No sign of fatigue for Na Fianna dual gem Conor McHugh

​By Paul Keane

Autumn time and Conor McHugh's world seems to revolve around make or break club championship games against Kilmacud Crokes. This is not a new situation.

On the football front, the Na Fianna dual star reckons he's been playing against Crokes duo Paul Mannion and Dara Mullin 'since 13 years of age'.

McHugh is 31 now and while Mannion was absent due to injury last Sunday as Na Fianna earned a dramatic come-from-behind win over Crokes, securing their Dublin SFC final place, Mullin was there again.

"There was a lot of emotion there in the end because I think they've knocked us out maybe three or four times in the last five or six years," said McHugh, part of the Na Fianna football team that lost the 2022 county final to Crokes. "So to get that monkey off our back was huge."

Last weekend's win secured Na Fianna a crack at Ballyboden St Endas in the October 18 county SFC final.

But it'll be next week before McHugh can really narrow his focus on that landmark encounter because there's another date with Crokes this weekend, back at Parnell Park. This time, the powerhouse clubs from opposite sides of the Liffey will meet in a county SHC semi-final.

Na Fianna are Dublin, Leinster and All-Ireland title holders but given the shared history between the two groups of players, it's as close to a 50-50 encounter as you could possibly get.

The clubs have met in three of the last four finals with Crokes needing extra-time to win in 2021 before retaining the title with a three-point win in 2022. Last year, Na Fianna had a solitary point to spare when they beat Crokes in the final.

Jump back in time and between 2007 and 2020, Crokes and Na Fianna shared 12 county minor titles between them - seven for Crokes and five for Na Fianna.

"The two of us had really exceptional underage teams the whole way up, in hurling and football," said McHugh. "I have so much respect for them, in the two codes. They have brilliant players and exceptional teams."

So do Na Fianna and McHugh is at the hub of both, a rare dual gem.

He was the country's U-21 Footballer of the Year back in 2014, going on to win four All-Ireland senior football medals across his seven seasons with the Sky Blues until 2021.

All the while, he was keeping his eye in as a hurler at club level and while he made his name in football as a prolific point and goal-scorer, he has nailed down a full-back line spot with the club's hurlers in recent years.

He performed so well there in last season's journey to county, provincial and All-Ireland club hurling title success that he earned a county call up for 2025.

It helped, of course, that Niall O Ceallachain, who managed Na Fianna to that All-Ireland final win over Sarsfields last January, was also the new Dublin manager but McHugh was there on merit and started the last six championship games of Dublin's season, culminating with an All-Ireland semi-final appearance against Cork.

There was a pinch me moment of sorts during Dublin's epic quarter-final win over Limerick at Croke Park when McHugh found himself marking Cian Lynch, one of the modern day greats of the game.

McHugh then picked up an injury early in the semi-final defeat to Cork and was taken off but, all going to plan, he'll return to duty with the Dubs again in 2026.

"That's the plan, that's the plan for sure, provided I don't get any more injuries," said McHugh.

"I've had a couple of them the last while and if I get another one then that might be the body telling me to pack it in. But at the moment I feel good and I definitely do plan on going again because I love working with the setup, particularly Niall O Ceallachain.

"He's the main reason I went in in the first place. So I definitely want to give it another year, considering how the year went for us. So hopefully the body holds up and we'll go from there."

Mind you, the injury he suffered against Cork which knocked him out of competitive action for nearly two months may have been a blessing in disguise. By that stage, McHugh needed the rest, psychologically as much as physically.

"It's been a long year," he acknowledged. "I was only saying it to my wife earlier that I started with the Na Fianna footballers and hurlers in July of 2024 and went the whole way with the hurlers, winning the All-Ireland. Two weeks after that I was in with the Dublin senior hurlers.

"That then went all the way up to the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork. I got a bad injury in that game so I actually missed about seven or eight weeks after that.

"In hindsight, it was nearly the best thing that could have happened because if I wasn't injured, I would have went straight in two weeks after again, playing club hurling championship.

"So it was a bit of a refresher, and it was nearly good to get it, just an opportunity for a mental break as much as anything and go at it again then. I'm hanging on now and enjoying it."

As for how exactly he manages to not just operate as a dual player at such a high level, but to operate in entirely different positions in both codes, McHugh shrugged.

"I am well used to it," he said. "I suppose you use your bit of physicality in the backs, in hurling, and then in football my skills are probably better so they have me in the forwards. But yeah, I'm used to it now. I've been doing it since 2020, properly, as a dual player so we'll keep going for another while anyway!"