The revival of Offaly's fittest

Although he demurs from John O'Keeffe's description of him as the fittest player on Ireland's International Rules panel in Australia, Ciaran McManus's conversation does little to dispel the idea. Tomorrow he's back after a two-month suspension, back to a championship he feared he might only experience vicariously. And he can't wait.

"I like to be fit, I don't like letting myself go and I was afraid that the summer would be meaningless. At my age (24), you like to play as much as you can. I love playing, more than training. Rest is okay if you're taking a break - not if it's being forced on you."

After the year McManus has had, you might imagine a rest, however arrived at, would be welcome. Three tough years under Tommy Lyons's regime which rescued Offaly from the footballing backwaters were followed last summer by avid attendance at Colm O'Rourke's International Rules training sessions - he decided not to go to the

United States in order to attend the trials - as well as selection for Australia and all the intensity of that experience.

Back home again, it was on to the county panel under new management and preparation for UCD's Sigerson Cup campaign, which was superseded by Offaly's run to the Division Two NFL final. Then as the countdown to the meeting with All-Ireland champions Meath was underway in earnest, disaster struck.

McManus was sent off playing for his club Tubber. He received an immediate red card but bitterly disputed the decision. "The county board tried to help me but their hands were tied by the referee's report. There were officials on my side and the referee was 40 yards away and didn't see the whole incident. But I was told I'd need video evidence. In club matches the chances of there being video evidence isn't great.

"I know discipline has to be enforced but sometimes a player is in the right. Now I know people will say `well, he's a county player and he can get officials to say that.' But they volunteered the information. I looked into the rules and spoke to the Leinster Council about appealing but they said that without video evidence, I could forget about it."

Two months should have been a whole championship. Yet Offaly shocked everyone except themselves by facing down the All-Ireland champions Meath with an extraordinarily focused performance. "Even county officials wrote us off," he says, "after we played a challenge against Mayo. They'll admit it or they'll know who they are."

Three weeks ago in the aftermath of the fortuitous draw with Kildare, McManus was thrilled.

"I know the lads would love to have won the game but I'm just delighted to be able to put on a jersey and go out and play," he told reporters.

He is a major addition to Offaly. A central player who moves between centrefield and the half forwards, he will lend an urgency and combativeness to that area which Kildare won so convincingly in the drawn match. As well as his long-range kicking ability, McManus has a flair for moving in from deep positions and taking spectacular goals - one in a NFL semi-final against Donegal and another in the Sigerson for UCD against UCG spring most readily to mind.

This year Offaly have been under the baton of Padraig Nolan, a relatively young and unknown manager. McManus knew that Nolan had trained the St Patrick's Navan schools team and asked Colm O'Rourke at International Rules practice what he might expect. "He said Padraig had a great football brain and would be a good man for the job," recalls McManus before scepticism intrudes. "But with us playing Meath the next year he wasn't going to say anything different."

But he was in turn impressed. "He promised us we would play football and we were glad, because if we went through another hard winter like we did with Tommy Lyons, it would have killed us. Padraig said that we had had three years of excellent training - in fairness it made us what we are - and that we would work on football."

And that's how it will be for Ciaran McManus tomorrow - the ball, his fitness, his skills, a reluctantly sharpened hunger for competition and the summer stretching improbably in front of him.