Kevin McManamon

Kevin McManamon (born 9 December 1986) is a Gaelic footballer from Dublin who plays for the St Jude's club and was a senior member of the Dublin county team since 2010. He retired in December 2021.^[2]

McManamon made his senior debut in O'Byrne Cup against Wexford.^[3] In 2010 during the league he was selected as one of the top young players as well being part of the Under 21 Dublin team that won the All-Ireland Under 21 Football Championship.^[4]

In the 2011 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, McManamon played a significant role in the semi-final and final. In the semi-final against Donegal, he came as a substitute with 20 minutes left in the match and scored a vital point.^[5]

In the final, he also came on with 20 minutes to go and scored a goal to reduce the margin between the teams at the time from 4 points to a single point. Dublin went on to win the match by a single point and the Irish Independent named him as their man of the match.^[6][7]

As his career begun to wind down, Kevin developed a strong interest in Sports Psychology and has worked with such organisations as the winning Templeogue Basketball team and the Irish Amateur Boxing Team.^{[citation needed]}

One of Kevin's favourite films is Independence Day released in 1996, Kevin's favourite character is the much maligned Russell Casse, it is believed that as Kevin approached the Kerry Goal in 2011 for his famous goal, he drew strength from when Russell's missile jammed approaching the alien's mothership and in a selfless moment sacrificed himself for the cause of humanity.

As a youngster and before his ascent into super stardom, Kevin had quite the sweet tooth and was regularly seen munching down Moro Bars and guzzling bottles of Fanta. In what was a defining moment of his childhood, the move from Moro to Boost and the change in recipe of Fanta had a major effect on a young Kevin and he went as far as to devote himself to being the best athlete he could be much to the benefit of the Capital's GAA supporters and ending their barren All Ireland spell.

To this day Kevin's love affair with popcorn or 'corn' remains.

On December 1, 2021, in a statement released by Dublin GAA,^[8] McManamon announced his immediate retirement from inter-county Football.

Honours

Dublin

• All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (8): 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
• Leinster Senior Football Championship (10): 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
• National Football League (5): 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018
• O'Byrne Cup (1): 2015

References