Tribes star makes history be becoming oldest outfield player to win Gaelic football award
The Galway midfielder, one of three nominations that went out to the 2024 inter-county playing pool to vote, beat off competition from Armagh’s Barry McCambridge and his Galway colleague John Maher.
As expected, Shane O’Donnell has been voted Hurler of the Year by his peers, capping a remarkable three years for him, while his Banner colleague Adam Hogan has been crowned Young Hurler of the Year, the second successive year that award has gone to Clare, following on from Mark Rodgers in 2023.
Oisín Conaty is Young Footballer of the Year, open to inter-county players under 22, after a superb debut season that saw him score 0-13.
His injection of pace added another dimension to Armagh’s counter-attacking game and his 0-3 in the All-Ireland final earned him the ‘man of the match’ award.
At 35, Conroy is a year older than Mayo’s Andy Moran when he won the PwC award in 2017 and Colm O’Rourke when he was Texaco winner in 1991.
Dublin captain Stephen Cluxton won the 2019 PwC award aged 37 while Offaly’s Martin Furlong was 36 winning the Texaco award in 1982.
Meath’s Martin O’Connell in 1996 and Kerry’s Mick O’Dwyer in 1969 were both 33 when they were crowned Texaco winners in those years. Kevin Heffernan did win the 1974 Texaco award but as a manager.
Conroy, a schoolteacher by occupation, scored 2-16 in the championship and while there was an element of fortune about his goal against Donegal, some of his points from distance were of the highest quality.
His three in the All-Ireland final were spectacular scores, mirroring what he did against Derry in the All-Ireland group stage too.
Conroy played in an All-Ireland minor final in 2007 – Galway beat Derry – and made his senior debut a year later. He has completed 17 seasons as a Galway senior and has committed to an 18th in 2025.
He is the first Galway winner of the PwC award since Declan Meehan won it in 2001, the same year that Conroy’s current manager Pádraic Joyce won the Texaco award.
O’Donnell scored 2-14 himself in the 2024 championship but contributed so much more than that with assists for goals scored by Aidan McCarthy against Clare on the opening day and again in the All-Ireland final while also teeing up a Rodgers goal against Cork.
It was on O’Donnell’s prompt that Clare got back into the All-Ireland final after a rocky start while he caused the Tipperary and Waterford defences endless trouble in the Munster round robin.
He is the first Clare winner since Tony Kelly in 2013 and after overcoming a severe concussion in 2021 that may well have brought his hurling career to an end, O’Donnell has enjoyed a brilliant renaissance.
The 30-year-old Éire Óg clubman holds a PhD in Microbiology and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Harvard University in the US.
Hogan had some of the hardest man marking roles during the season but stuck to them diligently and was particularly good when Clare got to Croke Park. He is Clare’s first Young Hurler of the Year since Kelly in 2013, a year the Ballyea man swept both awards.
