By John Harrington

If you watched the moment Tyrone’s Conor McKenna and Michael Murphy collided in their recent Allianz Football League match from the comfort of your sofa, there’s a good chance you involuntarily winced and rubbed your shoulder afterwards.

It was an almighty thud of flesh and bone as two of the most powerful men in the game thumped into one another which resulted in the very unusual sight of Michael Murphy being knocked ever so slightly backwards.

Bragging rights in that moment went to McKenna who dispossessed Murphy after unbalancing him, but more than two weeks later he’s still feeling the effects of the collision because his entire upper right-arm is so discoloured it resembles an old apple that’s been left at the bottom of a fruit-bowl for too long.

“Ah, I can feel it - I have a bruise there still from it,” he says with a rueful grin. “It was a good hit, good to get in a bit of a hit.”

Unsurprisingly for a man who a big impression on the AFL in his six years with Essendon, McKenna is the sort of competitor who relishes a physical contest.

He was always going to add some beef to Tyrone’s challenge this year after returning home, but perhaps more surprising has been his mastery of all the skills of the game too.

Normally it takes players returning from the AFL some time to readjust to playing Gaelic Football again, but McKenna was outstanding in Tyrone’s two recent League matches against Doengal and Mayo.

He scored 3-4 from play, his ball-winning ability was immense, his kick-passing laser-guided, and his ability to chip-kick a ball into his hands while in full flight a joy to behold.

It’s not surprise to hear him admit that he continued to work on the skills of Gaelic Football while he was living in Australia.

"There was about eight Irish boys playing AFL at one stage in Melbourne so we were always meeting every two or three weeks just kicking the ball about,” says McKenna.

“And then I was actually training for a GAA team for three weeks when I was over there to try and help with homesickness.

“They were letting me train with my brother's team so I always kept in contact with it.

"And then I always train with my club when I came home in the off season."

Perhaps the fact that he’s feeling so happy off the pitch also has something to do with how well he’s playing on it.

It’s well-known by now that he decided to leave Australia because home-sickness was something he always struggled with.

The desire to wear a Tyrone jersey again was also an itch he felt compelled to scratch, so it means an awful lot to him to be realising that ambition even if it’s the unusual surrounds of empty stadiums during the Covid-19 lockdown.

"Unbelievable, it's something I've always dreamt about it,” he says. “Playing with the minors and we're six years on from that so it's something I knew I always wanted to achieve and just to finally get the jersey on and get my first win was pretty special."

“For me, it didn't really matter how many people were at the game. Just to get that Tyrone jersey back on my back and playing with the lads has been amazing.

"It'd be good to get the supporters back hopefully next year but for the minute, I'm just happy to be back playing with Tyrone."

McKenna is such a talented and unique sort of footballer that he has already added another dimension to Tyrone’s attacking play.

His accurate kick-passing and ball-winning ability means they now have the ability to go long or change the point of attack in a more seamless way than they did previously when they were perhaps over-reliant on a short-passing game.

"I think it's proven that you kick a ball a lot quicker than you run or handpass it,” says McKenna.

“If you can take a few players and get the ball deep into the forwards we have, you can definitely do a lot of damage. It's definitely something I'm looking to add to.

“I think it’s an important thing that you don’t have just one gameplan because if it doesn’t work you don’t know what to do.

“I think we have a few different things going into a game and if it doesn’t work we can just tweak a few things and put players in different positions and hopefully put more pressure on Donegal because it is something we’re going to need this Sunday.”

Donegal looked the more well-rounded team when the teams played one another two weeks ago, eventually running out four-point winners.

There was a phony-war feel about the game though and it would be foolish to read too much into it, but McKenna acknowledges that Tyrone have some ground to make up on their great rivals.

“It was probably the first game the boys had in five or six months and my first game in six years so it was just getting back into the swing of things and we got a bit better against Mayo so hopefully we can keep improving a bit more. I

“I think it will be a different game hopefully and we can give them a better run but it will definitely take a big step forward.”

You can be sure McKenna will savour the moment when the National Anthem is played before the match.

One of the main reasons he left a life as a professional sportsman behind him was so he could experience what it felt like to play for Tyrone in the Ulster Senior Football Championship.

He’s back where he feels like he belongs, and he’s keen to make up for lost time.

“Yeah, I suppose I haven’t really enjoyed playing sport for the last year or so,” he says.

“I didn’t really enjoy the AFL the last part of my career so just being back to loving playing and really wanting to be out there is a massive change. I’m really looking forward to it.”