IN FOCUS: O’Connell’s time in blue

Karl O’Connell has retired after a memorable Monaghan career but has set sail with many precious memories to last a life-time…

By Shaun Casey

KARL O’Connell only started playing Gaelic football at the ripe old age of 17. Six years later, he was drafted into the Monaghan senior squad and won two Ulster titles in a very short space of time.

From there, he grew into one of the best players in the country, the prototype for the modern-day wing half-back. Pace, power, courage and the ability to get on the scoresheet, the Tyholland clubman literally had it all.

In 2013, the Farney County captured the Anglo Celt Cup for the first time in 25 years, defeating All-Ireland champions Donegal in the decider with six points to spare.

Two years later they were back for another heavyweight showdown against the same opposition and Monaghan came out on top by the minimum of margins, with O’Connell chipping in with a point that day.

In 2017 he represented Ireland in the International Rules series as his country came up short against Australia. The following year, he caught the eye once again and finished the campaign with an All-Star award.

After 14 seasons in the blue and white of Monaghan, O’Connell has decided to hang up the boots and step away from the inter-county scene.

Shaun Casey: How does it feel now to be a former Monaghan footballer?

Karl O’Connell: When you throw out the ‘former’ word, it’s another nail in the coffin of the career. Even though I announced it myself but it’s another reminder that it’s actually happened now. There’ll be other reminders along the way when the season starts again and the first league game, then the championship. It was the right decision and an easy decision to make in the end which I’m really appreciative of because I got that opportunity to make it myself through Gabriel (Bannigan). I’m glad that the body was able to go on for that long as well. It was tough making the call to Gabriel but it’s definitely the right decision so I’m just looking forward to the year to come, sitting back and watching the lads go on without me, and that’s more or less the life of a footballer anyway.

SC: Was it difficult leaving the WhatsApp group?

KO’C: It was at the start when I was kind of thinking of it, but when the decision was made, it became easy enough and it was more relief. In fairness to the group, they’re getting plans in place and there’s a lot of chat in the group. When I knew I was going make the call, I just needed to get out because I’m not part of the team anymore. I had made that decision, so it was just a case of making the call to Gabriel. That call would have been made earlier but I knew Gabriel was on holiday, so I didn’t want to disturb him. Once I spoke to Gabriel, I made a couple of calls to the backroom team as well and then put the message into the lads. Once the activity started in the group, I started to feel like an imposter so it was just a quick message and out as quickly as I could before any replies came back but the show goes on anyway.

SC: Did you know 2025 was going to be your last season?

KO’C: It was always on my mind. I was getting older, and each year from around 34 I started to feel that change. The trainings on the Tuesday night after games were becoming really tough. I’m not a big fan of missing training so that was new to me. Vinny (Corey) pulled me and said I couldn’t be training every night, and they had to mind me. That was a big help, but I knew year-on-year that the time was going to come. Going into ’25, I was coming off my first serious injury where I ended up missing training and matches so coming back was more about seeing how the body was, but I kind of had an idea it could be my last year. I didn’t want to make the decision with the club championship coming up. I played the three championship games and played well but when it came to the third game on the trot, I think it was ten minutes before half time where I was flagging and that’s when the decision was made.

SC: Tell us about the injury you picked up during the 2024 season.

KO’C: I’ve been very fortunate not to have an injury through my career. I felt good at the start of the year, and I think it was before the Galway league game I felt a pain around the lower abdomen going into the groin on the right side. I felt like I had no power, and I went to training that night and just wasn’t happy with how it felt. I couldn’t push off or sprint, so I had a chat with the physio, and he pulled me out of training. Funny enough, over the next two days it kind of disappeared and I was able to carry on but then for the championship game against Kerry, I felt a slight niggle, but nothing that would scare me.

In the second half my body shifted but my legs were planted and as the game went on, my running mechanics just weren’t working. Coming on against Louth in the second game, my body had reacted well with the rehab, but in the second half I went to tackle a player and I fell back and felt a rip in my groin area. I tore the adductor – I ripped the muscle off the adductor as well and there was extensive bleeding across the body from the groin to the midriff and to the legs on both sides, so it was a nasty one. Once the muscle repaired, there was an outrageous swelling across the midriff and there were days where I could barely walk. I could barely hold the little one, if I was holding her, she was nearly bringing me down. Thankfully with the help of the physio team, I was able to come back in 2025 as a 37-year-old.

SC: You only started played Gaelic football when you were 17.

KO’C: That’s something that is well-documented. When I started to take sport seriously, probably from 12 years old, I was into athletics, soccer, rugby, then Gaelic came calling through a friend in Tyholland and it worked out really well. Tyholland is a small club, but I had great friends around it – great coaches like Eoin McNally and Dwayne McCurry and then I fully committed to the seniors maybe three years after that. We had Declan Loughman as the manager and Colm Donnelly as the coach and the belief that Declan gave me. Did I fully believe it? Probably not but he did give me that kind of belief that I could get to that level. It was three or four years after that when Eamonn McEnaney called, and the rest is history. I came in at a good time; I fitted in with the way Gaelic was being played at the time and as the years went on, I was able to develop the rest of the skills. Timing played a big part in it – Malachy O’Rourke came on board with Ryan Porter and Leo McBride and took Monaghan to another level.

SC: Monaghan reached three Ulster finals in a row – winning two of them in 2013 and 2015.

KO’C: I remember in 2005 jumping on the bandwagon of the league final at Croke Park and being able to see a Monaghan team play and win, I’ll never forget it. When Malachy came in, for those seven years, it was such an upward trajectory for me. Everyone has their different opinions on the provincials and Ulster is the most competitive, but those years were just unbelievable. Even going into the game (2013 final) there was this belief that it was going to happen. We got stuck in from the get-go and everything was just happening for us and that was just from the effort and the work that we put in. I remember the icing on the cake was seeing Tommy Freeman kick a late point because he’s held in such high regard and the feeling after it was absolutely immense. I wasn’t playing that day but it’s something that I’ll never forget. It highlighted for me that I needed to get on the team because I felt we were really started to compete.

SC: You got a call up for the International Rules in 2017. How did you find that experience?

KO’C: It was an unbelievable experience. I think anybody that is involved in sport, you want to represent your country. In the strange GAA world, to some people, it’s frowned upon to actually represent your country. I was a big believer in the Railway Cup as well, to get a chance to represent your province, I think they were two unbelievable competitions. The International Rules wasn’t something I aimed for, I never really thought about it. Seeing the likes of Tommy (Freeman), Paul (Finlay) and then Darren (Hughes) being a regular and obviously ‘Mansy’ (Conor McManus), I absolutely jumped at the opportunity. I came home from work one day and I was planning to book a holiday away for myself and Antoinette and I got the call that trials were starting. I got a few minutes in the first test and then the second didn’t go my way – I was dropped but that’s sport. It was an unbelievable achievement, and I have the jersey and a couple of photos, they’re framed at my mom’s house.

SC: You won an All-Star in 2018. Only ten Monaghan players have won All-Stars.

KO’C: To be honest, it was very overwhelming, and I think that’s just the nature of me. We only have ten recipients, and we probably should have more. I know in 2007 we had Tommy (Freeman) but my own clubmate Gary McQuaid could have got one. Gary was a big influence on me, a big idol for me the way he played. I would never dare say that I was similar to him or better than him because he was an unbelievable player. I mapped my playing ability around what he did, and he was one of the first people I thought of when I got my All-Star because of what he did for Tyholland and Monaghan. Not only that but we had so many players that played well that year, Ryan Wylie, Drew Wylie, Darren Hughes, Vinny Corey and Fintan Kelly as well – a lot of boys really played out their skins. Probably when I’m a bit older and a bit grumpier, I’ll look back and take the bragging rights with it, but it was definitely something to be proud of.

SC: You had another brilliant season in 2023 and could have won a second. Conor McCarthy ended up winning one at wing-back.

KO’C: Could have, would have. It was another good year for me and Monaghan and that was the most important thing. Conor McCarthy deserved one and I was delighted for him because he’s an unbelievable player. We actually found a position for him in the half-back line and he was fantastic, obviously his scoring prowess but he’s a very good defender as well so I was very happy for him. Would it have been nice to have two? It’s something I don’t really reflect on at the minute and that’s just the nature of me.

SC: That breaking ball you won against Kildare in 2023; did you realise that was such a big play at the time?

KO’C: We got a score, and we were getting that nice bit of consistency in our attacking play, albeit slowly. We got a free and kicked it over and on the kickout, I remember seeing the Kildare midfielder Kevin Flynn and I started moving in because I had a feeling the ball was going to go there. The ball was coming my way, but it took an outrageous bounce away from me and I just knew I had to make it. I knew that if I got my hands on it, I had a serious chance of retaining the ball and getting something for us. I saw out of the corner of my eye, someone getting closer to me and I just jumped on the ball and kind of turned without lying on it.

When I was getting up it slipped out of my hands but another Kildare player came running in and his knees hit my head, so it was a chance to go down and get a free. I was relieved after the game knowing that was a big play but at the time, we still had to kick the ball over the bar and Conor McCarthy did that. I’ve never had any doubts about putting my body on the line for Monaghan or my club, to me it was very simple, it was just about getting the ball and if that goes down as a big play then I’ll definitely take it.

SC: Monaghan came up short against Tyrone (2018) and Dublin (2023) in All-Ireland semi-finals. Are those near misses big regrets?

KO’C: I’m not ashamed or I’ll never hide away from the fact that once we got that belief, an All-Ireland was the ambition. Those two games were very different to each other but there are some similarities too obviously. We had an unbelievable team, that generation of players, a very good management team, we were on a wave of playing open football but obviously still sticking to the defensive side of it as well, we were a bit more adventurous going forward (in 2018). We had chances to get away from Tyrone, and we just didn’t. There was a decision at the end from the ref but again we had chances before that.

I remember their goal; it was an unbelievable block down by Darren Hughes and the ball literally broke out to a Tyrone player on his own and he was able to just chip it in.

We probably didn’t get up to the level that’s required and in ’23 it was a wee bit different although there was a lot of belief again, it was a mixed year. We felt we could get at Dublin, we felt like they weren’t at their best, but lo and behold, the last ten minutes, they literally opened up and got away from us. I’ve never experienced losing a final, but losing the semi-final, it’s very tough and it’s a tough couple of weeks after it but that’s sport.

SC: Looking back, what was the highlight?

KO’C: I probably haven’t got a chance to look back on it properly, but playing ten years of Division One football and being able to compete against the best was just unbelievable. That consistency of maybe ten, 11 years, we can definitely look back on that with great pride. I know there’s a lot of individual accolades but it’s the 2015 final for me. 2013 was a big thing for me, along with the rest of the county, but then from an individual point of view, 2015 was a big moment. I think it was the third league game against Donegal before I got in and that was it. If I had to put a finger on it, it was definitely 2015 but there were loads of other things to be honest.

SC: What does the future hold for you?

KO’C: I’ll play as long as I can for the club, that’s the plan. I’ve always been that sporty person, I enjoy it. Coaching? Absolutely not, it’s just not for me.

I’ll be looking to get involved with the club with my close friends and obviously there are a lot of younger boys now as well, but more importantly spending time with the family is the big thing.