Paul Conroy: It took me longer than I expected to win an All-Star
Paul Conroy is hardly the first footballer to mark a first All-Star with a PwC footballer of the year award.
There was Kieran McGeary in 2021 and before him the likes of Jack McCaffrey in ’15, Bernard Brogan in ’10 and Kieran Donaghy in ’06 but all of those winners were in their 20s at the time.
At the age of 35, such bounties have come late for the Galway midfielder.
“It probably took me a bit longer than I expected to get an All-Star, but look it is great to get one, and footballer of the year too is something very special,” remarked Conroy.
“We're very lucky that we've such a strong team at the moment, your team-mates get you this far, really.
“A couple of individuals are picked from that team performance. Thankfully, at the moment we've five All-Stars, and maybe five two years ago. It is nice to see those individual accolades, it gives everyone else on the panel a lift too. It gives everyone a boost of confidence.”
Two All-Ireland final appearances in the space of three years after 14 seasons with none tells Conroy’s story of perseverance. To leave now when they are banging on the door would have been difficult.
“Obviously, we didn't get over the line this year, but we did have three outings in Croke Park, we got over the line in two of them. It is really important to be one of the teams that is looking at themselves at the start of the year as realistic people who can take home silverware.
“Thankfully, in the last few years we've definitely earned that right, to be one of the top teams, to be a Division 1 team, which is good. For a good while we weren't, we were middle of Division 2, and at times dicing with relegation. So, things definitely have improved.”
The St James clubman puts his longevity down to fortune and competitiveness even if there didn’t appear to be much luck about his double leg break following a collision with Seán O’Shea in the 2018 All-Ireland SFC group game.
“I love going training, I have for the last whatever amount of years. A good, hard training session or hard game, the feeling after, the sense of achievement, the friends you make, it is all in the journey. I've been on this journey a while now. It is very enjoyable, and as I always say, if I wasn't enjoying it, you couldn't keep doing it.
“I think it is just a trait I have in me, even from when I was very young, when I started playing football at age five or six, I just enjoyed training, sport. I'd be competitive. I feel I'm at a good level in terms of my body.
“My body has been very good to me, obviously I had one bad injury, but my body has been holding up down through the years. You've to respect your body, to look after yourself, it has been going okay.”
