THE NIGHT BEGAN at Nemo Rangers, another training session box ticked off as their preparations continued for a county senior football final.
It ended with soaking in the events at Hampden Park and plotting plans for summer 2023 in Australia.
When Ireland reached the milestone of a World Cup play-off spot after chiseling out a 1-0 win over Finland, the Connolly family were eyewitnesses in Tallaght Stadium.
Megan Connolly was immersed in the action that night, only after the victory had been secured did the extent of the injuries she had sustained become clear.
“If adrenaline in a game is anything to by, it definitely worked for her because she had two fractured ribs and a lacerated kidney from about minute three,” says her brother Luke.
“Even after the game there was no sign she was struggling. She just said, ‘I got winded there.’
“The other side of it is it is an injury that is a bit easier to stomach because there is nothing you can do about it. It is pure accident. She was at peace with it fairly quickly, as opposed to a muscle injury where you might be saying, if I had done by warm-up better or. that mightn’t have happened. Whereas what happened to her was just unlucky. Her attitude to it was fairly commendable.”
Ruled out of the game in Glasgow, Megan flew home to Cork to watch with her family as history beckoned.
The build-up to the Cork football final had to go on, Luke needed to improvise to keep an eye on the action before joining his sister and their parents Mick and Frida later.
“I was here training for the first half, Cian Sisk (Nemo, S&C coach) had my phone and I had regular updates. To the point where he actually probably couldn’t focus on training because I was asking him so many times, ‘Would you just refresh it again?’
“But got back for the second half, myself and the parents were actually watching it together. Strangely Megan seemed the calmest of the four of us. But I think when the final whistle went, it was the first time she showed the emotion. A special moment to have been able to share it with her. A bizarre conversation to have about your sister getting ready to play in a World Cup.
“I have grown up watching World Cups. I remember getting taken out of school to watch Ireland v Germany in 2022. For the family, and the father in particular, it is a full circle moment.”
There is a further story to capture the scale of her journey and the deeper meaning it has for the family.
“For my father, I would have to mention that. I remember him setting up street league teams and schoolgirls teams in College Corinthians. When Megan got to an age where she couldn’t be playing with the boys any more, he went campaigning in the schools to set up a girls team in Corinthians that was built from U12 all the way to U18.
“Even to senior, when she left, he kinda kept it going, but the reality is it was for Megan. As much as he made teams for girls and probably got girls involved in sport, as great as that was, the main aim was to give Megan a team to play with to progress her career. And if she wanted to pursue it, to give her the best platform.
“It probably couldn’t have worked out better for him. You can see his enjoyment. When that goal went in, he paced the kitchen and didn’t know what to do with himself. We are probably more happy for him than her just that he is able to see everything that he wanted to happen has happened.
“They are now getting ready for a World Cup and he is planning on renting houses and booking flights. In our house, it is special.”
Connolly’s Gaelic football days have sparked widespread club success and seen him become a regular fixture in Cork teams.
His sister’s soccer exploits have always been tracked through that time
“Honestly, I’d take a county final any day over watching any of Megan’s games. We are adopted Brighton fans. I have always said it, growing up watching her in college in America, we’d stay up late watching her, but I have never got as nervous for a game as I have watching any of Megan’s games.”
Having a sporting sibling provides benefits.
“I more so live vicariously through Megan, as she probably robbed the career that I wanted. To be honest, I take more from Megan than she would from me. She went to America in college. She was the first to leave home. Four years in a full-time set-up with FSU, which is a highly regarded set-up.
“And had some difficult years there. She had an incredible Freshman year where she kinda won everything she could. Had a couple of injuries then. By her last year, she was a role player.
“To see the way she handled that. They won a national championship in her last year where she was a really important member of the panel. Mightn’t have played every game. The regard and esteem she was held in by her teammates over there kinda spoke volumes of how she carried herself.
“She’d be four years below me. There is one in the middle, Nicole. From a sporting standpoint, we’d have been the ones kicking a ball while Nicole supported us. The funny thing is Nicole is probably the best of the three of us and if you asked anybody outside of sport, Nicole is the one they prefer out of the three of us. We got the sporting traits. Nicole got everything else.”
*****
Another soccer tale.
Tomorrow he is captain of a Nemo Rangers team bidding to claim a fifth Cork senior football crown in eight years.
He has never lost a decider while taking to the pitch, squeezing in a couple of draws in that time frame, and marked an absentee when they came up short nine years ago.
“’13 should have been my first but I was injured. I got injured playing soccer about three weeks before the final. Probably still a pain point for some fellas in the club.
“To be honest I just wanted to play a bit of soccer. I actually remember it was down in Kinsale in a cup game. No one was near me, I jumped over a fella to avoid a tackle, doing the right thing and landed awkwardly and had a fracture on my knee.”
A tricky call to make to inform Nemo management?
“Oh yeah, yeah, very much. We were actually playing Clonmel Commercials the next day in a challenge game. I said the knee isn’t right, in the hope that the scan would reveal nothing, which it didn’t. It was a difficult conversation to have. I mean any conversation with Steve (O’Brien) would be difficult anyway, not to mind telling him that I was injured for a county final against Castlehaven.”
In 2015 he ripped his hamstring the first day against Castlehaven and then hobbled out of the replay early on. Still it was the first medal he got his hands on.
“It was my first county, my first experience with that group. It was a huge one for the club because it had been the first one since 2010.
“It put into perspective for me what it meant to this club, winning counties, the emotion. I remember the likes of Bucks and Stevo and Larry at the time, the management team and what it meant to them. It probably narrowed my mind into thinking, ‘Right, no more soccer.’ “
He’s made his mark in finals since. A goal in the replay win over St Finbarr’s in 2017, two strikes to the net in 2019 against Duhallow and two more green flags raised last year in the delayed 2020 decider.
This year he is in the thick of the action. In January he came on against Kerry in the McGrath Cup final but was no longer with the panel when Cork commenced their league campaign a few weeks later.
2022 has been a football season that has swerved in a different direction.
“I want to make it clear, obviously I left the Cork panel at the start of the year, not by choice and I absolutely loved playing for Cork. It’s the pinnacle of your career, when you look at a GAA career it is as high as you can get, representing your county.
“But the other side of the coin is I’ve never really had a chance to have a full senior year with a club with Nemo. A league campaign, even the S&C with Cian Sisk. It’s probably the most enjoyable year I’ve had in a Nemo jersey. I’ve loved every minute, being part of the group from word go.
“ It’s just being able to totally immerse yourself in a club campaign, to enjoy the nights after games with the team. I’m not condoning going out on the lash but look it’s nice to be part of those league games where we were away in Carbery and you’re able to go for a few drinks after. I’ve loved being part of that,
“Not at the expense of playing for Cork but look it’s just something that has just worked out nicer for me.”
Any thoughts on future inter-county plans?
“I don’t to be honest. It’s something that I’ve buried. It’s kind of a let sleeping dogs lie kind of thing. So I’ve parked it.”
He has embraced the role of club captain.
“The added bonus of being captain which wasn’t planned but just made it a bit sweeter that I was able to be here the whole year. Be a leader from day one as opposed to coming in, in April for a game and trying to voice your opinions and worrying that fellas are thinking, ‘Sure he hasn’t been here for six weeks’.
“Hopefully it continues and we get the nice ending but I suppose look if the result isn’t positive on the weekend, it won’t change how I’ve felt about the last 12 months here.
“It is a very easy group to be a captain. It is probably a side of me I wanted to show that I would think some people didn’t know I have. Because I always said I preferred soccer, maybe people thought I never had much interest in the GAA side or didn’t want to reach these milestones. They are certainly high on my agenda.”
Life as a full-time club player has aided his game.
“From a physical standpoint I’ve been able to get a full S&C calendar where I’m able to just focus on myself. There was a period where I was going from a club campaign straight into an inter-county campaign, straight back into a club. There’s no freshness. This year I had six months where I could purely do gym work and strength work.
“Stuff you’re doing in an inter-county setup but you’re doing specifically to get ready for a league campaign, it’s a lot more nitty-gritty stuff.
“For me form wise I’ve been able to get myself into much better shape than I ever was at inter-county level, which sounds strange but I definitely feel faster and stronger and better than I did, say the past 24 months in an inter-county jersey. Maybe that was down to Covid, maybe it was down to the pressures and different scheduling at that level. For me personally it’s been a huge benefit.”
For that he doles out the praise to Sisk for directing Nemo’s physical preparation and the management team that Paul O’Donovan oversees.
It has brought them to the point where they aim to topple the reigning county and provincial champions St Finbarr’s in tomorrow’s decider.
“Every county final is as big as the next. I am keen to get that across, especially to the younger lads. We grew up seeing teams getting to and winning county finals.
“Your next county could be your last. We never ever take it for granted. It is something this club has always prided itself on. That Jim Cremin quote, the most important player to play for Nemo hasn’t been born yet and it is up to us in the senior jersey to keep that fire burning.”
If Nemo are wrapped up in excitement and anticipation on county final week, he is conscious of the grief that visited another Cork football community this week with the passing of Padraig Griffin.
“My sister married a Clon man recently, Tom Clancy, I have seen that community and grown up watching that club.We are getting ready for the biggest days of our careers, but there is a community who are suffering. I just want to pass on our condolences on behalf of the team. I played against Padraig when I started my career in a League game in Clon. It would have been the tail end of his career.”
*****
Back to the international sporting story.
Last Saturday’s group stage draw confirmed Ireland have outings in Sydney, Perth and Brisbane next summer.
“From a financial standpoint, it is difficult. I am actually getting married early next year so they picked the worst year to qualify and probably the worst place to qualify to!
“We’ll do our utmost to, at the very least, be there for the opening day in Sydney. I know for a fact the parents will be there. Whether I am with them is up for debate. We’ll see how they get on with the flights.”
Wherever he watches it from, the pride in his sister’s journey to this point will be apparent.
“I remember the Ukraine game where they didn’t qualify for the Euro’s with the freak own goal. We have been there before that. We have watched them in qualifying campaigns where they haven’t come close to it. That Slovakia team, they beat them 2-1 in a great game in 2017, but they ended up losing two awful games after that.
“I remember driving up two years ago worrying if she’d get her game to now where the country is talking about her being injured.
“To see the support and to see what Tallaght looks like now compared to 2017, it is incredible to see the growth.”
