Former Galway midfielder and manager Kevin Walsh reckons Paul Conroy is among the greatest Gaelic footballers still chasing an All-Ireland medal.
Conroy turned 35 in May but is still going strong and struck a match-winning 1-1 in Galway’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat of Donegal.
He will be expected to play a central role in Sunday’s final against Armagh having also lined out in the 2022 decider when Galway lost to Kerry.
Cork’s Patrick Horgan, at 36, has been described as the hurler most deserving of an All-Ireland win and Walsh reckons Conroy, who broke both his legs six years ago, has a similar status in football.
“He’s definitely on one of those lists, he has to be,” said Walsh at an Allianz GAA promotion ahead of the final. “He’s been out there since 2007 as a minor and I think he came through the following year, 2008. It’s a 15-year career and you think back to the double leg break against Kerry in 2018, which was a massive hit for us at the time as well.
“That probably took 18 months to two years to come right but, again, he was able to push through, where someone else would have walked away from it.
“He’s now 35 and still kicking points for fun. You’d be hoping next Sunday that it’ll happen for him as well, that he’ll eventually get his hands on that medal after 15 years of massive work for Galway.”
Walsh won All-Ireland medals with Galway teams in 1998 and 2001 that were remembered for their all action attacking style. They still possess rare talents up front, particularly Shane Walsh, though their best asset now is arguably their defence. Across nine Championship games so far this year, they have conceded an average of just over 13 points per game.
Walsh takes some credit for beginning the turnaround and transitioning Galway away from an all out attacking team when in charge between 2015 and 2019.
“There was a fair bit of flak going on because of the old tradition of Galway football and stuff like that,” he acknowledged. “I suppose there was a big shift for Galway people to say ‘Jeepers, this is different’ but it’s now what’s acceptable in the whole country.
“We make no apologies for it. We brought Galway to a place where they were continuously competing to win and that’s where we needed to get to.”