‘We are doing a lot of good things’
Derry star relishing strong start to the year
GIVEN that he has quickly become a poster boy for high performance since returning from the AFL to inspire his county to back-to-back Ulster titles and his club Glen to the All-Ireland summit for the first time, maybe it shouldn’t have been such a surprise to see Conor Glass togged out in a yellow jersey.
But that’s the photograph from the Monday Club celebrations that everyone saw at the tail end of January.
Glass had just delivered a tour de force in the final quarter of the club football final that hung on a knife-edge — just one reason he was officially honoured last Friday at Croke Park as the competition’s player of the year.
It turns out that there is a backstory to the picture of him in cycling regalia and it involves Irish Tour de France winner Stephen Roche.
“You can get sick of the same old regime”
‘People actually think that I don’t drink and that I was off cycling the morning after,’ he laughs.
‘That was not the case. It was just a running joke within the group. We had a theme of the Tour de France for last year.
‘So it was a running joke and the people from Maghera were the ones that got the joke and everyone else was, like, “Is this man out cycling the morning after?!” But it definitely wasn’t the case.’
While the affinity between the Watty Grahams club and the 1987 Tour winner might seem unlikely, Roche’s achievement tied into the idea of making progress in stages, that getting back and winning a club final after the heartbreak of losing to Kilmacud Crokes the previous year was a test of mental and physical endurance, just like the tour.
‘Obviously we had the Derry championship, Ulster championship and then the Andy Merrigan, the All-Ireland, so we just kind of took it stage by stage and that was the idea of having a theme for it, splitting it up into those stages, using past experiences of cyclists.
‘Like, Stephen Roche was an Irish cyclist who won the Tour de France so using his experience of sort of just wee ways of getting yourself focused and making it relevant as such.’
After having an indirect impact, Glass would love to meet the man himself in person. ‘We didn’t get chatting to him, no. Hopefully we will over the next 12 months.’
As for standout memories of the dramatic final win over Roscommon champions St Brigid’s, who led by four points late on, he said: ‘The bus ride home. It was during a storm and there was not one sinner on the road. The bus was swaying side to side, we’re lucky we got home! That was a moment that sticks out. ‘The next day was the main celebration. Being able to have a few drinks during the day with your team-mates, and then going up to the club celebrating on the back of a lorry with the fireworks and all of that, the music playing, those are the sort of memories you just enjoy. There was endless stories to be told in those couple of days as well.’ He was back at Croke Park yesterday as an ambassador for the 2024 Féile — in 2023, 402 teams, comprising 9,000 players competed in the underage competition that spans the country.
Glass (left) runs his own café while also studying Accounting and Finance at University of Ulster, so he has plenty on his own plate right now.
While Derry manager Mickey Harte drew flak for including Glass and the Glen contingent in the starting 15 the week after their All-Ireland final triumph for the opening round of the Allianz Football League away to Kerry, Glass says: ‘There definitely was a lot made of it. I suppose had one of us got injured that week the backlash of it would have been very, very harsh. That was a risk we were willing to take.
It’s not often you get to beat Kerry in their own patch so it worked out well for us.’
And he is gushing about working with Tyrone’s three-time All Ireland winning manager.
‘It’s been utterly enjoyable to be honest. Coming into a new environment, whether it be management, coaches, training, meetings, it’s all been different so it gives you a different feel to it because you probably become sick of the same old regime.
‘It brought that sense of difference in energy to it, which is good.
‘We were eight points from four games, eight points from five games now, so it’s a pretty good start for a team that’s only got promoted to Division 1.
‘We’re doing a lot of good things right.’
Rested for the recent defeat at home to Dublin, of course he says he was disappointed not to have been involved.
‘As a competitor I would have absolutely loved it. Down in your home patch against the Dubs, a packed house, absolutely.
‘It would have been some craic. But, unfortunately, I have to pick my fights and maybe we’ll see them in the League final.’