It says a lot about how far Diarmuid Connolly has come in his now 10 years as a Dublin footballer that the day after winning his latest Leinster title he was swimming in the sea, off Bull Island, something he now considers a crucial part of his match recovery.
In his earlier years, Connolly might well have been recovering in a different sense.
At 29, there’s a natural maturity about his appearance too; plus, it seems, an inner calmness, perhaps partly explained by some of the yoga sessions he also incorporates into his weekly regime.
He’s definitely more comfortable around us, because Connolly could count on one finger the number of times he’d previously presented himself for any sort of media engagement.
So, while he may still be somewhat mercurial on the field, he couldn’t be much more chilled off of it, even on a day of stifling heat at the GAA’s Games Development Centre in Abbotstown.
For a few years, however, his potentially volatile nature – both on and off the field – sometimes got the better of him and, although Connolly suggests those days are behind him, there was some evidence of it in Sunday’s Leinster final win over Westmeath. James Dolan appeared to deliberately ruffle Connolly’s hair during a break in play, their manager Cribbin admitting afterwards that Westmeath had set out to “entice” him.
“It is very much out of my control, what other teams are trying to do to opposition players,” says Connolly, smiling.
“I just have to embrace that and try to play my own game, that’s all I can do.
“And I have learned to deal with it, a little bit. You just have to take it play by play, and try to get on the ball, and make things happen. So of course you learn, and you are more experienced. This is my tenth intercounty season now. You learn and grow as you get older, I suppose.”
There is still something of an enigma about Connolly, even as he’s unravels some of the mystery. His former team-mate Alan Brogan recently described him as the most gifted, talented footballer he ever played with, although Connolly doesn’t see it that way, and with that quotes John Kavanagh, coach and mentor to mixed martial artist Conor McGregor.
“Sometimes it might look easy to some people, but it is hard work. There’s a line in that John Kavanagh book, ‘there’s no such thing as a natural athlete’, and I mean, you have to work. Some people are more gifted than others, but you have to work on your game, try and tweak things here and there, to be the best that you can be. And it’s pure and utter hard work.”
Connolly, incidentally, hasn’t actually read the Kavanagh book yet (“a friend of mine was reading it, I’ll have to borrow it afterwards”); he does cite more apposite influences on his career, from the day he first waked into the Dublin senior squad as a 19-year-old.
“When you’re a young lad coming into a dressing room with massive leaders like Ciarán Whelan, Alan Brogan, Coman Goggins, Stephen Cluxtons, all these guys, you’re just trying to learn. That’s kind of the natural progression at inter-county football.
“And obviously we are blessed now with a really good team, really good management, really good structures and that’s developed from underage level all the way up. But I never imagined we would be this dominant in Leinster, no. That was my ninth medal on Sunday, but it’s a meaningful thing.” There was a period early in his sporting days when hurling seemed the more likely pursuit, or indeed soccer.
“My next door neighbour, Fran Pearce, was involved in Belvedere. I went down at under-14 to Fairview Park, did a few trials and played two seasons with them before moving to Home Farm.
“But my big love was GAA, so it was never really going to be soccer. I know a lot of lads down there were focusing on getting over to England and making a career over there but that was never my focus.”
Hurling was, for a while, however, helped by the fact his father is from Kilkenny.
“And my mother is from Clare as well,” he reminds us. “And in the late 1990s Clare had a class team and we were brought to Croke Park on all those days as well. So hurling was just a natural thing for us. then I kind of got moved into the football side of things, at St Vincent’s, and that’s when I really started to focus on Dublin GAA.
“I still go back every year and play with the club, I love playing hurling. It kind of refocuses you a little bit as well but no I don’t think I’m ever going to go play inter-county hurling. I think I’m way past that at this stage.”
Asked if he thinks the current Dublin team needs to win back-to-back All-Irelands to be considered as great as Dublin’s 1970s outfit, he plays the Brian Cody card, about taking each season as it comes, on its own merit. “I don’t know. I don’t think we’ll realise if we’re a great team until it’s all over. At the moment we’re just focusing on the quarter-final and that’s where we’re at. Someone asked me earlier on about being the defending champions.
“We’re defending nothing. We’re going out to win a quarter-final and hopefully move onto a semi. That’s where we’re at. We’re going to attack this Sam Maguire,” he concluded with conviction.
