Conor McHugh: The Dual Star The Dublin Hurlers Needed To Make Their Breakthrough

On Saturday evening, a full house is expected for an All-Ireland hurling semi-final for just the second time ever in Croke Park. That is thanks in no small part to the fact that Dublin are there for the first time in 12 years.

If they are to continue their remarkable stride through the championship, they will have to conquer their conquerors from that 2013 semi-final, Cork. But, having beaten 14-man Limerick, Dublin will reasonably believe that they can beat anyone in this championship.

There is a strong contingent from All-Ireland champions Na Fianna in the Dublin squad. Their manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin also lead the Glasnevin club to All-Ireland club glory just six months ago.

In recent years, Dónal Burke has been the centrepoint of the Dubs attacking setup while the Currie brothers regularly link up for scores throughout the championship.

There is also a 31-year-old cornerback who is enjoying his first Championship season as an intercounty hurler from Na Fianna. Indeed he'll be one of the few players on the pitch tomorrow with an All-Ireland medal to his name. For whatever it's worth, he has four.

Conor McHugh is a vastly experienced pillar of Dublin GAA. His name will be familiar to football supporters within the capital. As a hurler, he is the rarest thing in modern GAA: a player in his thirties enjoying his first Championship season.

It's one of many stories that makes this Dublin team so compelling.

We spoke to Aidan Downes, All-Ireland winning coach with Na Fianna alongside Niall Ó Ceallacháin, about McHugh’s abilities in both codes.

As a young player at Na Fianna, McHugh thrived in both codes, immediately standing out as one of the brightest footballing talents in the club.

"I would have been on the senior panel in footbal and I would have been watching Conor win minor title after minor title after minor title, winning it in football and hurling," Downes tells us.

He was actually to the fore of a really exciting batch of players coming through after a lot of kind of barren years at senior level where we just didn't have that kind of quality.

McHugh was part of two of the greatest underage teams Dublin has ever produced in football.

The 2012 All-Ireland-winning minor team featured McHugh at corner forward, in a team that also featured David Byrne, Eric Lowndes, Niall Scully and Cormac Costello, under the stewardship of fellow Na Fianna man Dessie Farrell.

That team is perhaps best known to the general public as the group that partied with Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, in the aftermath of their final victory over Meath.

Two years later, the talent of McHugh, Byrne, Lowndes, Scully, and Costello was bolstered by future senior stars John Small, Jack McCaffrey, Brian Fenton, and Paul Mannion, in what has become known as one of the greatest U21 teams in GAA history.

McHugh stood out among that group and was named Player of the Year at the end of that season after scoring 1-6 in the final victory over Roscommon.

Like so many of Dublin teammates - Costello, Ciarán Kilkenny, Con O’Callaghan, Diarmuid Connolly - McHugh was a talented hurler who chose to concentrate on football.

"I do remember thinking that that was a brilliant achievement for anybody from Na Fianna at the time," Downes tells us.

He was a brilliant hurler, but because he was getting these accolades on the football and winning Leinster titles or whatever with the football, I feel that's why he moved towards the football and got into the Jim Gavin setup.

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While he won four All-Irelands on the panel of those great Dublin, he was kept off the pitch in the big occasions by a vaunted corps of Dublin forwards.

Downes feels if McHugh were in his early 20s now, he'd be a star with the Dublin footballers.

Alas, McHugh's days in a Dublin jersey might have been over but Niall Ó Ceallacháin had just taken the Na Fianna hurling job.

Affectionately known as 'Nelly,' Ó Ceallacháin played a pivotal role in convincing McHugh to return to hurling with Na Fianna.

Downes says:

Nelly's a convincing man. You know, when you're talking to Nelly, you do know and appreciate that.

You know that he has your back and that he will have no other interest, no self-interest in any sort of way. It would all be for the team and the good of Na Fianna at the time.

Nelly is a very good communicator, and I'm sure he would have communicated that with Conor.

"There would have been a bit of a hurling movement happening in the club, maybe five years ago, when Nelly took on the reins.

"You had Colin Currie, Donal Burke, all in and around 21 at that stage. They would have been on Dublin panels, Dublin teams.

"They had three or four years' experience at this stage, and they were dominating the club scene at underage. Na Fianna was certainly a team on the up; everybody in Dublin would have known that."

They certainly were on the up.

A first Dublin final appearance in 2022 was followed by a first county title the following year, after which came a heartbreaking one-point Leinster final defeat to O'Loughlin Gaels.

Na Fianna finally got over the line in Leinster last year, and January brought a historic maiden All-Ireland title with victory over Sarsfields.

McHugh was a pivotal player throughout, and Downes tells us that he brought the massive athleticism and commitment that would have been part and parcel of the football setup he was a part of with Jim Gavin at inter-county level.

Downes also notes that McHugh brought invaluable All-Ireland-winning experience that was absent from the group before his arrival.

Conor is one of the few people in that dressing room with All-Ireland medals, you know, if you take January out of it.

There was nobody in that dressing room with All-Ireland medals and Conor didn't just have one.

Downes describes McHugh as an immensely dedicated player, who was unchanged by his success in football and has brought a stellar attitude to changing rooms throughout his time with Na Fianna.

Ó Ceallacháin moved to take charge of the Dublin hurlers this year, immediately after the All-Ireland triumph. It has been a year to remember already, with a first All-Ireland semi-final appearance since 2013 meaning the hurlers will outperform the footballers in the championship for the first time in decades.

Just as with his Na Fianna team, McHugh has been central to Ó Ceallacháin's Dublin setup.

He has been a pillar at corner-back, and will start there again for Saturday's semi-final, after an excellent showing in the epic quarter-final victory over Limerick.

Conor McHugh has four All-Ireland senior football medals with Dublin. Though Dublin are underdogs for this weekend's clash with Cork, there is no doubt that McHugh may hope to add a famous fifth come the end of this season.

With the way this championship season has gone, you wouldn't be quick to bet against it.