“Not from there, surely not from there!” exclaimed an Australian commentator watching Conor McManus hit another over from close to the sideline in the last of the International Rules games in 2017, one of 12 he scored over the two matches.
The Australians knew how good he was, the Monaghan man was Ireland’s top scorer in every international series he played, the 24 points he hit in the 2013 series even attracted the interest of AFL club Essendon.
McManus never left for the AFL, which was Gaelic football’s gain, and representing his country showed the forward’s class. It was a testament to the quality of McManus that when the best in Ireland assembled for the now-defunct series, he was often the best of the best.
The same could not be said of the county he grew up in, even if they punched well above their weight. Monaghan, with a population of 65,000, is the fifth smallest in Ireland by population. Few counties are more Gaelic football mad than Monaghan but being a small county has its limitations.
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McManus was not without glory, he won two Ulster titles, in 2013 and 2015, the former was Monaghan’s first Anglo-Celt Cup in 25 years during a summer heatwave on a weekend that also coincided with the county’s first Country Music Festival – Monaghan’s own summer of love. He scored an exceptional six points in the 2015 win, also over Donegal. Three All-Stars surely would have been more if he was playing more regularly in the latter stages of the championship.
Sadly though the Clontibret forward ends his career as one of the best to never play in an All-Ireland final. It was not for lack of trying. In 2018, Tyrone pipped arguably Monaghan’s best team in the McManus era by one point in the All-Ireland semi-final. The closest came in his last great moment in a Monaghan jersey, the 2023 semi-final against Dublin.
Manager and clubmate Vinny Corey gave McManus a rare start at a stage where he was mostly a sub for the Farney, an ageing forward in a game where athleticism was paramount and a recurring hip injury continued to nag.
McManus repaid Corey and then some, bad hips be damned, and with 10 minutes to go, he had equalised with his fifth point of the game. On came Dean Rock, he scored 1-1 and one last rally by the Dublin old guard and that was that.
Yet, Monaghan fans will never forget that flickering feeling when they dared to dream for one of the greatest days in their lives, and McManus’s role in that.
Games against Dublin often defined his career. One display against the Dubs in the league in 2016 was one of the finest by a forward in Croke Park as he scored 12 of Monaghan’s 16 points in an agonising one-point defeat. He scored with his first 11 shots of the game. A week later he put 1-8 on Mayo. The two teams would play an epic two-match All-Ireland final later that summer.
It is a shame that McManus retires as the new rules come in football that promise more space for forwards. There were few better at the fundamentals of Gaelic football – creating space, catching and kicking. He was adept off both feet and the range of his kicking was outstanding, often coming in the important points in games.
One of his most famous points against Tyrone in the 2018 Ulster Championship was another “surely not from there” moment, a masterful kick from a wide angle in stoppage time that nobody else in the country could pull off.
He also embodied Monaghan’s fighting spirit as they defied the odds to stay in Division One again and again. His performance against Mayo in 2023 typified this, from barely featuring all campaign, he pulled out 1-6 out of the bag to save Monaghan’s status once more.
McManus was not an obvious talisman at first, nor was he a young phenomenon. He remarkably did not play minor football for Monaghan and featured as corner back for the under-20 team. In his early years at Clontibret, he often played as a half-back.
When he came into the county team, it was hoped he would eventually match Tommy Freeman, not greatly surpass him. His scoring record of 9-291 is fourth most of all-time in the championship.
Former Monaghan corner back and club team-mate Dessie Mone said on Northern Sound. “He’s the GOAT of Monaghan football. You’d be watching him ahead of you and his scoring ability at Clontibret, you’d be thinking how does this man do it? He raised the standards of his club and county as you tried to get to his level.”
“It feels like the end of an era,” Corey said. “Conor McManus has been an institution for Monaghan for the best part of 20 years. I think it’s also a time of celebration, celebrating one of our all-time greats.”
Celebrate indeed. Even if there was no Sam Maguire Cup, McManus leaves Monaghan with moments of magic and a legacy that will never be forgotten.
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