Conor McHugh happy to march on all fronts

According to some experts Conor McHugh is entering the perfect storm – Sigerson Cup finals, promptly followed by the under-21 championship, with Allianz League and club football waiting in the shadows.

If he’s not careful McHugh might end up playing some hurling too, because the 20 year-old is equally good in both codes. Not forgetting his studies at Dublin City University, where McHugh is in his third year of Economics and Law.

And yet such is his calmly confident approach to such a workload that you have to wonder what all the fuss is about: “I’m happy enough to play as much as I can,” he says. “Playing games is the enjoyable part. It’s handled very well between the various managers. We discuss what you’re doing, tell them what you’ve done for the week, and if you’ve done too much they tell you not to train. They all know if you’re doing too much training it’s no benefit . . .”

Sounds simple, really, although McHugh's cause is helped by the fact he's working under three equally sympathetic managers – Dessie Farrell (Dublin under-21 manage, and club mate at Na Fianna), Niall Moyna (DCU manager), and Jim Gavin (Dublin senior manager).

Gavin won’t be calling until he’s finished with the Dublin under-21s, and McHugh’s immediate priority is with DCU, who take on UCD in the first of Friday’s Sigerson Cup semi-finals, hosted by current champions UCC (who play Carlow IT in the other semi-final).

It has the makings of a collegiate classic – with DCU looking to win back the title after a three-year gap, while UCD haven’t won the title since 1996. McHugh will also face several familiar opponents, as UCD include Dublin team-mates Jack McCaffrey, Davey Byrne and Conor Mullally.

"So I suppose there is a bit of a rivalry there," says McHugh. "Jack [McCaffrey] is flying at the moment, playing at centre forward for them. But we're strong too. It's a different DCU team to recent years, maybe less established players like Michael Murphy, and Paul Flynn, but we're happy enough with the team. We think we can win, like every other team does."

Hero of the Future

McHugh’s air of confidence is well founded. He was man-of-the-match, scoring 1-6, when Dublin defeated Roscommon to win last year’s All-Ireland under-21 title, and he also earned the Hero of the Future award, for his role throughout that championship.

Now in his last year at under-21, McHugh already has one eye on Dublin’s opening game against the winners of Laois and Wexford, who face off next week. “It’s going well. We’re not much different to where we were at last year, waiting on either Laois or Wexford, two very strong teams . . . whoever we do play will be tough.

"We've lost a few from last year. Ciarán Kilkenny, obviously, but he was gone last year too, because he was injured. But also Jack McCaffrey, Paul Mannion, Brian Fenton. Still I think we've nine starters back from last year. So that's quite a few. We'd be happy enough."

Juggling between county and college commitments has also afforded McHugh the chance to work under an extensive range of managerial experience, including a certain Seán Boylan from Meath, who is currently acting in an advisory role to Moyna at DCU.

Legend

“Yeah, he’s definitely a bit of a legend,” says McHugh. “He goes around and has chats with players, one-to-one . . . and anything he says to you you’re going to listen.”

There is still the chance he might play some hurling this year, although that may well depend on how far Dublin’s under-21s progress. McHugh did feature with the Dublin under-21 hurlers in 2013.

“It is difficult to do both,” he confirms. “I only played under-21 in 2013 because the footballers were beaten early by Longford, so I had the chance to go back and play. Last year, after we got to the under-21 final in football, the under- 21 hurlers had three months’ work done, so I didn’t want to go back in and disrupt it. It’s also tough to do dual, so I’m just concentrating on football.”

And, again, not forgetting the Economics and Law: “I’ve heard it said that players let football influence their career, but that was always the course I wanted to do. Obviously your degree comes first, that’s Niall Moyna’s kind of motto. If you ever say anything to him about college, he doesn’t even want to know about football. Straight away it’s do that, forget about the training.”