Legendary American track and field star Carl Lewis once said “Life Is About Timing” and if that’s true, then Kevin McManamon has timed his best form for this season and Dublin are reaping the benefits.
The St Jude’s man has been in the Dublin squad for many seasons now and although he got plenty of starts in the Allianz League over the years, come championship he found himself on the substitutes bench.
That wasn’t to say that Kevin didn’t make a major contribution to Dublin’s success down through the years, he was became one of the Sky Blues ultimate weapons when he was unleashed of the bench.
McManamon is blessed with blistering pace, a low center of gravity, incredible strength, was almost impossible to dispossess and had an eye for goal and he used all these attributes to devastating effect when introduced off the bench with led to him being tagged as a super sub.
It wasn’t a tag that sat well with the St Jude’s clubman as he rightly believed he was much more than that as a player and kept working away to get that coveted starting 15 jersey he craved.
This season Kevin didn’t feature for Dublin till the fourth round of the Allianz league coming off the bench for Paddy Andrews against Cork. He got his first start of the year in the next round and put a string of top class performances in the remaining divisional games.
Along came the summer and everyone was probably expecting it would be the same old story and Kevin would be held in reserve to be sprung from the bench and cause his usual havoc on opposing defences. But the novelty summer trip for the Dublin supporters to Nowlan Park to play Laois had another surprise with McManamon named in the starting team.
From then and for the rest of the summer Kevin has played like a player possessed putting in unbelievable performances full of his trademark direct running game, ferocious work-rate and ability to pick off vital scores. But he has garnered more respect and fans this year more so for the full range of technical ability he has shown, something maybe some didn’t believe he had.
Not only has he cemented his place for Sunday’s All Ireland Final against Mayo as he has now become undroppable in the form he has been in, but he is surely also up for an All Star Award later in the year and also one of the top contenders for Player Of The Year.
No matter what happens on Sunday or what awards the Dublin star will win, the one thing Kevin McManamon can be sure of is, he has once and for all discarded that super-sub tag that he hated so much.