Megan Connolly: 'I’ll be thinking of everyone who fought to get us here'

7 July 2023; Megan Connolly at Dublin Airport ahead of the Republic of Ireland's flight to Australia for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

When the family collectively absorbed the latest tributary in Megan Connolly's career, her father Mick recalled his daughter's familiar gesture for perspective.

“Megan just points to that tattoo on her arm that states everything happens for a reason.” 

It was still a shock. Brighton and Hove Albion are in overhaul mode and Connolly was an early casualty, one of five players culled by new manager Melissa Phillips in May after surviving the drop from the Women’s Super League.

“The WSL is becoming bigger but more cutthroat,” the Cork 26-year-old surmises.

“You might think you’re doing a lot for the club but this industry is a business.” 

Others didn’t see it coming either but such is the unpredictability amid managerial upheaval.

“Megan is a fiercely loyal player and person,” said her Dad. “She’s played in three countries and just one club in each.

“She stayed local as a teen with Corinthians despite Cork City offering her national league level, then spent almost four years with Florida State and the same again at Brighton from 2019.

“I know how devastated she was to be released because she was settled by the coast in Brighton but she’s the type of character that moves on.

“Look at how John Egan and Conor Hourihane bounced back from leaving Sunderland to return stronger and play in the Premier League.” 

Neither of those two fellow Leesiders got to grace a World Cup, mind.

***

Living in the shadow of Turner’s Cross fed the bug that began kicking around with her older brother.

Before Megan developed into a dual star for Corinthians and Nemo Rangers, Luke laid the template.

Only the opportunities were narrower for a girl.

The pair, along with sister Nicole, were unified in celebration on the Cross pitch the night the Rebel Army beat Stephen Kenny’s Derry City to lift the 2005 Premier title.

Just eight at the time, Megan was already mixing with the boys in Corinthians, a similar outlier to Denise O’Sullivan at Nufarm Athletic across the city.

“The first aim was gaining the respect of the boys on my team,” she recalls of a squad that included Cork GAA star Seán Powter.

“They had their doubts about this girl coming along but could see I was contributing to the team.

“But the biggest thing I remember was parents from the opposition. Some would point their finger at me, laughing, but once the match started and I’d score goals, they’d shout at their sons to kick me.” 

For Mick, watching on the sidelines, it became a familiar sight. 

“Their reaction stemmed more out of embarrassment. Parents believing their son was the next Roy Keane not being able to accept that a girl was better. Sure, we had great craic.” 

It was no fun when there was no room at the Inn. Time came at 12 for girls to go it alone and Mick, who had also coached Megan’s Christ King team that reached successive FAI Schools finals, was forced to mount a public appeal with flyers for prospects from Douglas and beyond to swell the numbers.

The fruits of his endeavour are planted today around Corinthians Park, the female section thriving with hundreds of players. 

“We’ve a lot to be thankful to the Connollys for,” said long-serving club activist Terry O’Donovan. “Megan drops into the club when she’s back. The girls are in awe of her for the career she’s having.” 

It might have veered in a different direction from that embryonic phase. While football was luring her from GAA, openings were scarce here to combine it with the education her parents made imperative.

UCD was the only avenue available to achieve both domestically and, as keen as Eileen Gleeson was to have her onboard for the Students’ national league squad, the interview didn’t yield a course offer.

“I was disappointed at the time but it proved the best outcome because otherwise I wouldn’t have gone to Florida,” she asserts.

Mark Krikorian appreciated what Irish players could bring to his Seminoles squad.

Sandwiched between the enlistment of compatriots Megan Campbell and Heather Payne was Connolly; the learning environment at Florida State University conducive to her ambition. Their reputation also appealed.

“Florida was the team that nobody in America liked,” she explains. “Mark placed an emphasis on recruiting players from abroad and it brought success with three national titles.” 

Indeed, with what her father affectionately branded the ‘mongrel’ team for its diverse composition, Megan flourished to individual and collective accolades, feted as the first freshman from the institution included in the national coach association’s team of the year.

Not that it was all plain sailing.

“That was my best-ever decision,” she stresses when asked what might have been if her UCD desire had come to fruition.

“Those years in Tallahassee shaped me as a player, person and teammate.

“Here I was packing up to travel halfway across the world to be part of an elite environment. It’s a team game but, as a solo traveller, there was plenty of time to think. I had to find my feet and grow.

“Every year brought different challenges on and off the pitch. The first two years went well, the third was difficult and I didn’t play much in the final year.

“Everything is easy when you’re playing. Decisions must be made when that’s not the case – whether to sulk or be a good teammate and that’s the route I chose. Thankfully, it all came full circle in my final game when we won the title.” 

Living the American dream is well and good but a rising movement closer to home prompted a diversion.

***

New Year’s Day 2019 in Brighton. From the coastal sunshine, Connolly was shielded from the biting cold by woollies on a winter’s day that was her showcase for a contract.

Investment in the English Women’s Super League was attracting the best global talent, influencing her decision to ditch the US professional draft system she’d originally pinned her hopes on.

College rules prevent players engaging an agent until they graduate but offers of trials were tabled by Brighton and Birmingham City.

The name of her new manager was apt. “Hope Powell offered me a contract after a day and half training with Brighton,” Connolly outlines. “She saw something in me that I probably didn’t and became my mentor for the next three years.

“She was tough but it improved me as a player. The WSL is a competitive league and it took me a good six months to get up to speed but Hope always saw more in me.

“Even in Ireland matches, I still hear Hope’s voice in my head, guiding and advising.” 

Their pinnacle together was Connolly’s winner against Chelsea in February 2021, the first league defeat inflicted on the Blues for two years. They’ve hardly lost since in claiming three titles in a row.

Part of the opposition that day, brought on to chase the deficit, was Sam Kerr.

Powell and Connolly are gone from Brighton now but the connection to Kerr will revive on July 20 at a sold-out 81,500-capacity Stadium Australia.

Connolly has previously beaten Chelsea and Australia teams with Kerr in them and there’s a strong likelihood Vera Pauw will assign her within the five-player rearguard to repel the Matildas captain.

“We’re facing probably the best striker in the world,” she notes, with a fusion of excitement and trepidation. “From playing against her, I know how switched on we must be. Sam loves space in behind but is equally dangerous from set-pieces. They’ve other world-class players and we’ll be ready for them.” 

She’ll do so with the Connolly clan in tow.

Parents Mick and Freda along with siblings Luke and Nicole will be in the stand – unlike for her last competitive Ireland fixture against Scotland when they sat alongside her as she convalesced from broken ribs and a lacerated liver.

All part of the trail of 40 caps from her full debut in early 2016.

She was merely 15 months a senior international when it was punctuated by strike action. College commitments in Florida prevented her travelling to Liberty Hall for that show of strength against FAI neglect but she was fully aligned with her teammates.

“A stand had to be taken and then it was our job to deliver on the pitch,” she says of the dividend accrued.

“We didn’t get to a World Cup by chance. Lots has gone into our development, be that former players, the sacrifices made by our families as well as the FAI and sponsors backing us."

It has happened for a reason. “When we walk out on the pitch against Australia, I’ll be thinking of everyone who fought to get us here.” 

Connolly is still fighting, trading jabs synonymous with her journey whilst capable of landing a knockout of her own.