Healy: My Con career may be over

CRONAN HEALY’S match winning try in Saturday’s AIB All-Ireland League final may have been the final act of a glorious career at Cork Con.

Healy, 29, hinted afterwards that victory over St Mary’s may have been his last game in the famous jersey.

He revealed: “I have to start setting roots and get the 2.4 kids although I still have to find my bride! They’ll try to talk me out of it and I still haven’t made a clear cut decision but it would be nice to finish on a high like this. To score the winning try in extra-time in an AIL final, it can’t get a whole lot better.”

He continued: “I’m no different from thousands of others who play schools rugby and club rugby and have aspirations to play for their province and go on to play for Ireland.

“I have won every medal an amateur can win, I’ve been on the Irish club side and there’s nothing there to motivate me and keep me going any more.”

He paid tribute to the Con squad for the manner in which they ground out victory and bemoaned the lack of recognition amateur players receive in the modern era.

“We were determined to get this win and do the double, especially after missing out on the treble with the Munster Cup. We started training as a group last June so we’re at it for close on a year, going through the hard slog, the ups and downs.

“When you come to these days like this with a big crowd and the sun shining, it makes it all worthwhile. You saw at the end of the second half, we had a quarter of an hour on our own line and each man was putting their heart on the line.

“That says an awful lot for the club game and I think it is overlooked that we have these very good club players just because the professional game is the be all and end all.”