It’s a failure if you’re not picking up silverware, says McDonald
ASCENE from Nowlan Park in high summer sees former England cricket captain Freddie Flintoff and ex-Liverpool player Jamie Redknapp from television’s A League Of Their Own providing the half-time entertainment.
It’s a penalty-taking contest like the locals have never witnessed, over 17,000 packed into the ground for Kilkenny’s winner-takes-all Leinster Championship group match against Wexford. In goals is the latter’s renowned keeper Damien Fitzhenry.
Right at that point, Wexford looked on course for a provincial final date with Galway. Seven points up, arguably the score of the first half belonged to Conor McDonald who stumbled under pressure from Pádraig Walsh, found his feet again and, unable to catch the sliotar a second time, fired it over the bar off his stick. But it all went south not long after the TV crew’s on-field cameo.
Paudie Foley and Lee Chin stretched Wexford’s lead out to nine before Davy Fitzgerald’s team hit a wall, a fourth Championship match in 21 days caught up with them.
As McDonald’s club team Naomh Éanna prepare for a shot at a first Wexford SHC title against St Martin’s this afternoon, it’s been hard to avoid memories of that Saturday night in early June. Because on Thursday evening, the episode went out on Sky One in what was the series finale.
Between that defeat and the limp All-Ireland quarter-final defeat by Clare, it was a tough season’s end.
He’s not making excuses but only pointing out the obvious when referencing Wexford’s punishing schedule in Leinster. ‘Playing four weeks in a row. You’re doing it in the League so when its gets to Championship it’s obviously quite tough. During it, you’re not thinking about it. You’re almost brainwashing yourself to say that you’re always fresh,’ said McDonald.
‘In Nowlan Park in the last game I think it was fairly evident – we kind of fell apart in the last period. Forty minutes in, eight or nine points up, and thinking you are coasting in ways.
‘I know Kilkenny are the kings of coming back, that never-say-die attitude. Looking back on it, you’d probably say it was a bit much.’
Wexford never recovered, they looked off-colour and out of gas too against Clare. ‘It’s hard to put your finger on the reason why. Our performance clearly wasn’t good enough. It’s a tough pill to swallow leaving the Championship, knowing you haven’t reached your full potential as a team,’ he added.
‘It’s in your stomach until you’re back training, back into Championship more than anything. It was a nasty enough way to leave Páirc Uí Chaoimh, knowing we underperformed. You’ve a long winter to wait. The club is keeping me ticking over.’
It’s done that and a whole lot more. He’s in Dublin to promote the fact that Aer Lingus, in partnership with the GAA and GPA, have brought out a customised jersey for the Fenway Hurling Classic. That competition will see Wexford, among four teams, head to Boston next month for the Players Champions Cup and he’s more than happy to talk about the club scene and Naomh Éanna’s milestone.
The Gorey club’s achievements have brought a smile to his face. ‘First county final in history, first senior final. It’s nuts. The town is going crazy,’ he said. ‘We had an intermediate “A” football final last weekend so we’re running into the hurling final. We won, yeah. All year I was playing midfield, for the final I went in to fullforward. Closer to home. Scored three points. It’s one of those years we have been blessed.
‘Obviously, we’re going to have to park the emotions. Do everything we can to try and win it. You’re dreaming of the feeling being better again.’
This is the club that produced local legends in Ger Cushe and Billy Byrne, two of the cast of characters of Wexford’s last All-Ireland win in 1996. The former a teaktough full-back, the latter immortalised with that kicked goal and match-winning cameo in the 1997 Leinster final against Kilkenny.
‘Coming back from games and there are people there like Ger and Billy. They have spent their whole life trying to get to where we’re getting at the minute. It doesn’t add pressure. It just feels like you are doing something for people who are so close to you.’
Back in February, McDonald opened his own fitness studio in Gorey, in the Naomh Éanna GAA complex, and he has thrown himself into the new business venture. The recent ESRI report produced the headline finding that intercounty players can be putting in up to 31 hours per week in commitment and McDonald is one of those driven to success.
‘If I’m not winning silverware I feel like I need to put in more hours. I need to do more. That’s probably the nature of what I am. If the figure comes out next year and I’m after saying I’m putting in 24 hours, seven days a week, then so be it if it means we win something. I think a lot of GAA players feel the same. Personally, if I had to put in 24 hours, seven days a week, for the remainder of the year to win something, then you’re going to do it.’ It was Damien Fitzhenry who said at the start of the summer that another season for Wexford without silverware would be a failure and McDonald isn’t about to disagree. ‘I actually think, as a player, anything other than silverware is [a failure]… if I was playing for any other team I’d be thinking the exact same thing. That’s my attitude anyway. If you’re not winning silverware then you’re failing.
‘I’m sure with the respectable couple of years we’ve had, getting to quarter-finals, if that’s what you’re aspiring to do, then you’re probably in the wrong game. The level is so high. You have to get up to that.’