Con
By John Harrington
Learning how to say ‘no’ has become a necessity for Dublin dual-star Con O’Callaghan.
Because were he to say yes to every manager that would like him to train and play for their team, he’d burn out quicker than a cheap candle.
He’s wanted by the Dublin U-21 and Senior football and hurling management, the UCD Fitzgibon and Sigerson Cup management, and, of course, his own club Cuala who contest the AIB All-Ireland Club SHC Final against Slaughtneil on February 25th.
Given the magnitude of that match, it’s hardly surprising to hear he’s focusing his energies in that direction for the short-term at least.
That has meant turning down the possibility of a hurling scholarship with UCD and playing Fitzgibbon hurling and Sigerson Cup football.
He has also ruled out playing inter-county hurling for the foreseeable future, and has limited his involvement with the Dublin senior and U-21 footballers for as long as Cuala’s hurling adventure continues.
“I decided Cuala was going to be my focus and to be honest Jim Gavin agreed with me as well and so did (Dublin U-21 manager) Dessie Farrell,” says O’Callaghan.
“It’s not often you get these opportunities with the clubs so you have to take it with both hands.
“At the moment I am just training with the club and I do a gym session with the Dublin senior team. Then I just tick away with the U-21 footballers, do a bit of kicking at the sessions when I go out.”
Con
Juggling all those balls takes some doing and requires a lot of phone-calls and texts to various management teams. Luckily, all of them have been understanding and are careful not to overload him.
“I was ringing them individually and Dessie would have been involved in with Na Fianna in the All Ireland and Jim was very understanding too.
“He said it was the same protocol with Vinnies and I’ll be doing the same as they do. So it’s just keeping on top of the gym work and once the All Ireland campaign finishes I come back to them.
“Mattie (Mattie Kenny, Cuala hurling manager) is extremely passionate and serious about hurling. But he understands, along with Dessie and Jim – Dessie is obviously part of the GPA – players have to have a life outside of Gaelic.
“I took yesterday off; I didn’t go up to the match (Dublin’s O’Byrne Cup Final victory over Louth) because I just wanted to get a day off and just a day’s rest.
“They understand that you can’t be training 24/7, playing 24/7 – you need down-time as well.”
Club hurling is his primary focus now, but he makes secret about the fact that he still considers himself a footballer first and foremost.
And top of his to-do list is to force his way into Jim Gavin’s team for a series of League matches and hopefully do enough to put himself in the frame for senior inter-county championship football.
Con O Callaghan celebrates scoring a goal in the EirGrid All Ireland under 21 semi-final.
“Definitely, that’s obviously a long-term target. I have to just play it by ear. I’ll really focus on the Slaughtneil match and whatever happens after that will happen.
“But, in the long term, I’d love to be able to break through. But it’s too far in the future to think about it at the moment; I have to forget football for the moment and focus on the hurling.
“I’d love to give it a full run (in the league); hopefully I will next year. But as I said, opportunities don’t come around in the club very often and really it’s a great problem to have – to be in between a load of teams.
“There are so many good teams that I’m playing with, it’s great to have that problem. It’s kind of a cost-benefit or whatever!
“You have to look at the potential benefits of playing with the club, and it’s really special playing with your club-mates and brothers and cousins."
Most young hurlers and footballers would love to have the sort of options and opportunities that are arranged in front of O’Callaghan, but deciding which one path of many to take can be a mentally frazzling process.
“Em, sometimes it is,” admits O’Callaghan. “Sometimes you’d be worried about trying to break through with the Dublin team later on in the year; you’d be worried about all that stuff.
“But generally it’s ok. I’m not thinking about Gaelic the whole time and I can get a bit of down-time.
“My mother goes down to the beach all the time and you can go down surfing there or do something else; play a bit of golf maybe and just forget about Gaelic and hurling.”
