven’t spoken to him since the Tyrone game. I’ll probably speak to him this week at some stage. He would have been away on holidays there for a bit. He is a teacher so he would have jumped ship before going back to school so I will catch him soon.’
One thing Monaghan can take from 2018 is that they beat both Tyrone and Dublin, the two AllIreland finalists, in competitive games.
They were the only side to beat Dublin in either the National League or Championship, when they prevailed at Croke Park in the League, and also overcame Tyrone in the Ulster Championship.
They felt they were primed to take care of Tyrone again in the All-Ireland semi-finals but came up agonisingly short.
‘A chance missed, surely,’ said McManus. ‘There’s no doubt about that. We have been knocking on the door for a while now to get through to that semi-final and to press on to a final. We obviously didn’t quite do it but when you look at it objectively, you have to think that is where we are now, in that company.
‘That is where you belong and you just have to kick on and press on again next year. That has to be what you take out of this season. Yes, it’s a chance missed, and there is nothing you would like more than to be getting ready for an AllIreland final but that’s where you belong now and that’s the way to look at it going into 2019.’