Football

Kevin McManamon, the Dublin Gaelic star who always delivers

Dublin's Kevin McManamon looks certain to start Sunday's All-Ireland final 
Dublin's Kevin McManamon looks certain to start Sunday's All-Ireland final  Dublin's Kevin McManamon looks certain to start Sunday's All-Ireland final 

ON THE eve of this year's Allianz National Football League campaign, Kevin McManamon spoke about hitting the "bullseye" in 2016.

"I want to do something I've never done before and that's be a big player for 70 minutes, rather than what I've become accustomed to, or what management have decided for me," said Gaelic football's most notorious super sub.

"That's a big bullseye for me."

At that stage, it was remarkable to think that, having played in 32 Championship games for Dublin and having won three All-Ireland medals, McManamon still hadn't started a final or ever been a first-team regular. Remarkable, because, if you asked a Dublin supporter to name the most influential moments from their All-Ireland winning campaigns of 2011, '13 and '15, the barrel-chested goal poacher would have figured highly each season.

His goals against Kerry in the 2011 final and '13 semi-final, both after coming off the bench, ensured that, while he would achieve legendary status in the capital, he'd also find it hard to shake that impact sub tag. Last season, he delivered in similar fashion again, coming on in both their All-Ireland semi-final ties against Mayo and hitting 1-1 in each game.

Yet, that surge in form still wasn't enough to secure McManamon a place in the final against Kerry and, for the third time in his career, he looked on as the pre-match parade went by without him in it. Down in Kilkenny, James 'Cha' Fitzpatrick threw the towel in because of similar experiences as a 26-year-old back in 2011. Fitzpatrick had made his name in hurling, like McManamon now and was happy with his lot. So he put the call in to Brian Cody.

Last winter, McManamon had a chat with Dublin manager Jim Gavin, but it was to inform him he had big plans for 2016: "I said it to Jim, I said I feel the solution is down to my application," revealed McManamon, who turns 30 this December.

Eight months on, it's inconceivable the in-form McManamon won't finally start in an All-Ireland decider against Mayo this weekend, meaning he will have started every Championship game for the first time in his career.

More than that, he has consistently delivered, drawing a blank against only Meath in Leinster and ratcheting up his form from the provincial final onwards. His brace of points against Donegal and Kerry were important, but it is the range of skills he now possesses that has been most impressive.

Earlier in his career, he wasn't kicking points off his left foot like the ones he curled over against Donegal and Kerry. And he wasn't completing the amount of passes he regularly gets through now, carving up Kerry last time out with his incisive kicking.

His huge hit on Peter Crowley that led to Diarmuid Connolly's insurance point should, admittedly, have been a free to Kerry but, like the golfer Gary Player says, "the harder you work, the luckier you get". Maybe McManamon deserved that slice of luck.

"It's mad to think that, for all of the years he's been playing with Dublin, Kevin still hasn't been in that parade on All-Ireland final day," said Brendan McManamon, Kevin's big brother and a Leinster medallist with Dublin in 2008.

"I personally would have had him in starting matches a lot earlier, though I know there's a lot of people like to see him coming off the bench as well and changing games that way. But, like he said to the media in January, he also said to me, 'I want to start this year'. He thinks he's good enough to start and he was going to keep chipping away until he got there. With that attitude, it was only a matter of time, I think."

In any other county, a player like McManamon would have started far more than just 17 of the 37 Championship games he's featured in since 2010. Dublin are fortunate he has been happy to bide his time and commit so feverishly to making an impact from the bench year-after-year.

"If it was me or anybody else, I don't know how you'd deal with it," said Brendan, who plays up front with Kevin for their club St Jude's.

"He just always seemed to get on with it. I think Jim Gavin kept talking to him too and telling him what his plans were, that he had a massive part to play and he was saying that he wanted to finish with his best 15 at the end of the game. So Kev rallied in behind that. He never moaned about it or complained, just got on with it at the time. I'm sure he's delighted now with how things have turned."

McManamon is an intensely driven character and his stunning form has placed him in a strong position to be crowned Footballer of the Year. Presently, he is fourth favourite behind Brian Fenton, Ciaran Kilkenny and Diarmuid Connolly so a big performance against Mayo could swing it.

Yet, there is much more to him than just a burst of pace and an appetite for perfection with Dublin. He is a serial collector of university degrees, three at last count, with a strong interest in sports psychology. Slowly but surely, he is developing a book of sports clients and lists himself as a mental skills coach on his LinkedIn profile page. It also says he is the owner of the Fresh Foods Direct company.

Like his father, who plays in a band called The Old Triangle, there is music in his blood too. His ritual is to attend a concert or gig of some sort the night before big Championship games: "I've found that very beneficial," he said during an interview in July.

"Just because, if you are looking at a few guys on stage playing tunes, you can't really be thinking about what you have to do yourself the next day or the bit of pressure that's on you, the nerves. It doesn't really start then until the morning of the game, so that's something I always do."

So he'll pop in at some venue around the city on Saturday night, keep his head down and his mind clear. But it'll be hard not to think about that pre-match parade the following afternoon, something he's been working towards all his life.