Irishman Conor McKenna opens up on his exit from Essendon, positive Covid test and why he settled on the Lions

Conor McKenna is one win away from joining Tadhg Kennelly as All-Ireland and AFL premiership players. But in 2020 he knew he had to get out of Essendon to make both those dreams come true.

Conor McKenna has been the perfect fit at the Lions. Picture: Getty Images

Conor McKenna knew his time at Essendon was up.

It was 2020 and McKenna had endured a hellish season where he was painted as a villain for testing positive to Covid and then dropped from the AFL line-up.

He had spent more than five weeks in quarantine and was then cooped up in his Queens Rd living room isolating, playing Call of Duty, as the AFL slapped him with a one-game suspension for a minor Covid breach.

“I always knew I wanted to go home and play Gaelic at some point. It was just when and what time was going to suit best, and with Covid and all it just felt like the right time,” McKenna told this masthead.

“I wasn’t really enjoying my AFL football over here anymore and I wasn’t sort of playing AFL at that point, I think I was playing VFL level because I didn’t really want to play AFL anymore.

“It just wasn’t a good partnership between me and the club at that stage.

“I wasn’t benefiting them and they weren’t benefiting me, so it was sort of best to just call it quits and head back home.”

As the world entered lockdown that year, McKenna felt free as he went fishing and trained with his cousins in Northern Ireland.

Conor McKenna wasn’t enjoying his time at Essendon when he decided to return to Essendon. Picture: Getty Images

He was at his picturesque family home. Complete with rolling hills it appeared straight out of a Hollywood set.

As a child in the tiny town of Eglish McKenna changed sports as often as he changed clothes, so stuck inside playing Xbox was far from his natural habitat.

He juggled Gaelic football, basketball, soccer, hurling, rugby and – until a growth spurt at 14 thwarted his hopes of being a jockey – horse racing.

It was a long way from life in Melbourne.

“For me it was a big shock just because where I grew up it was a small county with really to be honest just my family. My cousins, my aunties and uncles and granny,” McKenna said.

“We sort of lived in a small wee town and then to come over here and live in a big city was crazy, to be honest.

“That was the biggest shock, and just the culture differences was a big difference, too.

“The weather is obviously a bit better over here.

“I was, and probably still am, a very fast speaker. For the first six or seven months, or maybe even the first year at Essendon, no one could really understand me.

“So probably just getting used to slowing down, and to be honest it’s been the same at Brisbane.

“Trying to get people used to the way I talk, because there’s a lot of blank faces looking back at you.

“It can be a bit (hard). You sort of just learn to deal with it and not really talk to anyone.”

But last year there were plenty of clubs who wanted to talk to McKenna.

With the Sam Maguire Cup – the prize for winning the All-Ireland title in 2021 – secured, he was being chased by Geelong, Port Adelaide, St Kilda, Essendon and Brisbane Lions for an AFL return in 2023.

Conor McKenna settled on the Lions after being chased by a number of clubs. Picture: Getty Images

“It was pretty close between a few clubs,” McKenna said.

“It definitely wasn’t as easy as just picking Brisbane.”

Two factors got the Lions over the line in what has been a shrewd signing.

First was their finals record, playing nine games in September in the previous four seasons.

Second was girlfriend Amy’s friends in the Sunshine State that would help her feel as though she was not alone.

“My girlfriend was coming out and it was probably a bigger move for her than it was for me,” McKenna said.

When Brisbane started the season 1-3 there was uncertainty, particularly as the Bombers and Saints bounced out of the blocks and Port smashed the Lions to start the season.

“It’s always a nervous time when you pick a team you don’t really know how the team is going to go, because stuff can change quickly in AFL,” McKenna said.”

“It’s obviously worked out well. But the first couple of weeks when you’re losing and a lot of teams are winning you’re sort of thinking what now?”

But as McKenna closes in on joining Sydney 2005 premiership player Tadhg Kennelly as the only Irishmen to win the Sam Maguire Cup and an AFL flag it is looking like the perfect call.

The past month has underlined the differences between the Bombers and Brisbane.

“Look, we were at Essendon during a hard time with the (drugs) saga that was going on and all,” McKenna said.

“It definitely probably affected the club more than people thought at the time. We were a good team, we just probably didn’t get the results at the right time.

“I would’ve been here (Brisbane) a short time, but obviously they have a massive base of playing finals – they’ve been playing finals football deep into September the last four or five years.

“So it’s probably been a bit different coming here to a team that’s actually a solid base, whereas at Essendon we were always fighting just to get to the finals.”

Brownlow Medallist Patrick Dangerfield said McKenna was “treated like a criminal at times” when he recorded that positive Covid test.

The Hangar was locked down after Conor McKenna’s positive test. Picture: AAP Images

Cleaners deep cleaned the facility. Picture: AAP Images

Conor McKenna would eventually be suspended. Picture: AAP Images

McKenna hated the fact the media prioritised a sporting competition over his health.

“I was the first AFL player to get Covid and it was a disease that was killing people all over the world at that time,” he said.

“It sort of felt like the media just didn’t really care that I could’ve died for all I knew, and all they cared about was the competition.

“Not that it made much of a difference, I was probably going home anyway. But it just didn’t make me very fond of the media in Australia.”

Fortunately, he wasn’t sick. But he has also said that back then “it felt like you had murdered someone when you got Covid”.

When McKenna returned to Ireland he had to pay his way to play Gaelic football.

“It’s all amateurs (unpaid), so again that’s why it sort of means more,” he said.

“You just give your life to the football team for five or six years, it’s unbelievable. It really opened my eyes to what a good life they had over here.

“The first six months I didn’t do a whole pile of work, and then dad has a horse training licence.

“So I bought a few horses and was training them myself and racing them and riding them out.

“And then I also got a gig sort of selling cameras. I wasn’t doing a whole pile to be honest, it was just keeping busy during the week.”

Playing for Tyrone, McKenna was mainly stationed at full-forward. He said an All-Ireland title trumped what an AFL flag would mean for Australians.

“My mum grew up loving Gaelic football. So for her to see someone up there win the Sam Maguire (Cup) was unbelievable,” he said.

McKenna has come a long way since playing in his first win for the Bombers in 2015. Picture: AAP Images

“It’s pretty massive back home. You don’t really move or transfer teams, so wherever you’re born you play for, so you’re born with this passion.

“Then it just depends if your team is good, you don’t really get the choice.

“You don’t really know anything different. So it’s probably bigger for the family because it would mean more to them than to me.

“We were lucky enough to be good enough and won it in 2021 and the whole community gets behind you, which is really amazing. It gives everyone a big boost.

“So after that I was happy enough to come back here and give this a crack. It definitely made a difference, but I probably would’ve come back anyway I’d say.

“But once I won that I certainly knew I was going to come back at some point.”

McKenna’s mum was a gun camogie player, which McKenna said was “like hurling for girls”. And she also got to an All-Ireland final.

His dad was in horse racing and that is where McKenna sees his post-playing future.

“I’d like to be involved with horses in some way. I just need to find a way I can make money out of it,” he said.

“I’d ideally love to train race horses. If I could pick a job it would be to train race horses.”

McKenna has linked up with trainer Robert Heathcote at Eagle Farm and early mornings spent doing trackwork has helped ease any homesickness.

He has played every game this season without travelling back home to the Emerald Isle. He is settled and happy and will have support in the MCG stands on Saturday.

McKenna’s parents are already in town after flying over for the preliminary final while his brother, Ryan, will jet from Ireland to Melbourne on Thursday.

And it was a phone call from Kennelly when McKenna was in school that made this dream possible.

“He said there was a bit of interest in you,” McKenna recalled.

“Because over there in Ireland people will be watching you when you don’t really know.

“When I heard it was professional football and you get paid for it I said I definitely wanted to give it a go.

“And that’s the reason I came back, to try and win a premiership. It would be unbelievable, I think Tadhg Kennelly is the only player to have an AFL premiership and an All-Ireland Sam Maguire.

“That’s the goal, so hopefully we can get it done.”