IT would be fair to say Matt Conlon’s memories of Croke Park are mixed.
Six years ago he was part of the Down side that edged Kerry at the death in the Christy Ring Cup final, a tit-for-tat encounter settled by Gareth Johnston’s injury-time goal.
Yet it isn’t the drama or the celebrations that spring immediately to mind. Instead, and perhaps typically of a defender as tenacious as Conlon, it is memories of a rough first half on the big stage.
“I was only 18 or 19 and a couple of goals were scored off me early on. That’s all I can really remember!” says the Portaferry man.
“I never thought I would’ve got nervous, but I did that day for some reason. Thankfully in the second half I got back into it okay, but it was tough.
“Even though there wasn’t many there, there was just the one stand open, it’s still a lot to take in with the stadium and all because you’d have always wanted to play there.”
On Saturday, he will be one of just four survivors from 2013 when the Ardsmen go up against heavy favourites Meath at Croke Park.
Had things worked out differently, however, Conlon mightn’t have been here at all.
“It can be hard to get a steady flow of people staying over the course of a couple of years - a lot of people are emigrating away,” he says.
“I was in New York for a couple of years there. I went over for the summer at first, but I liked it so I went back. There’s a load of people in Australia or other places, and it can be hard to get people to stick here because of the job situation, as well as the lifestyle over there.
“You do miss the club and the county when you’re away though – it was actually the only thing I missed.”
After returning to the fold this year, a broken finger picked up in their opening Christy Ring defeat to Derry saw him miss the next game against Wicklow – an impressive win that, despite his absence, suddenly made Conlon think about the possibility of another outing on Jones’s Road.
“I remember thinking to myself we’ll not play that bad again after the Derry game - we were terrible that day.
“You just have to look ahead to the next game after and get on with it. I was doing exams so I followed the Wicklow game from home – I know how good a side they are, and when we beat them that’s when you start to think ‘we could actually do this’.
“And here we are now.”
