Unsung hero Ross has been a rock in Laois’ good times.. & in their dark days
ANOTHER Sunday, another 35-year-old making his 74th senior Championship appearance.
You couldn’t begrudge Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh any of the plaudits following his record-breaking milestone with Waterford but Ross Munnelly’s longevity with Laois footballers is arguably even more remarkable.
For the majority of Brick’s career, he could realistically aspire to provincial and All-ireland honours.
Munnelly would have had similar ambitions in his early years – and with fairly good reason – though they have long since burned out.
And while Laois have shown marked improvement this year to be back in a Leinster final for the first time in 11 years, nobody expects that Munnelly will be collecting a second provincial medal at Dublin’s expense.
His first was won in his debut season of 2003, when he emerged as a pacey wing-forward with a deadly left foot. His 73 appearances place him 11th on the all-time list and al- though he won’t be catching Stephen Cluxton – currently on 93 – before he retires, he could move up to seventh by the end of this Championship.
All of the players in and around him have multiple All-ireland medals with the exception of Andy Moran on 74, though he’s been fuelled by Mayo’s repeated September near-misses.
Munnelly has been done and dusted by July or earlier most years but with 204 Championship points, he’s only 29 off the all-time top 10 scorers.
As the youngest member of Laois’ 2003 team, it’s hardly surprising he’s lasted longest – but then others have come and gone in the meantime when it appeared they had more to offer. Maybe they would have persevered if the team wasn’t largely on a downward spiral though Munnelly’s approach has always been to serve his county rather than the other way round.
While the nocturnal habits of some Laois players has been questioned at times, Munnelly is a teetotaller who couldn’t have survived so long at this level without being so dedicated.
He played five
Leinster finals and four All-ireland quarterfinals (including replays) in his first five seasons and the high water mark of his career was the two-point loss to reigning champions and eventual finalists Armagh in 2003. After the stability of four years under Mick O’dwyer up to 2006, John Sugrue is his eighth manager and his fourth from Kerry alone. Although Justin Mcnulty restored Laois to Division One briefly and guided them to an All-ireland quarter-final in 2012, it proved only an interruption to Laois’ descent.
A pair of 15-point losses to Kildare, multiple qualifier defeats to Tipperary and Clare and another to Antrim were just some of the reverses against the type of opposition that they beat routinely at the outset of Munnelly’s career.
But his form largely remained steady as evidenced by International Rules squad selection in 2005, ’13 and ’14.
The closest he’s come to an All-star was a nomination in 2006 and had he been playing for a stronger county he’d surely have one.
His career appeared to be petering out as he struggled to hold a starting place as Laois dropped to Division Four but he played in six of their seven League games this year, starting four – he’s also started all three Championship games so far.
While he may not get a second Leinster medal, Denis Glennon of Westmeath’s retirement last year makes Munnelly the last active player outside of Dublin that has one – because even the Meath blue bloods don’t count 2010.
But Munnelly will be measured by his class and perseverance rather than medals.