McKenna: A History maker in Ireland and Oz

“Conor loves cups, loves winning. He’s not a lad to just take part, he has to be winning. He’s a supreme competitor. Whether it’s chess, keepie-uppies, shooting practice, whatever, he always has to win and that’s the massive driving force he’s going to bring with him.”

– Mattie McGleenan, August 2022.

Eglish boss Mattie McGleenan lost an elite operator when Conor McKenna decided to head back to the professional world of AFL, but he recognised that Tyrone’s 2021 All-Ireland SFC winner had unfinished business to attend to.

McKenna, whose love of the improbable was one of the defining factors in a memorable summer run to a fourth ever Sam Maguire, spent another season with Tyrone before signing up for a second stint in the AFL, this time with Brisbane Lions.

His prior stint with Essendon – all six years of it – had been mostly a happy experience but not without its trials and tribulations.

A sense of homesickness gnawed at the Benburb native in the early days of his contract – and though he rose up the ranks to become a firm fan favourite at Essendon, it all came tumbling down during the head-spinning year that was 2020.

Following a positive Covid-19 test, McKenna was subjected to an intense trial by media and widespread abuse on social media, and he decided enough was enough and announced his retirement from the sport.

But McKenna’s laid-back demeanour masks a fearsomely competitive nature and he harboured a burning desire to add his name to the short list of Irishmen to win a Grand Final at the 100,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground – the Aussie Rules equivalent of the All-Ireland SFC final at Croke Park.

So he headed back. In November 2022, he signed for Brisbane Lions and the rest, as they say, is history.

Following Saturday’s Grand Final victory over Sydney Swans, McKenna is now the fourth ever Irish export to win an AFL Premiership, following in the footsteps of Tadhg Kennelly, Mark O’Connor and Zach Tuohy. He’s also joined Kennelly as the only man to have won both an All-Ireland Senior Championship title and AFL Premiership.

Reflecting with pride on McKenna’s latest accomplishment, Mattie McGleenan explains that the local boy made good is a much more settled individual in his second stint down under.

“I think Brisbane approached Conor with a different mindset and he’s felt more at home as a result.

“There’s a lot of pressure that comes with being a professional sportsman – everything seems to be based around stats – your possessions, your plays, your GPS statistics – and that brings pressure in itself.

“Then you have to consider how young Conor was when he joined up with Essendon. He moved to Australia to learn a new game in a foreign county with a load of lads that he didn’t know, and he was only 17 years of age. There’s an awful lot of growing up crammed into a short space of time and it’s no surprise that it was difficult at times for him.”

Warming to the theme, McGleenan pinpoints a moment late in Saturday’s game when the bench-stricken McKenna was offered an arm around the shoulder by a Brisbane teammate. McKenna’s 2024 season had been disrupted by injury but he stuck to the plan and was introduced into the action in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Grand Final.

“When Conor went to Brisbane, I think he had a new focus. He’d won the Sam Maguire, a big reason why he came home in the first place, and now he was going back out to Australia to a team that was going to help him achieve his goals of playing 100 AFL games and winning a Premiership.

“Essendon isn’t really a club that’s always pushing at the top end of the table and I’m sure that was frustrating. Brisbane really ignited a fire in Conor and he’s blended in beautifully with the club in terms of its culture and the players around him.”

“I thought there was a great moment towards the end of the third quarter at the weekend. Conor had been carrying a bit of a knock and one of the lads had an arm around him and was talking to him, and it really showed how important Conor is to the team.

“When he was at Essendon, he was singled out for X, Y and Z and that hasn’t been the case at Brisbane. That’s really allowed him to flourish as all he wants to do is play, he’s no interest in just watching on.”

McKenna first came to prominence as a star performer in the Tyrone minor team that reached the All-Ireland final in 2013. In Eglish, however, they’d known all about his potential for years at that stage.

McGleenan: “I had Conor back at U-14 level, it was one-touch football and he was exceptional even at that stage. His skill-set, his cardiovascular fitness, his willingness to win and be part of everything that was going on in a football field. He was just at a different level to everything else that we’d seen around Tyrone at that age group.”

Tyrone fans will fondly recall McKenna’s no-look pass to Darren McCurry in the 2021 All-Ireland final against Mayo, laying the ball on a plate for the ‘Dazzler’ to palm home the goal that effectively sealed victory on the day.

Old habits die hard and he a made a similar play in Brisbane Lion’s Preliminary Final (the de facto semi-final) against Geelong a fortnight ago. McKenna, marked out as an underage prodigy all those years ago, has climbed to the summit of two sports – one amateur, one professional, one on home-turf, the other thousands upon thousands of miles away – and for that he is entitled to feel an immense side of pride in his accomplishments.

McGleenan commented: “Conor’s a game-changer on a football field. You want someone who’ll impact the game and that’s what he brought to Tyrone, those huge moments where he makes something happen.

“His pass at the end of the game against Geelong got a lot of attention, a no-look pass that set up a crucial score. The Australian players don’t tend to do those things but it’s something Conor has in his locker.

“ You see his highlight reels and he has those little moments of class and trickery that they’re unaccustomed to, but that’s just Conor. He’s an exceptional lad and he’s become only the second player in history to have won a Sam Maguire and AFL Premiership, it’s dream-come-true stuff and we’re all very proud of him.”