IF HE COULD have done it, John Conlon would have slipped back into his brother Patrick‘s wedding almost a fortnight ago and reintegrated himself by degrees into the evening.
But having left the wedding at 4pm only to go to the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick and turn over the All-Ireland champions – picking up the man-of-the-match award into the bargain – he wasn’t allowed that privilege.
“I’d be unassuming, I’d try to go in the back door, I’d try to go over to have a pint with the cousins in the corner bar,” smiles the Clonlara man now.
“Then one of the bridesmaids saw me, she had me out on the dancefloor to make a bit of a deal out of it. I was quickly back to the bar as quick as I could!”
Both sides of the family understood what was at stake. Patrick is a club stalwart in Clonlara while bride Elaine is similarly immersed in Sixmilebridge GAA.
Little wonder then that the good vibes were supercharged at the wedding.
“If I’m going on the point of the game – it was a great distraction. I didn’t really think about it until I was inside in the hotel meeting the team before going to the Gaelic Grounds,” Conlon explains, having picked up the PwC Player of the Month Award for April.
“Once I had everything ready in terms of nutrition, fluids, all of that kind of stuff – to have everything ready. In terms of the gear and stuff, I was fine, I had all of that ready the night before. It was well planned out.
“It was just unfortunate the game came on the same day, it made the wedding in another sense, at the end of it. The pressure was on me to get the win, making sure it wasn’t a downer on the day.
“I was delighted for the brother, there is only the two of us. That was his special day and I didn’t want to ruin it. So it was just super when we came back to the wedding after, it just made for a massive atmosphere and made it a very special day that we can look back on in the future.”
Mercifully for him, he didn’t have to deliver the best-man’s speech. But he did draft one and hand it to Patrick’s best friend Eoin Meehan to read out.
When he took the mic, he introduced John’s speech by informing the wedding party, “This is all written by John, so if I say anything bad here, this is John’s fault inside in the Gaelic Grounds.”
He received a text then from his own wife while he was getting ready to go out to the Gaelic Grounds to tell him that everything had gone off well.
Which brings us to that game, and the fact that Clare now have a better record against Limerick during John Kiely’s time in charge, than Limerick have against Clare.
“We’re two very strong teams. Playing them over the last number of years, in my opinion, they’re one of the best teams that have ever played the game,” says Conlon.
“You just know that you have to reach that level every day. With Limerick, we’re playing a team that we know very well.
“We’re intertwined in terms of work-life balance. My wife works in Monaleen as a primary school teacher. I work in Shannon. We only live out the road. I’m 10 minutes away from the Gaelic Grounds whereas I’m 40 minutes from Cusack Park.
“A lot of the hurling clubs would be east Clare, which would be on the border with Limerick. The way Limerick City is situated, it’s so close to the Clare border, it’s just over the River Shannon to us.”
The proximity has done them no harm. Seeing the rival players is a regular occurrence. Clare don’t get the same sense of mystique that others reserve for the Treaty men.
“We were always intertwined. A team that’s always winning, maybe there’s that level of fear [about them] but maybe we don’t have that same level of fear because we’re so used to seeing each other, and engaging with each other.
“I went to breakfast last Saturday morning with one of my friends, and there was Cian Lynch beside me. We were having a chat after.
“We’re always meeting each other and engaging with each other. We’re just friends that get (on) really well, and have great time for each other.
“If Clare win, or Limerick win, we congratulate each other. They’ve been the team setting the standard over the last number of years. When they won in 2018, you were delighted to see them breaking that duck and that long barren spell that they had.
“We’ve great respect for each other as people, and that comes across on the field. Then we just go for it.”
Clare’s campaign has opened with a mixed bag, the five goals conceded against Tipperary proving to be their downfall. Conlon describes three of the goals the type you’d be disappointed at conceding at Junior B club level.
But now that he is into his 15th season, he also has gained the ability to move on fast, fast enough to beat Limerick before putting the feet up last weekend ahead of this weekend’s meeting with Waterford in Semple Stadium.
“I can see different things to life than a hurling game. Back when I was 21 or 22, I’d take things to heart. And maybe dwell on a bad performance and not be able to get over things that might happen in a game,” he says.
“Whereas now I get over it in two seconds. That just comes with age. Everyone can say that as you get older.
“If I was to give my 21-22 year old self advice, it would be to be calm, be relaxed, and go with the flow and go with life. That just comes with age, comes with experience. You just learn what works for you, how to get your body right.
“If I need to take a night off training now and I have that relationship with the management, you can take it off. Maybe at 21 or 22, you’re trying to push yourself when you’re trying to establish yourself in the team.”
And one final word, when he’s asked about the levels of preparation he has to do, now that he has long since entered veteran territory. The yarn he told in 2018 about blending his food is one that follows him around.
“The blending thing,” he laughs, “That was only a funny thing that everyone thinks I do but I don’t actually do it! I did it for the few matches that year but I haven’t really done it since. I get slagged all the time now about my blending.”
