IN typical understated fashion, All-Ireland winner Conor McKenna would rather the focus be on his Brisbane Lions team-mates instead of himself when he walks out in front of 100,000 supporters in the AFL Grand Final at the MCG on Saturday.
Zach Tuohy, Mark O’Connor, and Tadhg Kennelly are the only three Irish players to have previously won an AFL Premiership, but only the latter has won both an All-Ireland Championship and an AFL season-decider.
McKenna’s name would be etched in the history books alongside Kennelly’s if he emulated the Listowel superstar’s feat, but the Eglish man would still insist that he doesn’t belong in such illustrious company.
“That would be pretty amazing,” McKenna said.
“But I’ve only been here two years. To get the win for the boys that have been here 10 years, when they were getting wooden spoons, for them it’d be unbelievable.”
Two hamstring injuries, one in pre-season and one in the early rounds of the season proper, have impacted on McKenna’s form this season.
He was dropped in round 20 last month and since then has only started one senior game.
McKenna has been relegated to being Brisbane’s substitute in their sensational comeback finals victories over the Greater Western Sydney Giants a fortnight ago and Geelong in Saturday’s preliminary final for the ages, but his clever assist for team-mate Logan Morris in the third quarter showcased his match-winning abilities off the half-back flank.
Morris couldn’t believe his luck when one of McKenna’s trademark Gaelic-style short kicks landed perfectly on his chest, allowing him to run into an open goal when the game was on the line.
“He didn’t see it coming... even I don’t know what I’m going to do, it just comes at the last second,” McKenna explained.
Away from the football field, McKenna (28) has renewed his passion for horseracing in Australia this year and has even learned how to break horses.
Last year, he worked with respected Australian trainer Robert Heathcote at his Brisbane stables and this year he has spent time in remote areas of the Gold Coast.
“I’ve seen a few wild moments; young horses, you never know what they’re going to do next,” he said
“I’d never really done that side of it (breaking).
“It’s bit hands on, a bit crazy, but really enjoyable.
“It’s good for your head; between that and golf you get a lot of time to escape.”
After 79 senior AFL appearances across six seasons at the Essendon Bombers in Melbourne, McKenna couldn’t wait to go home in 2020.
Having been ‘named and shamed’ for testing positive for Covid-19, the Sam Maguire winner was disillusioned with how both the Bombers and the AFL treated him.
He was convinced that his time as an Australian Rules player was up; fishing and training with his cousins back in Benburb was infinitely more appealing.
McKenna endured five weeks in quarantine and was then hit with a one-match ban by the AFL for a Covid breach.
His only outlet for his understandable frustration was playing computer game Call of Duty as the hours, days and weeks went by.
By the end of his isolation, he had had enough of Australia, the AFL, and Essendon in equal measure.
During his time at Essendon, McKenna never won a single play-off – in contrast, in two seasons at the Brisbane Lions, he is now in contention to feature in his second consecutive AFL Grand Final.
A host of AFL suitors chased McKenna’s signature in 2022, but two factors made Brisbane his preferred destination.
First, it was the club’s impressive finals record under incumbent coach Chris Fagan – the Lions are the only AFL club to feature in the past six finals series – and the second was his girlfriend Amy’s friends in Queensland who would help her to settle 10,000 miles across the other side of the world.
McKenna still has a year remaining on his current Brisbane deal and a Premiership winners medal would make him a Lions legend.
“I came to the Lions because I wanted to be part of a team that was in the Premiership window and that I could hopefully help them take the next step,” he said last year.
