Conor McManus says Tyrone's All-Ireland success can inspire Monaghan and other counties

Facing into his 16th season as a senior inter-county footballer, Conor McManus is well aware that time could be running out.

The three-time All-Star forward has been one of the country's premier sharpshooters over the past decade, and has enjoyed some famous days in the Farney jersey.

But there are also some matches which leave him pondering what might have been, the latest of which came in July's Ulster final, as Tyrone prevailed by a single point. The Red Hands kicked on and won the All-Ireland title.

Watching Monaghan's rivals claim the Sam Maguire Cup brought about mixed feelings for McManus.

"We fell short against Tyrone in an Ulster final - beaten by a point. You could probably argue that neither team played particularly well that day," he said.

"We probably had chances and Tyrone probably had further chances as well to pull away from us. When you lose a game by a point you always feel as if you are there or thereabouts, particularly when you see that team going on ahead to win the All-Ireland - and deservedly so, they go and beat Kerry after extra-time and beat Mayo quite comfortably.

"It gives you hope because the last five or six years we have all been running into Dublin and everybody has been coming up short. So to see a new team go and do it, and a team from Ulster, who we have been fairly competitive with the last number of years, then it gives you hope going forward."

Watching Tyrone win the Sam Maguire Cup proved for McManus that Monaghan are not far off the required standard.

"When we had Tyrone on the rack and we were playing all the football at the start of the second half, we had chances to tag on more scores and we didn't do it," he lamented. "When you go to Croke Park and you're playing in Ulster finals, you have to be nailing them chances.

"You have to take positives from [Tyrone's All-Ireland victory], especially when you are so far away from it. It is three or four months ago now and when you sit back and analyse it there are definitely things we would not be happy with, but ultimately when you see Tyrone have gone on and won the championship... Now, I have to say 'hat's off to them' because of what they have done, but it gives every team encouragement.

"The fact that they went and got it done, the fact that teams that were coming up short these past five/six years, there is a new team in the mix now and everybody will feel if they push on and give it another blast they could be that team. I suppose it is good for football there is a new winner and maybe next year there will be as well."

Monaghan on an upward trajectory

McManus is confident the future is bright, as Monaghan prepare for their first full season since 2019.

"A lot of the young lads that came in over the last 12-18 months, they had very little chance to show their worth, bed themselves in to a team or panel," he said.

"There's been no McKenna Cup, you only had three or four league games, and in those you had to be hitting the ground running to avoid relegation. It's been knockout championship, no back door. It's very difficult for a young lad coming into a panel in the last 12-18 months to express themselves or put their best foot forward.

"A lot of the experience that the young lads have got, and even some of the lads who have been there two, three, four years, getting to an Ulster final, and playing in front of the big crowds will definitely stand to them. You're hopeful that they will be much bigger and better players going forward into the next year."

Reflecting on the training ban breach

The Monaghan footballers were one of the teams reprimanded for training collectively before it was permitted to do so in the springtime. Looking back on the incident, the Clontibret man says it was a surreal experience.

"Every team in the country was probably training but we were one of the teams that got caught," he said.

"When you look back on it now it highlights how mad the whole situation was. We'll probably look back on it in another four or five years' time and we'll be talking about guards coming out onto training fields and Gaelic pitches, we'll look back on it and say it was just a mad, crazy time.

"Did it affect us? It brought a bit of unwanted publicity towards the team but I don't think there was much negative publicity towards us. It highlighted more so just how crazy a time we were in.

"A lot of people probably were on our side somewhat in so far as you could understand why people were going out training in the fresh air. It wasn't doing any harm when you see what has followed since that, we've been fit to play a full championship and we've had crowds back out and everything else. That has all coincided with the vaccines coming back in play. It was something that happened, we dealt with it back then, we put it to bed and just moved on from it."