NOTHING will ever beat pulling on the Antrim jersey – but Neil McManus cannot wait to get started in his new role as part of Davy Fitzgerald’s backroom team.
Saffron stalwart McManus, who called time on a 17-year inter-county career last year, will serve as sports performance coach, with former Kerry coach Pat Bennett, ex-Antrim U20 boss Paudie Shivers and McManus’s Cushendall club-mate, Arron Graffin, also on the Clare man’s ticket.
Although former Tipperary boss Liam Sheedy did “bits and pieces” of performance coaching during a short stint in the backroom team of Terence McNaughton and Dominic McKinley, McManus is excited about the prospect of bringing something fresh to the Saffron set-up.
“It’s something I’m really passionate about - giving players access to because they probably haven’t ever had that on a full-time basis, and seeing where I can help them on a more holistic basis, in terms of their entire life, which means off the pitch as well as on it.
“Inter-county players nowadays are so focused on their on-pitch performance that everything else tends to nearly take a back seat. The majority of times that’s not overly healthy or overly good for them in the long run, so it’s really trying to develop them in all sorts of ways.
“I have a lot of experience of being an inter-county player, so I know a lot of the issues they have to deal with. Obviously if there’s stuff I can help them with on the pitch, I’ll do my best to help there too.
“But we really want to take this group to a different level, and we want to make sure we do all we can to get the very most out of them, and to give them the most opportunity to be the best players they can be, collectively and individually.
“I’ve spoken to people who have won the All-Ireland very recently about how much the performance coach has been a cornerstone of their success. I’ve been very lucky to have access to people who are doing this role at a very high level and tapping into them.
“I have a lot of learning I still need to do, I think you’ll always be learning in a role such as this, but I’m really excited to see what I can bring to the players because it’s a very new dimension.”
Fitzgerald, a two-time All-Ireland winner with his native county as a player before leading the Banner to the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2012, has already called upon the Antrim public to stick with him as they embark upon an exciting project.
McManus, too, feels the true fruits of the work being done may not be seen during Fitzgerald’s first season at the helm.
“When you start something like this, there is going to be an awful lot of work and probably a bit of time will be needed, but the work that will be going on will be huge.
“Davy has obviously huge plans that will have far-reaching implications for the county in terms of longevity, in terms of structures in place, in terms of what he wants to do for these players right now.
“So that means talking to people in all walks of life, giving new players opportunities, bringing people into Antrim GAA who maybe haven’t been involved previously, or who are involved on the outskirts and could be given a bigger role going forward.
“This is the time to do it - Davy has certainly been a catalyst for that. His CV speaks for itself, and you can see the excitement and the energy that’s about at the minute.
“Also, we have a really good group of senior hurlers there at the minute who have been a real positive for our county in the last four or five seasons, a group that I thoroughly enjoyed being part of and have a huge amount of respect for.
“If we can tap into even more resources that have been unavailable previously, it’s such a great opportunity for these lads.”
And a big part of Neil McManus will always wish he was still running across the white line, rather than staying on the other side of it.
He first crossed paths with Fitzgerald at a training session in Dunloy “when I was probably 14″, and the pair have got to know each other over time, most recently in their roles as Sunday Games pundits on RTE.
Yet, despite still leading the line superbly for Cushendall, McManus insists there was no temptation to reconsider his inter-county retirement under the new regime.
“Not at all.
“When I retired I had decided that was the best thing to do at that stage, I’d given everything I could. But look, would I not love to have played in Corrigan Park last year whenever we turned Wexford over? Yes, I absolutely would have.
“Would I love to play another year when the ground gets firm and some of the bigger counties in hurling are coming to Belfast? Those are always special days. But I’d say I will probably be answering that question in exactly the same way in 10 years’ time.”
