Fáilte chuig gaa.ie - suíomh oifigiúil CLG

Football

football

McManus determined to win all he can while he can

Conor McManus

Conor McManus

By John Harrington

Mention to Conor McManus that he’ll be playing his 12th championship campaign for Monaghan this summer and he can’t help but shake his head in semi-disbelief.

His memories of his maiden campaign in 2007 when Monaghan pushed eventual Champions Kerry to a point in the All-Ireland quarter-final remain as vivid as ever.

McManus recently turned 30 and has a fair bit of mileage clocked up by now, but his performance levels have never dipped and he’s confident there’s still plenty of gas left in the tank.

“You'd like to think you've a few more years left provided you can stay fit and stay fresh,” he told GAA.ie “That's the key now for me over the next three or four years.

“We've had lads in Monaghan who have played on until they're 34 or 35 and you can only take inspiration and learn from them boys in terms of how they managed their bodies and keep fresh and keep fit and still able to do the tough training when asked.

“That's what awaits over the next number of years, hopefully. You're all the time trying to improve and trying to learn and trying to up your performances.

“That's what drives you - working hard and pushing every night in training. If you do that, then you're going to get the best out of yourself.

“Time flies and you just have to make the most of it while you're there.”

If anything, the passing of the years has made him more hard-nosed about winning all he can while he still can.

Conor McManus

Conor McManus

Back in 2007 he presumed days like that All-Ireland quarter-final against Kerry would be a summer staple, but he found out the hard way in years like 2011 and 2012 that if a team allows their standards to slip then they can go into free-fall.

Malachy O’Rourke’s appointment as manager propelled Monaghan back into the top tier and two Ulster championships followed in fairly quick succession.

But the last one of those was won three years ago, and at this stage in his career McManus knows his window of opportunity to win more silverware is growing smaller and smaller.

“That's it,” he said. “You want to make the years count. Particularly when you have won before and you've won a few Ulster titles and come up short in the All-Ireland series, it drives you on to want to win even more.

“Every player in every county is the same, so you're not going to get anything for nothing. You have to work hard and earn it.

“The only way we can do that is if we're working hard on the training field and trying to improve week in, week out.”

That work doesn’t feel like a chore. He’s been pushing his body hard for 12 seasons now, but the reward of running out onto a pitch for a Championship match on a warm summer’s day still gives him a buzz nothing else can compare to.

“There's no doubt, there's no doubt. It's all about the tough training and everything you do, the only reason you do it is so you're ready to go come summer-time.

“It's all about championship and getting ready for that. Even though the sessions might be tough you still enjoy it and that's what drives you on - the thought of togging out and pulling on a Monaghan jersey in the summer.

“Those are the days you want to be involved and when the day comes if you do step away from it and hang up the boots, they're the days you'll miss, really.

“So whilst you're there and still involved, you have to enjoy it and relish it.”

Conor McManus

Conor McManus

There’s just four weeks now to Monaghan’s Championship opener against Tyrone in Healy Park on May 20 and McManus has already felt the mood change in training as that D-Day fast approaches.

He and his team-mates couldn’t have really asked for a tougher start to their campaign that trying to dethrone winners of the last two Ulster Championships in their own backyard.

“We've played Tyrone a number of times in the last few years with probably limited enough success,” said McManus.

“We're fairly familiar with each other and there's probably not much new that can be brought to the thing from either side.

“It's just a matter of who performs best on the day. There's still four weeks to the game and we're training hard and trying to improve and be ready to produce a performance in Omagh.

“Whenever we play each other there's generally not much between the teams. I suppose we have a little bit of catching up to do on them in so far as they're after winning the last two Ulster Championships and we're going to be going down to Omagh as underdogs.

“That's the challenge for us, to see if we can close the gap between ourselves and Tyrone. It certainly won't be easy.”

They might be slight underdogs, but Monaghan will travel to Healy Park fully believing they can win the match.

They’re coming off a positive League campaign that saw them finish on the high of beating Dublin in Croke Park, and you could easily argue that their current panel has a greater depth of talent than either of the 2013 or 2015 Ulster Championship winning ones did.

“We definitely have options,” said McManus. “But this team hasn't gone and done anything yet, we haven't won anything, so it’s very hard to say this is the best Monaghan team I've been involved in. I suppose that's for us to try and prove and see where that takes us.

“We certainly think that we have the players to be competitive, but that's the challenge that awaits us in the summer, to see can we turn what we think into reality.” 

*** GAA star Conor McManus was at the Monaghan County Training Grounds in Cloghan to launch the GAA Super Games Centre in partnership with Sky Sports. The Super Games Centres which are based all over the country, were set up to reduce youth drop out and encourage “play to stay” amongst youth, specifically between the ages of 12 and 17 where youth drop out is most prevalent. Sky Sports is supporting the GAA Super Games Centres by arranging visits with Sky Sports mentors and providing kits and equipment to the estimated 9,000 members countrywide.**