Conor Glass is now one of the most influential, respected and feared footballers in the country

They call it hangtime in Aussie Rules, but in that moment as he soared through the storm at Croke Park on Sunday it was clear Conor Glass had decided Glen were done with hanging around. Before he returned from Australia they hadn’t much, now Glen have everything.

With 61 minutes and nine seconds on the clock, St Brigid’s goalkeeper Cormac Sheehy put the laces of his right boot through the ball and sent a kick out towards the middle of the field. Glen had just edged 2-9 to 1-11 ahead, Emmet Bradley’s free giving them the lead for the first time since the opening quarter.

St Brigid’s were taking on water, they knew it, Glen knew it. The next play would be pivotal.

So Glass clenched his hand, took flight as if propelled from an ejector seat and put his right fist straight through the hull of a sinking ship.

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As the ball dropped on top of St Brigid’s midfielder Eddie Nolan near the 65-metre line, Glass first readjusted his feet and then launched himself skyward, seizing control of the airspace above his opposite number. While levitating in the air like a comic book superhero he punched the ball with such venom you wondered what the size five had done on him to deserve such a welcome.

But it was no wild thwack. As chaos and pandemonium enveloped the pitch, it was as if the game slowed down for Glass and he was able to bend it to his will. He seemed to hang in the sky for several seconds longer than should have been possible. Glass would not be beaten, not on this day.

The punched ball went directly to Ethan Doherty, who in turn fed possession to Conleth McGuckian and the Glen forward tapped it over the bar to put them two points ahead. It would be Glen’s last score of the game, but it was to be enough.

Glass fell to the ground at the sound of the whistle, tears in his eyes, and for the first time all afternoon he wasn’t sure what to do with himself. He finally looked mortal. But he had become immortal.

For it will, in time, be remembered as the Conor Glass final.

Without his leadership on Sunday, the Andy Merrigan Cup would not have gone up the road to Derry. His goal was the turning point in the contest, the moment he grabbed the narrative and wrestled it back in Glen’s favour, while that incredible hangtime fisted interception managed to both energise his colleagues and suck the life out of St Brigid’s aspirations.

But if those two plays are the standout moments, without the influence of Glass over the course of the entire contest – particularly when it was Glen who looked all at sea – the Derry champions would not have remained within touching distance coming down the straight. He kept them alive during periods of the game when red lights were flashing and the team diced with suffering a terminal malfunction.

In the press room afterwards, Glen manager Malachy O’Rourke was asked about the performance of Glass.

“It was unreal, you know,” he smiled.

We did know. It was.

Glass is 26. A star underage footballer, after signing a rookie contract with Hawthorn he moved to Australia in the summer of 2016 and remained with the Melbourne AFL club until October 2020. That same month he linked up with the Derry football panel and in the Covid-impacted season he made his senior intercounty debut against Longford, at an empty Celtic Park.

Derry were playing in division three then. They will compete in division one this term. In May 2022 Glass starred as Derry won their first Ulster Senior Football Championship (SFC) since 1998. In the summer of 2023 the Oak Leaf retained the Anglo Celt Cup for the first time since the 1970s, with Glass leading the team as captain.

Glen won their first Derry SFC final in November 2021. They have now won three on the bounce. In December 2022, they won their first Ulster club SFC title. They are now back-to-back kingpins of the province.

Last Sunday Glen won a maiden All-Ireland club SFC crown. They are the first team from the county since Ballinderry in 2002 to do so. The fact all these riches have arrived at the same time Glass returned home is no coincidence. To borrow a soccer phrase, he’s the ultimate box to box midfielder in modern Gaelic football.

“We are so lucky to have that man in our club,” said Glen captain Connor Carville on Sunday.

Glass was named an All Star midfielder in 2022 and stats compiled by Cahair O’Kane in The Irish News demonstrate his durability – since returning home in October 2020, club and county combined, Glass has played in 70 of 73 games (excluding McKenna Cup and club league games).

There is no doubt his aerial prowess was given wings in the Australian Football League, but speaking before Sunday’s final Glass suggested his time Down Under also helped make him more robust.

[ Malachy Clerkin: Losing an All-Ireland club final is hard —only the toughest make it all the way back ]

“I was with Hawthorn from about 15-16 years of age and they put me through what they called an injury-prevention programme,” Glass explained.

“It didn’t include any weights, it was pretty much body weight stuff. That was probably what helped for the last 10 years or so. I haven’t had any serious injuries.”

Mickey Harte will now look towards Glass as the man to try lead Derry to Sam Maguire glory. With him on-board, nothing will feel out of reach in the months ahead.

“Send Conor Glass up to Stormont this week to sort things out,” suggested former Donegal footballer Eamon McGee on social media last Sunday.

Some Conor Glass-Chuck Norris gifs are surely on the way. Sure who could ever forget the day Glass won a game of Connect Four in just three moves.

That is the space he occupies now, one of the most influential, respected and feared footballers in the country.

“We are All-Ireland champions, it’s a pretty good feeling,” he said in the bowels of Croke Park on Sunday evening.

Yet nothing about it felt like an ending. The intercounty season stretches out ahead, chances are Glass will be hanging out in the old place again before too long.

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