John Conlon celebrates after Clare's 2023 Munster SHC victory over Cork.
By John Harrington
It’s a testament to the esteem that Donal Madden holds John Conlon in that he returned my call a couple of minutes after I’d left a voicemail requesting a chat about his Clonlara club-mate for a profile piece.
The two of them go back a ways. Madden is a good family friend of the Conlons, won a County Championship with John in 2008, and now manages the Clonlara senior team.
Before talking about John Conlon the hurler, Madden was keen to convey an impression of John Conlon the person, who he makes very clear is something special also.
First things first, John Conlon comes from good Clonlara stock.
“The Conlons are just a fantastic GAA family who are hugely involved in the club,” says Madden.
“John’s brother Patrick is involved with the senior team as well, and his father Pat has trained every team and been involved with everything in the club the whole way up along.
“His mother Bridget has done everything from administering first aid, to being a great counsellor to all the players when she was involved with in teams, to making buns and cakes.
“Bridget has been a huge influence on John. I would say he has gotten a lot of resilience from his mam. They have an extraordinary relationship, mother and son. She's one of his best friends.
“She always kept him grounded when he was growing up, both sides of the family did. John is the sort of fella who never gives up and I think a lot of his battling qualities come from his mam.”
Clonlara captain John Conlon leads his team behind the Tulla Pipe Band during the pre-match parade before the 2016 Clare County Senior Club Hurling Championship Final between Clonlara and Ballyea at Cusack Park in Ennis, Co. Clare. Photo by Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile
Such are the demands of being an inter-county player, that many players end up being peripheral figures around their club until the inter-county season is over, but not Conlon.
“He's a massive figure in our club,” says Madden. “He comes down and helps with the U-6s right up to helping out with helping coach the senior camogie team in the club. His wife plays with them and he's been involved with them for years and years.
“He's just an unbelievable role-model in our club. He'd cut the grass and if we were tidying up the club he's involved.
“Straight up, he's just the sort of guy you would want in your club. He's the ultimate role-model. There isn't anyone in the club who would speak ill of him. He's good company, he’s a bright lad, and he loves the craic.
“Good people make good players and he really is one.
From a young age, Conlon’s ability was obvious, as reflected by the fact he was a two-year Clare minor and a three-year Clare U-21.
What made him such a formidable player was that his natural skill was complemented by a ferocious will to win and a growth mindset that pushed him to constantly strive for self-improvement.
“I suppose my first memories of him was that I was involved with a Clare minor team and John was young coming through like that,” says Madden.
“The first thing that stood out about him was his physique and his attitude in training and his willingness to learn and improve. Even at an early age he was always wanting to get better and was hanging on the coach's every word, just trying to better himself.
“That's continued right throughout his career up to the present day in that he's always looking for the extra edge. At his age to be playing to the level he is, given his injuries, is phenomenal.
“There aren't too many 34-year-olds playing inter-county hurling. And definitely to be able to reinvent himself as a centre-back after playing 80 per cent of his career as a forward, is crazy stuff really what he has done.
“The greatest compliment you could give John is that he's gotten the most out of his God-given talent. He has worked so hard getting himself in the best physical shap, getting his hurling up to the best possible standard.
“He's not someone in the style of the Noel McGraths or Joe Cannings of this world. He has milked everything from his God-given talent, and I don't think there are too many players who can say that.”
PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month for April in hurling, John Conlon of Clare, with his award at PwC’s offices in Cork. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile.
Conlon’s outstanding form for Clare over the course of the last three years in is all the more impressive considering he ruptured a cruciate ligament in 2020.
Such a serious injury at the age of 30 would be a career-ender for lots of players, but instead Conlon turned a negative into a positive.
He used his rehab to build up other parts of his body and finally get to the root of problems he had in his back and ankle for a number of years.
By the time he’d recovered from his cruciate surgery, the rest of his body was in better shape too. Perhaps even more importantly, he returned to the game with a more positive mindset.
“Having chatted to him, he has come back with a freshness of attitude,” says Madden. “Prior to injuring the cruciate, I would say he was putting nearly unrealistic pressure on himself.
“Now he's playing with an abandonment and freshness of mind. It's as if his attitude is that this could be my last day to hurl for Clare or last chance to win a Munster championship with Clare. He's going out now with a freshness of mind and just going out to have a cut and lets see where it takes me.
“I think that has taken a lot of pressure off him. I felt prior to that he was maybe over-analysing things and over-critical of himself. Obviously he worked extraordinarily hard to come back from the injury and he now provides a lot of support to other people who are going through the same injury.
“That's his meticulousness in terms of getting himself right. I knew that time he would get his body right, I had no doubt about that, but I think in terms of himself it was almost a positive because he came back with a whole new mindset of I'm just going enjoying this and I'm going to relax and express myself on the pitch.
“He's playing with more of a smile on his face and I think he's definitely playing with far more freedom.”
John Conlon of Clare after his side's defeat in the 2022 GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Kilkenny and Clare at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Sometimes the best way to gauge the importance of a player to a team is to take them out of it.
The extent to which John Conlon is a key cog in this Clare team was most apparent when he was ruled out of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny by injury and the Cats ripped the Banner County apart.
Many other systems failed for Clare that day, but the absence of Conlon undoubtedly left a gaping hole in their defence Kilkenny poured through.
“It’s not alone his hurling ability, it's just the presence,” says Madden of what Conlon brings to a team.
“When John Conlon is on the field everyone feels a bit safer and more secure. His presence in the dressing-room, sometimes it's not what he says, but how he behaves.
“I was at the game that day against Kilkenny and even going in with the crowd there was a big emptiness that John wasn't playing.
“He's kind of a fatherly figure for a lot of the younger lads playing for Clare and it was a big hole taken out of the Clare spirit on that particular day.”
When Clare defeated Limerick in that epic Munster SHC Round 2 clash on April 29, Conlon was the undisputed man of the match.
What made that feat all the more impressive was that earlier that day he’d been best man at his brother Patrick’s wedding.
The sort of guy you’d want by your side on the big days, you can be sure he’ll be leading the Clare charge again in Sunday’s Munster Final against Limerick.
