Conor McManus: Monaghan star won't make any decisions about future in aftermath of All-Ireland loss
- Published
McManus was superb for Monaghan in their semi-final defeat
Monaghan star Conor McManus said he has not made a decision about whether he will continue playing for his county.
The 35-year-old was speaking after his side lost to Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park.
McManus has long been a talisman for the Farney men and hit 0-5 in another excellent display on Saturday.
"I don't know if today's the day for thinking about that," he said when asked if he will play for Monaghan next year.
"I've absolutely loved wearing the Monaghan jersey for the last 17 seasons, I think it is, and it is not something you take lightly.
"If I thought I could [continue playing] I would, but we will not make any decisions today."
McManus played a leading role in a Monaghan display at GAA headquarters that saw them trouble Dublin a lot more than many pundits and supporters had predicted they would.
Indeed, trailing 0-8 to 0-7 at half-time, Vinny Corey's men were still level at 0-12 to 0-12 after 60 minutes before Dublin finally took control late on and scored a goal through Dean Rock to win 1-17 to 0-13.
"It's disappointing," McManus continued.
"We came here to win the game and I suppose there probably weren't too many who thought that would be possible but with 10 minutes to go it looked like it was very much in touching distance.
"Dublin just showed their quality in the final 10 minutes and put a really tight squeeze on us, and we struggled to deal with it. Our target was to get to the last 10 and be in touching distance then push for home but we just couldn't manage to do that.
"I don't think a packed Croke Park had anything to do with it, it was just a couple of plays didn't go our way and we coughed up a couple of frees.
"Dublin tagged on one or two frees, I think it went from 0-13 all to 0-16 to 0-13 in the space of three or four minutes. We just didn't get a foothold after that. We came to win, we came to put ourselves in an All-Ireland final and we just didn't do that."
There was an incident late in the game, when Monaghan were 0-15 to 0-13 down, when McManus was unfortunate not to win a free, but he was philosophical about not getting the decision.
"I do remember that. Some of those calls just didn't go our way, there were one or two others that didn't go our way, but you can't come to an All-Ireland semi-final and complain about that.
"You have to deal with it. You are going to get decisions that don't go your way. We would have felt we could still have pushed on and kicked for home in the last 10 but we came up short."
Older players 'have a lot left in the tank' - Corey
Corey wants his more senior players to continue their county careers
Monaghan manager Corey, who has just completed his first season in charge of the county, believes the older players in his squad are capable of continuing to play for longer and he hopes they will do so.
"I think they have proven this year that they have a lot left in the tank," he said.
"Some of the older players were the players that were not going down with cramp and were not coming off at the end, they very much had the fitness for the full game.
"Part of it too is you have to relish these days. We are not guaranteed to be in an All-Ireland semi-final every year so any player should savour it.
"The older players know opportunities are few and far between but I definitely think there is a lot left in the tank in some of those boys. "