Christy O'Connor: Con O’Callaghan chasing a unique double
Ben O'callaghan And Pic: Cuala Semi Con Kickhams Between Mcshane/sportsfile To A The Match Kick Prepares Dublin Final Cuala's Sfc Free Ballymun During
When Ger Cunningham drew up his first panel after taking over the Dublin hurling squad in the autumn of 2014, one of his key initial projects was Con O’Callaghan.
Cunningham had not seen him play but he had heard the stories and marvelled at O’Callaghan’s potential from DVD footage. He was still 18, and was carrying an injury, but Cunningham wanted to get O’Callaghan on board before the footballers inevitably came calling.
Cunningham still silently accepted that the long-term battle was already lost before it even began.
By the time Cunningham departed Dublin in 2017, O’Callaghan was considered the most talented dual-player in the country – despite never having played with the Dublin hurlers. Injury was a factor but he was also on a countdown clock with Jim Gavin.
And as soon as the then-Dublin football manager came calling, O’Callaghan boarded that ship and never gave the Dublin senior hurlers a second glance again.
In 2017, O’Callaghan enjoyed a season unlike what any GAA player had ever achieved before: All-Ireland senior and under-21 football medals, an All-Ireland club hurling title, a football All-Star, the Young Footballer of the Year award, along with county and Leinster club hurling titles with Cuala.
The only players to gather anywhere near the same list of honours and make the same impact by the time they turned 21 were Jimmy Barry-Murphy, Brian Corcoran and Brian Murphy from Cork, and Offaly’s Liam Currams.
Yet O’Callaghan’s level of success at that age was still almost incomparable.
Cork’s Brian Murphy is the only player to get even close, having won All-Ireland football titles with Cork and Nemo Rangers, an All-Star and every honour available in both codes apart from a National Football league medal by the time he turned 21.
He achieved all that over the course of three seasons, but nobody had ever won as much in a single year as O’Callaghan.
By the end of that 2017 season, O’Callaghan had played 22 championship games across both codes and all grades, scoring 15-63. The only match O’Callaghan lost all year was with the Cuala senior footballers - a Dublin senior football quarter-final to St Jude’s.
The one caveat in O’Callaghan’s glittering career has been with the Cuala footballers.
He never played with the Dublin hurlers, but that was by choice, whereas O’Callaghan has long been chasing a senior club football medal.
And now he finally has an opportunity, with Cuala chasing a first Dublin title on Sunday against Kilmacud Crokes.
In the history of the All-Ireland club championships, St Finbarr’s are the standard when it comes to both codes, with a multitude of players having won All-Ireland club medals in hurling and football.
Yet, since St Finbarr’s won their last All-Ireland club hurling title in 1978, only a handful of players (outside of the Barrs) have managed to achieve what O’Callaghan is now chasing; adding a county senior football medal to an All-Ireland club hurling title.
Surprisingly, there are a significant volume of players with both medals in Kilkenny; Glenmore, James Stephens and Ballyhale Shamrocks. When Ballyhale reached their first All-Ireland club final in 1979, and won their maiden title in 1981, they also managed to secure three Kilkenny senior football championships around the same time, in 1979, 1980 and 1982.
Outside of Kilkenny though, only a tiny handful of players have managed it in the last 40 years. Alan Kerins won both medals (All-Ireland club hurling and county football) with Clarinbridge and Salthill-Knocknacarra, while Kerins’ achievement is more unique again in that he has All-Ireland club medals in both codes.
Ciaran O’Neill, Ollie Baker and Joe Considine also secured All-Ireland club hurling titles with St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield, as well as county football medals. O’Neill and Baker won with Faughs (an amalgamation of Doora-Barefield and Éire Óg) in 1994, while Considine won a football medal with Cooraclare in 1997.
O’Callaghan has long craved that county senior football medal and, while it won’t be easy to secure against a Kilmacud side chasing a fourth title in-a-row, at least he now has that chance.
And any team with Con O’Callaghan on board has more than just a chance.
Narrow defeat. Extra-time. Penalties. Regret. Pain.
Imokilly have tasted the full gamut of emotions in the latter stages of the Cork championship in recent years, but they also surely accepted that those regrets were bound up in the circumstances of what many of their players were being asked to do.
Imokilly could only declare those frustrations privately because having the pick of so many clubs in east Cork inevitably leads to some collateral costs. They can’t have it all their own way.
The club championships can’t be held hostage to Imokilly’s needs in the senior championship. Adapt and survive. It’s that black and white, even if there was a clear link to how Imokilly were trying to adapt, but just couldn’t survive.
In 2021, they lost to Glen Rovers in the quarter-final by one point. A year later, Blackrock beat them on penalties. Sars edged past Imokilly in last year’s semi-final by one point after extra-time.
All were games Imokilly should have won – but didn’t.
Why? Did they run out of gas late on? Imokilly led by four points with seven minutes remaining in last year’s semi-final before Sars managed to force extra time as Aaron Myers’ point was followed by a goal at the death from Luke Elliott.
The previous year, a late Robbie Cotter goal forced extra-time, before Shane O’Keeffe pounced for another crucial goal late on and Blackrock won on penalties.
In the 2021 quarter-final, Patrick Horgan was sent off in the 23rd minute, but the Glen dug in and never let Imokilly out of sight before eventually reeling them and then going ahead during additional time.
Imokilly were beaten by good teams in all of those matches but fatigue had to be a factor with such a heavy schedule.
Nineteen hours before Imokilly played Sars last year, five of their players lined out with Castlemartyr in the Premier Intermediate semi-final against Castlelyons.
The previous year, five Imokilly players lined out with Lisgoold and Dungourney in the Intermediate A quarter-finals on the same weekend as the senior quarter-final against Blackrock.
Imokilly have always accepted those risks, but good fortune, and bad weather, has paved the way for the clearest run they’ve ever had this season.
On the same weekend that the divisional side were due to play Fr O’Neill’s in the quarter-final in September, Lisgood were set to play Ballygiblin in the Intermediate semi-final until a status orange weather warning pushed back that fixture because Mitchelstown had to play their rescheduled Intermediate football quarter-final against Gabriel Rangers.
Watergrasshill were also free that weekend as their Premier Intermediate semi-final against Mallow was originally moved back to October 12th, before being shoved back until next weekend.
Watergrasshill, who received a bye into the semi-final, haven’t played now since September 8th, which has given their four Imokilly players ample time to train and prepare with Imokilly.
Lisgoold also received a bye into their Intermediate semi-final, which means their Imokilly players have only played one championship match with Lisgood in the last six weeks. And their county final doesn’t take place until November 2nd.
With St Ita’s and Cobh also having lost last weekend’s East Cork Junior A semi-finals, Seamus Harnedy and Timmy Wilk have had no distractions ahead of Sunday’s county final.
Imokilly have looked strong all season but they have also never looked fresher. And more threatening.
Last November, not long after they’d lost the Fermanagh county final to Derrygonnelly Harps, Seamus Ryder stepped down as Erne Gaels Belleek manager after three years in charge.
During that time, Ryder had led his side to the Fermanagh Intermediate title in 2021 and the Division One league trophy in 2022.
Ryder had also guided Erne Gaels to successive county finals in 2022 and 2023, with the Belleek side coming up short on both occasions.
With the club not having won a senior title since 1981, and having gone so close in the last two years, Erne Gaels went across the border and recruited former Donegal manager, Declan Bonner, as their new boss. Bonner had new ideas but one of them was to get Ryder back involved – as a player.
That faith paid off in the semi-final two weeks ago when Ryder came off the bench to hit two late points against Derrygonnelly in a one-point win.
Sunday’s final against Enniskillen Gaels is Ryder’s first final appearance on the pitch since 2016, which was their first final appearance in 35 years, when the Belleek side lost to Derrygonnelly by one point.
Ryder scored 0-5 that day, but he was also involved in one of the game’s defining moments when his rasping shot was brilliantly tipped over the bar after 45 minutes by Derrygonnelly's Dermot Feely.
Last year, Ryder tasted defeat on the other side of the fence as manager, having experienced the same disappointment in 2022 against Enniskillen.
Yet now that he is back on the other side of the fence, Ryder knows he can do more to affect the game on the pitch, than he could do off it.