Brian Murtagh can still picture Conor McKenna sauntering through the gates of Eglish St Patrick’s home ground on match days with the easy air of a man out for an unhurried ramble. Murtagh, the club chairman, would often be manning the entrance on those days as players and punters arrived, directing traffic and keeping traffic moving.
In the midst of it all McKenna would breeze through the gates – low key and practically unnoticed. In an era where some players approach dressingrooms with enough auxiliary supplies and equipment to survive a pandemic, McKenna would turn up clutching just what he required to get the job done.
“Conor would arrive up half an hour before the game and he’d have the bag, socks in his boots and not much more, away he’d go,” smiles Murtagh. “That’s the type of lad you are dealing with, he’s so laid back. He is genuinely one of the most easy going lads you’d ever meet.”
Outside the white lines at any rate. Because on the field McKenna remains a competitive beast – irrespective of the sport. This weekend the 28-year-old aims to become only the second player in history to win both a Sam Maguire and an AFL Premiership. McKenna’s Brisbane Lions face Sydney Swans in the AFL Grand Final at the MCG in Melbourne on Saturday at 5.30am Irish time.
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Kerry’s Tadhg Kennelly is the only player to have won the top prize in both GAA and AFL – claiming a Premiership with the Swans in 2005 and lifting Sam Maguire with Kerry in 2009.
McKenna’s Aussie Rules story might be trending along similar lines, but the Tyrone man’s journey has been markedly different.
Kennelly won his AFL title before returning home to chase down an All-Ireland medal. After managing to do so, Kennelly moved back Down Under again. McKenna, on the other hand, joined Essendon on a rookie contract in 2014. He made 79 AFL appearances for the Bombers but returned to Ireland during Covid in late 2020 and immediately linked up with the Tyrone panel.
The stars aligned for the Red Hands the following season as they claimed the county’s fourth All-Ireland senior title. McKenna remained part of the Tyrone set-up in 2022 but later that same year it emerged McKenna was preparing to reignite his Aussie Rules career. In his first season with Brisbane McKenna made 26 appearances as the Lions marched towards the 2023 Grand Final. However, they came up short on that occasion 12 months ago against Collingwood, and so the Lions are hoping to go one better this time around. They last won a Premiership in 2003.
“He might not necessarily show it, but he is definitely driven, he wants to win and that would be my feeling on why he returned to Australia, not just to play but to win,” adds Murtagh.
McKenna will have family in the stands at the MCG this weekend. His mam, Sheila (a former Tyrone camogie player), has spent several years on the Eglish St Patrick’s committee and remains a driving force within the club.
Only three Irish players have won AFL Premierships – Kennelly in 2005, and Zach Tuohy and Mark O’Connor with Geelong in 2022.
Brisbane have played 27 games on their way to Saturday’s final with McKenna featuring in 17. The defender had hamstring issues during the season, but he has featured in all of Brisbane’s last four games.
He is not the only Irish player on the books with the Lions though – Kilkenny’s Darragh Joyce has made six appearances this season, the last of which was the round 24 win over Essendon. Joyce was also sidelined for a period after suffering a fractured jaw during Brisbane’s two-point win over the Swans in July. Dubliner James Madden also remains with the Lions but he has not featured this season.
It has been a remarkable campaign for Brisbane, who started their season with a 0-3 record. They are only the fourth team in VFL/AFL history to progress to a Grand Final after losing their opening three matches. The Lions also found themselves 44 points behind against the GWS Giants earlier this month in what was effectively a quarter-final but staged an incredible comeback to win by five.
In September last year McKenna signed a fresh two-year deal to keep him at the Gabba until the end of the 2025 season. But as he is still only 28, there are hopes in Eglish that McKenna will eventually be back in Tyrone strolling through the club gates, boots at the ready.
“Oh, yeah, absolutely,” says Murtagh. “There’d be nobody around here refusing him and I’m sure it would be the same with the county. “But win or lose this weekend if Conor arrived home in a few weeks and went down for a kick around with the rest of the lads, he’d just fit right back in, there would be nothing about him playing AFL, he’d just be one of the lads again, kicking ball.”
For now though, that ball is oval for Conor McKenna and the dream is an AFL Premiership.
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