John Conlon has committed to the Clare cause for the 2025 campaign.
The 35-year-old Clonlara player made his senior Clare debut in 2009 but rather than going out on the back of winning a second All-Ireland senior hurling medal, Conlon intends to keep the Banner flying for a 17th season.
“Yeah, look I’m injury free, I came through a club campaign so, yeah, if Brian gives me the call I’ll be back all right,” says Conlon.
It has been a memorable spell in the career of the two-time All Star. He won a county senior hurling title with his club in October 2023 before securing National League and Liam MacCarthy glory with Clare this season.
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He is also currently part of the Loughrea management team and last week helped them claim a Galway SHC, and if life wasn’t already busy enough his wife Michelle is pregnant with their first child.
But it hasn’t been all bells and whistles this year. On the home front, his family went through a challenging period earlier in the year when both Conlon’s mam and dad were laid up.
His mam suffered a collapsed lung in a farm accident after trying to move a newborn calf back inside the correct pen on the family farm.
“The minute she opened the gate the cow bolted in around and obviously saw her and then rammed her and jammed her to the gate.
“She had a collapsed lung and was in intensive care for two weeks, had damage on her ribs and all that kind of stuff, and looked like she’d had 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. So that was a hard period for two or three weeks.
“Thankfully she’s been super, she did all her exercises and everything that the doctors told her to do and she looks fantastic now. She’s out the right side and recovered really quickly.
“I was kind of slagging the father that I see now where I get my bit of strength or my bit of will to fight on the field, it comes from her, that’s for sure.”
His dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer the day before the accident.
“He had to get an operation on that, so the two of them were laid up for a long time.
“From April onwards, it was a hectic couple of months. Our house was nearly like an injury bay there at one stage, trying to mind them and look after them and bring them to appointments and different things like that.
“But sure you’d do anything for your parents, and they did it for me for long enough. And thankfully now they’re on the right side and all recovered and moving and flying around again. It was great to get them back to the semi-final and final, good moments and good pictures.”
The Clare players will likely enjoy some good moments on their team holiday to Nashville and Miami next week. The squad fly out to America on Sunday, an end of season opportunity to celebrate a successful year.
“I’ve often heard Shane O’Donnell say, I know we’ve all referenced this, but the last three or four years have probably been the most enjoyable experiences playing on a hurling field for the Clare jersey. It’s just because we’ve taken on the responsibility of the jersey,” adds Conlon. “And for the six or seven of us that were there in 2013, just to get that satisfaction of getting a second one and join that group of ‘95 and ‘97, it’s a special one.”
Conlon’s achievement is particularly impressive because in 2013 he was one of Clare’s most important forwards but in recent years Brian Lohan reinvented the Clonlara man as the team’s dominant, match-controlling centre back.
“It [the move] was a shock at the time, but I suppose the way the game has gone even in the half-back line you’re nearly setting up scores and scoring, it’s changed a lot maybe to what it was 10 years ago.
“Now you are kind of reading the game and lads are working back the field to help you out.
“I was lucky enough to play in the forwards and then understand things that I’d hate to happen to me.
“I suppose I’m using my forwards head in the backs now when I play for the county. For the club I’m back up in the forwards again and trying to move a centre back out of the way. “I got a totally different perspective since going back of how to move in the forwards. It’s interesting and a cool thing to kind of observe and understand.”
♦ John Conlon is the Gaelic Writers’ Association Hurling Personality of the Year for 2024. The awards, supported by the Dalata Hotel Group, took place at the Iveagh Garden Hotel in Dublin on Friday night.
