Young Galway attacker runs riot in league final thrashing of Tipperary

IT was a Saturday evening at Kenny Park on July 13, 2013 and, in my capacity as Castlegar team manager, tensions were running high in a senior hurling championship group shoot-out with Kinvara.

My youngest son Donal was celebrating his 21st birthday later that night – hence, the preciseness of the date – but Conor Whelan was doing his best to spoil the party in a match to decide which team advanced to the quarter-finals.

He was only 16, but was terrorising the Castlegar defence. No matter, what level of punishment he endured, Whelan kept coming back for more. He was their ‘main man’ as Kinvara looked on the brink of victory with time running out.

Ultimately, a slightly harsh free given against Shane Kavanagh for overcarrying saw Ger Farragher level the teams before Dean Higgins snatched victory with an injury-time point. It was a conclusion which was hard on the nerves.

The height of ambition of most under 16 hurlers is to make their club’s minor team, but here was a gangling, fearless and pacey teenager having a huge influence in a do-or-die senior championship collision.

In the devastated Kinvara dressing-room afterwards, I distinctly remember singling out Whelan for praise. My memory is of telling him that he was the best under-age hurler I had ever seen. He was so plucky and naturally gifted that a great career loomed.

That was barely four years ago and though there has been a few bumps on the road since, Whelan now looks poised to became the great player his talent justifies judging by his exploits in last Sunday’s National League final at the Gaelic Grounds.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.