CONOR WHELAN’S decade in maroon has flown by.
The Galway hitman was 18 when he made his SHC debut in July 2015 during a 2-28 to 0-22 All-Ireland quarter-final win over Cork.
And the Kinvara ace enjoyed a dream start — scoring 1-2 against the Rebels in Thurles.
He then racked up 0-2 in a 0-26 to 3-16 semi-final victory over Tipperary at Croke Park before grabbing the same tally in a narrow 1-22 to 1-18 final defeat to Kilkenny that September.
Two years later, Whelan become an All-Ireland champion under Micheál Donoghue — and he was an All-Star that year too.
The 28-year-old is now captain and into his 11th campaign at senior inter-county level.
But the Tribes have not made an All-Ireland SHC final since Limerick dethroned them in 2018.
That was also the last year they claimed glory in Leinster — having lost three provincial finals on the spin in 2020, 2022 and 2023.
Whelan is determined to make up for lost time in tomorrow’s provincial showpiece against Kilkenny at GAA HQ.
But he admits forging special bonds is more difficult than before.
He said: “It’s gone very fast. I think the years where you get knocked out early in particular are definitely accelerated.
“If you play only five Championship games in the year, you feel like ‘Jesus, I never got going really at times’.”
Galway bowed out of the Championship in 2019 in the Leinster round robin — just as they did last year.
They also exited in the second round of the qualifiers in 2021.
And Whelan admits those setbacks felt like missed opportunities for the county.
He added: “Last year, 2021 and 2019 — those three years feel like they accelerated faster.
“It goes very fast and there’s less opportunities for the group to spend time together with the way it is condensed.
“I don’t think we’ve been on a night out since the start of the year because of the nature of the league and Championship.
“When you have lots of fresh faces coming in and spending time together, it’s a massive part of it.
“We missed out on that an awful lot during Covid as well.
“There’s something to look at around the structure of it. Even if you give players two weeks between certain games, just to have that down time and spend some time together.
“When you were there and part of the old system, you had two or three weeks until your next game. It feels like it goes faster now.”
SPECIAL BOND
Whelan’s bond with Donoghue will always be special thanks to that 2017 All-Ireland triumph.
But the Clarinbridge man left under a cloud after their 2019 Leinster round-robin loss to Dublin — which ended their summer.
Galway suffered the same fate against the Sky Blues last summer with Donoghue in charge of their opponents as former boss Henry Shefflin moved on.
But two-time All-Star Whelan always knew his former supremo Donoghue would return.
He said: “We had fond memories with Micheál, so it’s always nice to have him and his management team back.
“Micheál always brings a very high standard of what he expects and he’s very good at moulding a group and bringing people together.
“He’s experienced and brings a familiarity and standard. It has been positive.
“I always felt he would be back and he would have had a very close connection with the players from the first time. I knew that would always draw him back.
“I thought he’d leave it another couple of years until a good few of us were finished. But I always felt that he’d be back.”
Seven long years have passed since Galway’s last piece of Championship silverware.
The Cats clawed them in the 2020, 2022 and 2023 finals and are going for six in a row tomorrow.
Kilkenny’s 3-24 to 0-21 first-round win on April 19 was a rude awakening for the Tribes.
But they won their next four games against Offaly, Wexford and Dublin to reach the provincial final.
And Whelan hopes they can end their hoodoo against Derek Lyng’s men and seal their place in the last four of the All-Ireland series.
He said: “As a group and individual, you have to look internally after a result like that and take what you need from that to understand that that’s not the level.
“The group responded and we’ve been fortunate to turn it around but we haven’t won anything yet.
“It’s fairly prestigious to pick up a Leinster medal and put yourself in a great position, then moving forward heading into the last four.
“That’s something we haven’t done for the last couple of years.
“It’s a massive opportunity from a silverware perspective and from the prize of going through the front door.”
