People forget how talented the Dubs really are – McManus
Farney star downplays population and funding advantages in capital
WHEN it comes to Dublin’s dominance, you won’t hear Conor McManus complain about funding imbalances, home advantage or the other criticisms levelled against the champions since they took a third straight All-Ireland title.
For him, the difference between the haves and have-nots in football today is down to one simple ingredient – talent.
“Dublin have an exceptionally good panel of players and that’s the bit people are overlooking,” he said.
“There’s no doubt they are the best team in the country.”
Whether that success has come as a by-product of population and rigorous underage structures or, as many suggest, a windfall of investment funnelled towards the capital, remains open to debate.
In recent weeks, 30 Dublin GAA clubs received a cumulative €3.3 million as part of the Sports Capital Programme, with 23 of those clubs receiving six-figure sums, an amount received by just 16 clubs outside the capital.
“I didn’t know that, but Dublin are what they are – the capital team,” said McManus.
“They’ve always been the biggest draw and had the biggest population. That hasn’t changed just because they’ve been winning the All-Ireland. It’s up to other teams to try and compete.”
PASTING
Having been on the receiving end of a 10-point pasting by the Dubs in the All-Ireland quarter-final, McManus know that’s easier said than done, but will 2018 bring about a change in tactics from Malachy O’Rourke’s men?
“If there is, I’ll not be telling you anyway,” said McManus with a laugh. “That’s the bit we’ll have to figure out over the next few months.”
Four times in the last five years, Monaghan reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals but each visit ended in defeat, and the difficulty in taking the next step comes from the need to utilise sharpshooters like McManus while also playing defensively to counter sides with more fire-power.
“You can park the bus but in order to win a game you have to transition from that.
“That’s where most teams are finding the biggest problem; they can flood their defence and get 14 or 15 behind the ball but it’s about getting enough scores to hurt the opposition.”
McManus was the third highest scorer in the 2017 championship, tallying 2-31 across his seven games, and he was just as prolific Down Under last month, scoring 40 points in the EirGrid International Rules Series.
That made him the most successful marksman on either side, and after receiving his Player of the Series Award in Dublin yesterday, the 29-year-old revealed he was among the Irish players struck by ill-health in Australia.
While six of his team-mates fell ill ahead of the first game, he nursed an infected foot which he believes was caused by an insect bite.
“I couldn’t walk, I was limping and couldn’t put a shoe or sock on,” he said.
Eleventh-hour treatment from team doctor Kevin Moran enabled him to tog out, though McManus couldn’t help wonder how the result would have differed had they been in full health for the first game, where the Irish slumped to a 10-point defeat.
“It probably did affect us because we had lads playing that on a normal day wouldn’t have togged out,” he said.
“I was rooming with Michael Murphy and he didn’t move for two or three days before the game, so it was tough.”
In the second game Ireland led by 13 points at half-time but eventually slipped to a three-point defeat to lose the series 116-103.
McManus’s tally of 40 points drew plenty of attention from locals and he was approached to see if he’d consider taking his talent to the AFL, but he didn’t have to think twice.
“I’m past my sell-by date for going Down Under,” he said.
“If it came 10 years ago it’d be something I might have looked at.”
Since returning home, McManus has been working in the gym to correct some minor niggles and he will rejoin the Monaghan squad in the coming weeks, making the trip northwest from Dublin – where he works fulltime in property services – three to four times a week.
Since joining the county set-up in 2006 he has witnessed the professionalism spreading across the sport and with most players holding down full-time jobs, McManus sometimes wonders where it will end.
“It’s hard to see what more players can do without going professional, which isn’t going to happen,” he said. “It’s got to its peak.”
And so, it seems, has McManus – which ahead of the new year will give the Farney men reason to believe once again.
Conor McManus was speaking after being announced as EirGrid International Rules Player of the Series, for which his club, Clontibret, will receive a €1,000 prize.