Advertisement League of Ireland Horse Racing TV Listings GAA Fixtures The Video Review Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture Rugby Weekly Extra Dive into all the news and analysis 3 times a week The Football Family Weekly insights from the week’s big talking points Advertisement More Stories Clare's John Conlon.Brendan Moran/SPORTSFILE Munster CHampionship 'I think it’s a privilege to be All-Ireland champions' - John Conlon gears up 11 years on from their last Liam MacCarthy defence, all has changed for Clare and their veteran defender John Conlon. 4.18pm, 16 Apr 2025 Share options Declan Bogue WHERE TO START with a man like John Conlon and the year he has had? Let’s jump straight over the Liam MacCarthy triumph and that breathless final win over Cork. We haven’t the time. And then straight into the weeks after. Loughrea of Galway had been onto him for a year by then. Tommy Kelly and Gavin Keary, who had been in the Clare set-up in 2018 and 2019 had built up a strong relationship with Conlon. They wanted to know, seeing as they were now in charge of the Galway club, if he ever had the time, you know yourself… In 2023, he had a few other fish in the pan. With Clonlara, they had won only their third Clare title with a final win over Crusheen. They went on to the Munster final where they were beaten by Ballygunner in early December. He also was taking the club camogie team. After winning the All-Ireland in 2024, you’d imagine he had enough hurling to do him. Not a bit of it. This time he relegated his role with the club camogs to that of water-carrier and went in with Loughrea and they squeezed out Cappataggle in the Galway final. “I was there on match day and the runner for them and getting messages into the field. Giving my outlook on the game,” said Conlon, speaking at the launch of the ‘eir for all’ Poc Tapa Challenge. “If there was something that needed to be changed, I would say it. It was up to the boys to agree or not to agree. Just giving the little nuggets that might help, as someone who has no real affiliation to Loughrea or to a player.” If you cannot take advice from a freshly-minted All-Ireland winner, then who can you take advice from? His distance from the team was a serious asset that he recognised very soon. “It’s not like you are over a team and it is a local team, you really want them to win, but you might have cousins or a brother on the team, your decision-making can be a skewed. “That was the good thing for me with Loughrea, I wasn’t compromised that way.” Advertisement Getting involved in coaching and management while still playing is a growing trend. Undoubtedly, it helps to form a wider perspective for anyone when they go back onto the pitch themselves. “I suppose you get a deeper understanding of set-ups and trying to get your point across,” says Conlon. “Articulating your point to the rest of the group, how you as a player might try to get that point across in terms of puckouts and making decisions out the field.” On 15 December, they went out to Na Fianna in the All-Ireland semi-final by a single point. Any chance that Conlon had of feeling sorry for himself after that was wiped out by a bundle of joy called Ava, his and Michelle’s first child and the first grandchild born on the Conlon side of the family who arrived on Friday the 13th. “She’s been great,” he says with that Desperate Dan grin. John Conlon with wife Michelle at the 2024 All-Stars awards.Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO “A ray of sunshine and we are blessed to have her. It’s great for my parents, the first grandchild on our side. She’s been really spoiled by them and she’s been a new lease of life for them. “It’s a lot more challenging around home. You have to be on key with your time and preparation. “But yeah, she’s been great. When you get home from a game you might be disappointed and then she is smiling and laughing at ya, well what more can you want? The game changes fairly quickly.” It sure does. His career has been a triumph of persistence and focus. A couple of years ago he caused a bit of a stir with an admission that he had taken to blending his meals and drinking them, rather than sitting down with a knife and fork. The windows of time to be so on point with preparation narrows with fatherhood. At 36, he has reached a sweet spot with experience and ability. Back in 2014, he was part of a Clare panel that was defending an All-Ireland title. They topped the division 1A league table before losing a league semi-final to Tipperary. In Munster, Cork, benefitting from a replay win over Waterford, were ready for Clare, who had spent from 20 April to 15 June with no games. They were sunk by five points. Summer over. So, what’s changed? “Back then we were a very young team that came and won an All-Ireland and were trying to back it up but just couldn’t. We could never get to the pitch the following years,” says Conlon. “But since Brian (Lohan) has taken over, we have developed a really experienced bunch and the dynamic is a lot different on this team. We are a lot older and I think that can be a good thing. We have developed a resilient bunch the last number of years we have had a lot of losses and had our backs to the wall and came out with results after. “We are looking forward to the weeks ahead. I think it’s a privilege to be able to be All-Ireland champions and go out with that mentality and go to relish that challenge that will be put up against you. At the celebrations for the 2024 All-Ireland win.Tom Maher / INPHO Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO “But every game is different, Munster is a total minefield and all the teams in Munster think that they can beat each other. That will be no different in the weeks to come.” 11 years on, they meet Cork on the same date they had played that 2014 league semi-final; 20 April. Only the hurling world has changed. Now, it’s a Munster round-robin. Now, it’s a big championship game in Ennis. Now, Cork are the hottest property in the game following their scorching league campaign and title and arrive into Ennis for the opening round of Munster. Having games of this size in Ennis, and the newly-rechristened Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg, is one of the marvels of the new system brought in for the summer of 2018. “Ah, it’s huge. It’s massive,” says Conlon. “Within Munster, Waterford and ourselves would have two grounds that would be smaller, more partisan feel to the grounds if you want to call it that. “I was in Selhurst Park once watching Crystal Palace and can see that it is a hard place to go to and other teams in the Premier league might not want to go there. That’s the way I see Cusack Park. It’s in the town and a stone’s throw from the centre. It adds to the whole value of the championship that we can have a couple of games there every year. Sure the place is hopping every year and the ground is hopping in terms of an atmosphere for every game.” As attendances across the country dwindle away, the success of the Munster hurling championship is a modern wonder. Conlon marvels that when he started, getting to play a different ground every summer was a serious thrill. Now they are guaranteed two home and two away games in the biggest crowds in the history of hurling. “I suppose when it was first started, I don’t know if many would have foreseen this, that it would have been so good,” he says. Related Reads John Kiely: 'If I am doing my job, I should have a very good sense of the group' 'Look at what is going to happen again in Munster, the GAA really need to harness that' Shane O'Donnell aiming to play some part for Clare in this year's hurling championship “The Leinster championship last year was super. With Galway and Dublin in Parnell Park and Dublin knocking them out. “So, it has been excellent as well. It’s been a great spectacle in terms of hurling and the All-Ireland series hasn’t disappointed either. “Hurling is thriving over the last number of years, especially Munster. The appetite towards all those games has been huge. “Look, it takes in the different wins; Cork beating Limerick last year, it just adds to it and a new team emerging. Beating Limerick was a huge thing for the competition and it just added to the whole dynamic of it. “We see this year with the league, and a full packed stadium in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, it shows you the appetite for hurling is there and it is going well for attendances, performances and games.” A little bigging up the opposition, a little of spreading the jam across to Leinster. John Conlon has nothing to learn. eir, Ireland’s leading telecommunications provider, is calling on GAA clubs across the country to take part in the ‘eir for all’ Poc Tapa Challenge to be in with a chance to win up to €5,000 for their club and play on the hallowed turf of Croke Park on All Ireland Semi-Final Day. Declan Bogue Viewcomments Send Tip or Correction Embed this post To embed this post, copy the code below on your site Email “'I think it’s a privilege to be All-Ireland champions' - John Conlon gears up ”. 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