Mayo junior club championship final: Nothing beats playing for Bonniconlon

Ronan Conlon was contemplating life a few years ago when his wife, Emma mentioned to him that maybe he should give up on the Bonniconlon dream. The woman with a handful of county medals reckoned he might have more success in another sporting sphere, but he was having none of it.

“You can’t walk away. It’s part of what I am and now we’re in the county final,” he added with a smile last Thursday night at the pre-final press conference.

The man who first played adult football 16 seasons ago when racing on as a sub against Achill on a windy day by the ocean is determined to make this opportunity count. 

“They stuck me in corner-forward and I’m still playing now. Your club is special. Bonniconlon is my club and I love it.”

At home, Mrs Conlon (Emma Lowther) has no problem locating her medals from heady days in the saffron and blue of Knockmore. She’s very supportive of her husband and will be beaming with pride on Saturday evening when Ronan and his friends run onto MacHale Park.

“It’s special. So much goes into it. It’s not just the player, it’s the family, the wives, girlfriends, partners, parents, kids - everyone really. It’s a whole team effort to play football and it would be lovely to win it on Saturday for everyone who put so much into it.

“It hasn’t always been easy playing for Bonniconlon. We were always capable of beating anyone over the years, but recently we were hanging on at intermediate level, now we have the chance to win the junior, get back up to intermediate and have a real cut at it,” he explained.

“We were never really competing at intermediate, but we were able to always go out and beat a very good team. We were hot and cold in intermediate, but we took nothing for granted when we got relegated. We got a rude awakening in the opening round against Swinford. It didn’t take us long to cop on after that.”

The last few weeks have been a different experience for all of us. We’re not used to playing football this late in the year and it’s great. I live near Ballina and when I’m driving out to training there are flags all along the road. Of course, we can’t get carried away with that, but it’s lovely. It’s great for the community and great for all the young lads and girls looking to play football. 

“We have huge numbers of kids playing football now in Bonniconlon and that’s what it’s all about.” On Saturday next, many of those future stars will be in Castlebar roaring on Conlon and his team. If the result falls his way he’ll have a medal to show his wife. There’s really is nothing like playing for your club.