On a Sunday afternoon in January of last year, Conor McCarthy looked across the St Tiernach's Park dressing room. Vinny Corey, then a coach in Seamus McEnaney's Monaghan backroom team, reciprocated with a knowing smile, but no words.
"I was just back from a skiing holiday. I think we were playing three days later," the 2023 PwC All-Star nominee tells Balls.
It was a McKenna Cup game against Fermanagh and McCarthy was about to line out at wing-back. For him, at senior inter-county level, it was unknown territory. "You can imagine what the feelings were then," says McCarthy.
'The conversation, it was a big shock'
He had played the position at underage level with Scotstown but for the entirety of his Monaghan career, McCarthy had been stationed in the full-forward or half-forward line.
9 January 2022; Daragh McGurn of Fermanagh in action against Conor McCarthy of Monaghan during the Dr McKenna Cup Round 2 match between Monaghan and Fermanagh at St Tiernachs Park in Clones, Monaghan. Photo by Philip Fitzpatrick/Sportsfile
"The conversation, it was a big shock at the time," McCarthy says about McEneaney, better known as Banty, hopping the ball to him about the positional switch.
"I think it was my first session at the start of 2022, and he pitched me the idea of it. I was like, 'Right, I don't know about this now! I've been playing in the forwards for the last six or seven years. Listen, I'll give it a go'.
"He mentioned that he wanted more consistency in my performances and he thought that playing at wing-back, I'd be in the game a lot more, which turned out to be quite true last year. My performances were quite consistent. In hindsight, it was a really good move for me.
"If you've had the same job for years, and someone comes to you with a new role, you can take that as an exciting opportunity and that's how I saw it."
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It was a back of a napkin map McCarthy had for that five-point defeat to Fermanagh but 20 months on, he has found his way. In this year's championship, retooled and refuelled at wing-back, McCarthy weaponised the Monaghan half-back line, scoring 2-12, all but a point of it from play. He was a gun they could bring to the knife fight.
'Best moment I've had on a football pitch for Monaghan'
After Banty stepped down as Monaghan's manager at the end of 2022, Corey - just three years on from ending his playing career - got a promotion. Discussions were held about McCarthy as a half-back option but the majority of his league football was played at half-forward.
16 April 2023; Shane Carey, left, and Conor McCarthy of Monaghan celebrate after the Ulster GAA Football Senior Championship Quarter-Final match between Tyrone and Monaghan at O'Neill's Healy Park in Omagh, Tyrone. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Half-time in the Ulster quarter-final against Tyrone, with Monaghan trailing by five points in Omagh, was a crossroads in McCarthy's season. On the day Ryan O'Toole's late goal won the game for Monaghan, McCarthy scored two points in the second half after he was switched to wing-back.
"I don't know if there was anything tactical about it," says McCarthy.
"We wanted to get another forward on in the second half. It meant pulling out one of our defenders. So that took me from wing-forward to wing-back."
He took the turn and never looked back.
During the 2022 season, Banty had Donie Buckley as a coach in his backroom team. Tackling drills are top of the agenda for the Kerryman's sessions. Learning techniques from Buckley, along with increasing his positional awareness, meant Monaghan's new wing-back weapon was also armour-plated in defence.
13 March 2022; Monaghan coaches Vinny Corey, left, and Donie Buckley before the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Donegal and Monaghan at MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey, Donegal. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
"In my first year playing wing-back, I was probably getting caught in between two stools in that one game I would have been attacking too much and then the next game, I would have been defending too much," he says.
"I made a lot of mistakes playing wing-back for the first time. I was able to sit down at the start of the year, have chats with Vinny and the management team, watch clips, and be like, 'Where can I improve here defensively? Am I in a good position? Offensively, where should I be?'"
After suffering defeat to Derry in the provincial semi-final, Monaghan were drawn against the eventual Ulster champions, along with Clare and Donegal, for the All-Ireland championship group stage.
McCarthy scored three points in a draw with Derry and 1-2 in a victory over Clare. The preliminary quarter-final against Kildare was heading for extra-time until McCarthy's dagger point drew blood on the Lilywhites' jerseys.
Cool, Calm & Collected as Conor McCarthy & @monaghangaa pip @KildareGAA at the post on a score line of 1:11 to 0:13 to go through to the @gaa All Ireland Quarter Finals. @PhotoMurp @MonaghanGAAFans @gaa_monaghan @ScotstownGAA @BlayneyFaughs pic.twitter.com/3DEZUCOkXb
— GlennMurphyPhotos (@PhotoMurp) June 24, 2023
"That was massive," says McCarthy, who scored 1-2 that day.
"That was probably up there [as one the best] if not the best moment I've had on a football pitch for Monaghan.
"The game was mad in general. Just before that play happened, Jack McCarron came over to me and said that there were 13 seconds left. I remember looking up at the clock and thinking, 'Jesus Christ, someone has to get a shot off here!'
"The ball went back and forth a couple of times. Sean Jones got it then, called for a mark and didn't get it. I had nothing left in the legs and just thought I'd make one last run here and cut off. Thankfully, Jonesy gave it to me.
"The noise from the crowd was unbelievable. There was a video going from the point of view of the Monaghan supporters in the stand. Getting back into the dressing room and sharing that moment with the lads was just class.
"Vinny mentioned before the game, that we hadn't been back to a quarter-final since 2018. I was thinking, 'Jesus, have we actually not?' I couldn't believe that stat.
"The minors winning that day as well, right before us in their semi-final against Kerry, was huge. I remember watching that and it giving us a massive lift. The Monaghan supporters came out in droves that day."
'You could feel a sense that Monaghan could do this'
McCarthy scored another three points in the quarter-final against Armagh but was on the sideline with "multiple cramps" as Monaghan won the game after a penalty shootout. For the first time in five years, they had reached the last four.
Conor McCarthy opens the scoring for Monaghan with a fine point off his left.
Watch the game live now on https://t.co/C7FxP1q5Ku pic.twitter.com/jGYfCxpMFp
— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 1, 2023
Dublin won the semi-final by seven points but Monaghan pushed them all the way. They were level as late as the 61st minute and were still within two points in the 69th minute.
"It felt like our plan was going well that we'd talked about going into the game," says McCarthy.
"We kind of targeted that third quarter, knew with Dublin teams in the past it's huge for them, the momentum they get after half-time and shooting into the Hill. I think we won that third quarter by a point. Everything was going to plan.
"We felt we were right in that game until the 60th minute; on the pitch, you could sense it. You could sense it from the Monaghan supporters as well, every time we got a turnover or a score, you could feel a sense that we could do this. In the last 10 minutes, they turned us over.
"When you sit down at the end, you can hold your head up high in that things were going to plan and we just didn't finish it off."
15 July 2023; Lee Gannon of Dublin is tackled by Conor McCarthy of Monaghan during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final match between Dublin and Monaghan at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
20 years ago, an eight-year-old McCarthy turned up at training in Scotstown, not long after being transplanted from San Francisco where he'd lived with his Cork-born father and Monaghan-born mother.
'I still had a thick American accent'
The only pressure McCarthy has ever felt on the pitch has been to deliver championships for the club.
"They have such a rich tradition of winning championships, Ulster club championships," says McCarthy, who was part of the Scotstown side which defeated Kilcoo in Sunday's Ulster quarter-final.
"You go into the village and there are old lads there who have three or four Ulster club championship medals and that's the kind of pressure I would be putting myself under, to win championships for Scotstown.
12 November 2023; Conor McCarthy of Scotstown in action against Ceilum Doherty of Kilcoo during the AIB Ulster GAA Football Senior Club Championship quarter-final match between Kilcoo, Down, and Scotstown, Monaghan, at Pairc Esler in Newry, Down. Photo by Stephen Marken/Sportsfile
"It was definitely a culture shock, going from the bright lights of San Francisco to the less bright lights of Scotstown's training pitch in Kilmore.
"I still remember the first session. I still had a thick American accent and no one could understand me! Niall McKenna, who is one of the underage coaches in Scotstown, told me to run six laps for a warm-up and I hadn't a clue what a lap was.
"I probably taught myself how to speak in a Monaghan accent to fit in rather than losing the American accent."
The first text McCarthy received about his PwC All-Star nomination was from his father who is based in America. This weekend's ceremony at the RDS is a good reason for a family get-together.
"That's what I've been saying to my mother, it's a reward for them as well as it is for me," says McCarthy.
"My mother and father will be going to the All-Stars along with close family from Cork. My father is based in America so he is flying back for it.
"In the middle of the whole thing, it's nearly like a big family reunion, which is kind of cool. It's something we don't usually do as a family. I don't know if that would have happened if the All-Stars weren't on."
