McManus interview on hoganstand

[turk]

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An ’Offaly’ big lot of work to do
Monday, January 02, 2006


Offaly leading light Ciaran McManus doesn’t put a tooth in it in reflecting on what went wrong for the Faithful County footballers in 2005.

o Offaly footballers are a case of work in progress. 2005 proved as much. With such limited resources, getting the best out of such bespoke material as Ciaran McManus is imperative if the Faithful County is to become the finished article.

The past league and championship seasons were difficult for everyone connected with Offaly football and McManus felt the frustration, pain and angst at least as much as his county colleagues.

For some within Offaly though, even the man’s best doesn’t seem to be enough, especially when the county falls short of hitting the target(s).

"I had good and bad games but I tried my best as did the rest of the lads during the year.

"Sometimes that’s not good enough though for an element of the supporters.

"They expect you to be reaching finals all the time and winning them most of the time," Ciaran says with more than a hint of exasperation in his voice.
It’s not today or yesterday that the strapping Offaly midfielder recognised the fickleness of GAA supporters.

Hero one day, villain or scapegoat the next.

So after another barren year, how does he retain the enthusiasm and zest needed to counter the antics of the local cynics and his own, innate demons which cry out the word ’sabbatical’ in unison?
"It’s difficult, especially after such a frustrating year as we had in 2005.

"For me personally, the past season was really disappointing because I was only getting back to my best form in the last game or so.

"But when you sit down and assess things, you come to the conclusion that there’s loads of young talent in the county and there’s a lot of material to work with next year. That helps keep you going."
And yet Ciaran is the first to admit that part of what is lacking in his own game is lacking in Offaly football.
"We showed a lot of inconsistency during the league and carried that on during the year.

"Games against Westmeath, Cork and Donegal stood out for various reasons but, at the end of the day, we were relieved that we didn’t get relegated and that was very important for Offaly football.

"We were trying to bring in new players, new young lads so keeping our place in division one was very important.

"When your first three games is against Westmeath, Tyrone and Kerry, you have to be on the ball and they’re good tests for any team.

"Games in division one are played at a high tempo and as close to championship-type pace as you can get in the league.

"It’s not the same in division two, no disrespect to the teams operating there."
In Offaly’s last league game, goals by Niall McNamee and Neville Coughlan, weren’t enough to prevent Dublin from winning by 1-13 to 2-6 at Tullamore.

The result was meaningless for both teams with Offaly already safe as Donegal and Westmeath’s places down through the trap door were already cemented.

Despite winning just two games (against Westmeath and Donegal and drawing one) from seven outings, Offaly had managed to retain their premier league status.

The Kevin Kilmurray-managed side secured safety despite a conspicuous absence of scoring forwards and a high tally of wides over the course of the league campaign.

The championship was a whole new ball game though for McManus and co as the county’s leading light succinctly puts it: "We made a mess out of the championship.

"We didn’t do ourselves justice during the summer or the previous summer either," he declares.

Although desperately anxious to help Offaly regain the lustre that accompanied the county’s Leinster SFC title win in 1997, Ciaran says that any thoughts of provincial ding-dongs just have to be suspended for the guts of another year.

"We can’t afford to be looking to next summer, that far ahead. Our focus will be on getting back on track in February.

"If we were operating in division two then, it would be a setback but facing the likes of Tyrone and Kerry is a big challenge and your preparations have to be that much better when you’re tackling teams of that kind of quality."
A silver lining then?
"No. As far as I’m concerned, staying in division one is no silver lining, nothing to be that proud of.

"Being in division one can be used as a stepping stone to being up with the pace of the championship pacesetters but it’s not a lot of good for anything else.

"The championship is what it’s all about. I have a national league medal; I’m not particularly hungry to win another one," explains the man who was a key figure in the Tommy Lyons’ managed Offaly side which triumphed in the NFL in 1998.

Whatever about his sense of disappointment at season’s end in 2005, 29-year old Ciaran remains optimistic that Offaly can hit the jackpot sooner rather than later.

He has been convinced of the capacity of Offaly to triumph (at least) in Leinster by what he viewed in the last few months.

"There’s not much of a gap to be bridged by Offaly, if there is a gap at all.

"I watched the Dublin/Laois game and I wasn’t that impressed.

"I definitely wasn’t bowled over by the quality of the play nor in any of the other games either."
After predictably disposing of the challenge of Louth (despite hitting 18 wides) with something to spare, Offaly eased their way into a Leinster SFC quarter-final meeting with favourites Laois.

Tussles between the teams have invariably been tasty - their rivalry is one of the most intense in Irish sport.

In their last five championship clashes, both teams won two and drew one.
In 2003 it took two titanic games to separate Offaly and Laois in the Leinster SFC.

The draw and replay of those games were the toughest the O’Moore County had on their way to the provincial title.

The counties met on 26 occasions in the championship over the years and going into the May 30th head-to-head were level with eleven wins and four draws.

So something had to give.
In the end Offaly gave it their all but went down by 1-8 to 1-10.

"We had them beaten but let it slip. I thought the fact that we had the Louth game under our belts would have benefited us and it did to a certain extent but not enough obviously.

"At half-time we were leading by 1-5 to 0-2 but our score really should have been more like 1-15 with the wind behind us."
As is his wont, Ciaran is self-critical as he reflects on his contribution to the Offaly cause against Laois.

"I made mistakes in that match, hit a few bad wides but I thought I came in for more criticism than was warranted.

"I fired in a few long-range frees and nothing came off them.

"That was the instructions I got but when it didn’t work out, I became the scapegoat."
The point is, in fact, that Offaly shot 19 wides on the day and failed miserably to capitalise on the huge midfield platform engineered by Ciaran and team-mate Alan McNamee.

The Faithful County subsequently lost out by 1-10 to 0-14 in a shock defeat to Carlow.

"They (Carlow) had a big support behind them but we weren’t up for it enough on the day.

"I didn’t think things were right in the run up to the game but we should have beaten them.

"I can’t speak for the rest of the 24 lads, but I felt we let ourselves down. We had a great chance of winning that game when we were level with ten minutes to go.
"But we kicked five wides in a row, missed a couple of goal chances, played in patches all-round and always gave them a chance.

"Having said that, I thought a draw would have been a fair result."
Months on from the Carlow game, Ciaran says that morale in Offaly football circles is still very low.

"We’ll look ahead to February and try and get ourselves together, physically and mentally.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us but we can’t shy away from it."

[TheManFromFerbane]

Good interview, he's honest about the team's and his performances during the year, if its true that he was instructed to take those frees against Laois then the managment are a disgrace for not coming out and defending him in the aftermath.

On a side note, I'd just like to point out that our club played a charity aussie rules game for crumlin hospital on St. Stephen's day. Aiden Keenaghan asked him to come and play for one of the teams and even after all the football and international rules he played this year and all the flack he got whilst doing it, he was still one of the first lads there.

I think thats a more important side of the man than the wild frees and erratic performances that we sometimes see.

[black and red exile]

Yes, a very frank and honest interview and I'm glad he has spoken out about the know it alls who seemed to pick on him about everything that went wrong with our failings last year. As I've pointed out on this site a while ago[ our best player by a mile] suffered desperate criticism by every Billy or Jack, who are nothing but hyprocites praising the man to his face and then cutting him to pieces when his back is turned.
Ciaran McManus is absolutely vital to the Offaly cause this year, without him we would be missing a leader with a fierce passion to drag us to the top table with big boys, perhaps the snipers who seem to get great delight in constantly putting the man down over the last few years might just think about that before they drive him away with the neverending abuse. I guarantee we would not be half the team without him, so for 2006 and onwards LEAVE MAC ALONE PLEASE.

[Lone Shark]

While I'd agree with all the sentiments above, I would ask the question - where is all this criticism? I tend to hear Mac responding to critics more often than I hear the critics themselves. Kevin Corrigan in the Tullamore Tribune has been very forward in his opinions, but one man does not a chorus make. For the record I think Corrigan has overstepped the mark more than a few times, but that's another matter.

90% of the football followers in Offaly who know anything about the game know that Ciarán McManus is by far one of our better players, and that he has to be deployed in a key position. There will forever be debate about whether he should play midfield, half back, centre forward or full forward but no-one seriously would contend that he should be anything other than central to the team. I'd like to see him keep his head a bit more - like he did in Carlow last year. I'd also like to see management be willing to look at him like any other player and take him off if he's having a bad day - but that's not his fault. All in all no criticism here, which I suspect is the consensus, despite what one would be led to believe.

[seamroga]

Lone Shark, the main criticism of Ciaran McManus after the Laois match was because of the frees. If memory serves me right, the frees were the biggest frustration that afternoon. And it was much the same the previous year against Westmeath. But I don't blame him for what took place this year - the management should have been more decisive and taken him off the frees.
Personally, I'd always give Ciaran full marks for passion and commitment, it's just that he's probably been the centre of attention more than most other players (e.g. controversy over sending off in 2000 and one of the prominent figures in the strike). I think it's a huge pity James Grennan hadn't an injury-free career because it would have taken a lot of the pressure for fielding off Ciaran, as that isn't his strongest attribute.

[TheManFromFerbane]

90% of the football followers in Offaly who know anything about the game know that Ciarán McManus is by far one of our better players.

Yes but unfortunatly the emptiest vessles make the loudest noise, when your on the pitch you don't tend to hear the groans of frustration when you do something stupid, you hear the "For f**k sake McManus will you cope the f**k on!" and the like.

Its easy to say "just ignore them" but it takes a very strong willed player to ignore that and I'm pretty sure Mc isn't like that. He will take it to heart, try even harder to prove them wrong and thats when the silly mistakes happen.

The unfortunate thing is that there is nothing anyone can do about it because thats just the way things are!!

[Lone Shark]

Lone Shark, the main criticism of Ciaran McManus after the Laois match was because of the frees. If memory serves me right, the frees were the biggest frustration that afternoon. And it was much the same the previous year against Westmeath. But I don't blame him for what took place this year - the management should have been more decisive and taken him off the frees.

I'd have said that in both cases it was the huge amount of wides in general - 16 against Westmeath and 22 against Laois if memory serves. Frees were a big part of that, but only a part.

Regarding last years long frees dropped short, one thing never made sense - why drop long range frees in on top of the square, at a time when McManus' man - Noel Garvan, a fantastic fielder - would be there to catch them, but not employ the policy throughout free play when Garvan would not be a factor and Kelleghan and McNamee would have been one on one? Somebody seriously made a bollix of this tactically, and it worries me that no one has accepted responsibility for it.