Kevin McManamon well aware of ruthless battle for places

“If I start sneezing now, it’s because I have hay fever, that’s all”, says Kevin McManamon, ruining the chance to cast some doubt over his fitness.

Exclusive! McManamon seen in sneezing fit: Dublin forward may miss out on Sunday's Leinster football final.

It would have been at least something to go on, in the otherwise all-too-routine run-up to Dublin's quest to win a 10th Leinster title in 11 years. Although that's not to say McManamon is entirely sure of his place for Sunday's final showdown against Westmeath at Croke Park.

Indeed McManamon was replaced 43 minutes into Dublin's semi-final win over Kildare, making way for Alan Brogan, and even if the game was already over by then, he has good reason to be anxious about his place for Sunday. Manager Jim Gavin has no room for sentiment when it comes to team selection, only form, which is why McManamon, like everyone else, knows he had to earn that starting spot all over again.

Dublin’s last internal game, played on Sunday morning, will have decided it: “Yeah, that’s basically it,” he says. “I remember saying it last year, after the Leinster final. I’d a good game against Meath, and I was saying there’s a chance I won’t play the quarter-final. People were laughing at me, but it’s true.

“You have to perform, week in, week out. And I think that’s the only way to pick a team. In fairness to Jim, he says that at the start of the year, that’s how he’s going to do it, to pick the team on form, and he’s been consistent. I respect that, and a lot of the players do, and it kind of adds that bit of pressure to perform on a Sunday morning, when no one is watching, just as much as when there are 40,000 or 50,000 people watching”.

More variety

There is also the feeling that Gavin has been working on a less predictable Dublin team this season, or at least adding a bit more variety. McManamon, when pressed on that matter, declines to give much away, beyond the agreement the team has had to evolve, particularly after being caught out by Donegal in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

“I do think we’ve got more variety. And if we were to meet a team with a similar plan (to Donegal’s), we’d be able to deal with it a little better. We’ve tried to add a few things to our own game plan as well. And I think we’re better equipped this year.

“You can’t be too rigid. Were we too rigid maybe at times? I don’t know. But I’d be reluctant to have a go at the system. The players are out on the pitch, the players need to be reactive to these things. At the end of the day, there were a lot of clever tactical moves by Donegal, but we still didn’t do what we said we’d do, in the calm of our dressing room, in the heat of battle on All-Ireland semi-final day.

“So I think the players are improving, adding a bit more variety to their game. That we’re always getting better. There are only a few new personnel, but I think individually players have looked at themselves, and individually what they didn’t do, particularly last summer in the semi-final. There’s a lot more options there, there’s a lot more big-game players scattered around the panel.”

The way Dublin took Kildare apart – winning by 19 points – certainly suggests an equally if not better equipped team to their 2014 version. Still, and as expected, McManamon believes Dublin will always find room for improvement, even after an utterly comprehensive victory over Kildare.

“I’d say we’re a long, long way from complete performances. I suppose a lot of things did go well for us, but it could have been a different story if Kildare took more of their chances in the first half. We did perform in the upper echelons of our capabilities. But there are still a few things that we’d like to improve on.

“I won’t go too far into our team meetings, but Kildare got a bit of return from our kick-outs, and we wouldn’t have been happy about that. Maybe we could have had a bit more cohesion up front. It could have been better, especially personally.”

Big performance

Whatever about the foregone conclusion of that game, not many people expected Westmeath to present themselves as Dublin’s final opposition. McManamon admits as much: “Yeah, I probably left the stand with about 45, 50 minutes gone in that match (Dublin-Kildare followed it), and I think Meath were eight or nine points up at that stage.

“So I have to admit, when I got brought off, and heard people behind me shouting, ‘Up Westmeath!’, I was a bit surprised. But look, people might have jumped into thinking Meath were a shoe-in to win that game. But Westmeath’s experiences over the last few years would have stood to them. I know they were stumbled with one or two inconsistent games during the league, so I think it was a big performance from them.”

With Denis Glennon the sole survivor of the Westmeath team that won their first and still only Leinster title in 2004, there's no doubting their incentive to win a second: just don't doubt McManamon's incentive to win his fifth. "It's a big thing for me, to say I've won four Leinster titles. And we just want to keep going forward, to see how many we can get in our careers. I know where all my medals are. My mam has them stored back in the house."