Conor McKenna is no longer a first choice Brisbane Lions player, but the Lions super sub is now only one win away from etching his name into AFL history books.
If the underdog Brisbane Lions win their first premiership for over two decades against minor premiers the Sydney Swans at the MCG next week, the Sam Maguire winner will make it a fab four of Irish AFL Premiership winners alongside Tadhg Kennelly, Zach Tuohy, and Mark O’Connor.
The latter two won the premiership in 2022 with Geelong, the side vanquished by Brisbane in a preliminary final for the ages this morning.
Kerry legend Kennelly is the only Irishman in history to win both an All-Ireland Championship and an AFL Premiership, but McKenna could cement his name as a Tyrone great if he emulates the Listowel man’s feat in next week’s season decider.
McKenna has endured an inconsistent year for Brisbane hampered by two hamstring injuries in pre-season and again in the opening rounds of the season.
He only featured in 14 out of Brisbane’s 23 league matches and spent several weeks in the reserves after being axed in round 20.
The Eglish speedster was Brisbane’s substitute in last week’s epic semi-final defeat of the Greater Western Sydney Giants, but his performance only warranted a lousy 3 out of 10 from respected AFL journalist Callum Dick.
AFL fans were a little kinder, giving McKenna an average rating of 4.5 out of 10.
McKenna was again only given 3 out of 10 rating, this time by journalist Josh Barnes but fans gave him 5 out of 10 for his substitute appearance against Geelong.
Whatever the rights and wrongs, McKenna certainly made his mark with an exquisite lay-off to teammate Logan Morris, who booted a crucial goal to extend the Lions lead two 12-points in the fourth quarter.
Overall, McKenna collected 3 disposals (2 kicks & 1 handball).
Those possessions stats are nothing to write home about but the loss of ruckman Oscar McInerney to a serious shoulder injury could boost McKenna’s prospects of starting back-to-back Grand Finals.
Mayo’s Oisin Mullin was also given a rating of 4 out of 10 by Barnes who did at least acknowledge Mullin’s meteoric rise from the GAA to being one win shy of playing in an AFL Grand Final in only his second season at Geelong.
Mullin finished with 10 disposals (4 kicks & 6 handballs) and 5 tackles.
Meanwhile, two-time Geelong premiership coach Chris Scott has admitted to sleepless nights over his decision to drop Portloaise veteran Zach Tuohy from the Cats preliminary final squad.
Tuohy has now officially retired as one of only three Irish players to win an AFL Premiership and as the record holder for the highest number of games played by an Irishman.
Tuohy, 34, made 120 appearances for Carlton from 2012-16 before playing a further 168 matches for Geelong. He hung up his boots having kicked 101 goals in 288 matches and is widely respected as one of the greatest Irish players in AFL history.
“For the football public out there, let’s all hope that (Tuohy) gets into the footy media,” Scott said.
“Because if he can take 10 per cent of that into the forum of what he brings into our footy club in terms of his humour and his manner, he’ll be very watchable.
“But it just stings, the realisation that he’s played his last game.
“I’ll be a bit introspective here. I really don’t like this part of the game. I found this week really hard, dealing with those guys.
“One of the hard parts is you come away from it and you still don’t know whether it was the right decision or not.
“When it doesn’t work out you tend to think that it wasn’t, but I wasn’t going to sleep for a couple of nights anyway.”
Tuohy is planning to return to the GAA for Portloaise at the end of the 2025 season.
