Robert Emmet’s, Slaughtneil (Derry) 2-14 Loughgiel Shamrocks (Antrim) 1-13
YEARS of work, so much of it by the late Thomas Cassidy, bore fruit in Armagh as Slaughtneil created hurling history on a hugely emotional afternoon.
As his son Éanna, who battled through 54 minutes before coming off to a standing ovation, climbed the Athletic Ground steps to lift the trophy last and carry it to the masses, the roar congregated in hundreds of choked throats beneath him.
Thomas’s younger son Séan had come just behind the skipper, after daughters Eilís, Aoife and Brona had backboned an equally brave display from the club’s camogs in the first game.
There wasn’t a man on their 30-man squad yesterday that hadn’t been guided by his gentle hands during their underage careers.
“He was the main driver of this dream. His spirit today lived in all of us,” said their drained skipper Chrissy McKaigue after becoming the first Derry man ever to lift the Four Seasons Cup.
He was immense, particularly during the first 20 minutes that won the game for them. They started at a rate of knots that it simply took Loughgiel too long to match.
Nine minutes on the clock, the lead was 2-3 to 0-0. Brendan Rogers’ third minute run was halted but not sufficiently to prevent Cormac O’Doherty from bundling the ball across DD Quinn’s line.
Seconds later, Paul Gillan needed to be alert to get behind his ‘keeper and sweep away Rogers’ doubled effort that was heading the same way.
Sé McGuigan and O’Doherty pointed before McGuigan capitalised on an error from Ronan McCloskey to steam clear and square for Brendan Rogers to poke past Quinn from close range.
When Benny McCarry fired over after 10 minutes, he made the score Slaughtneil 2-3 Loughgiel 0-1. Three years ago, it had read 1-6 to 0-1 in Slaughtneil’s favour at almost the same stage, but the Emmets hadn’t the quality then they have now.
That said, Loughgiel made a serious fist of getting back into the game. Slaughtneil’s manic intensity, tackling in gangs of three and four all over the park, had to lessen eventually and when it did, the Shamrocks started to tick.
Liam Watson was their driver in the opening quarter, and thanks to Maol Connolly’s accuracy from the dead ball, the Antrim champions crept back into the game.
They got to the pitch of it after 20 minutes and started to offer back the same type of physicality that the men from Carntogher had brought.
It was bone-crunching, unrelenting stuff at times. It perhaps lacked the end-to-end quality of last year’s decider, though the sandiness of the Athletic Grounds pitch had a lot to do with that.
Slaughtneil’s endless trips to Benone beach for recovery perhaps aided them in more ways than they imagined.
Chrissy McKaigue sped down the sideline and fired a wonderful angled effort from beneath the stand to make it 2-7 to 0-6, with frees from Connolly and O’Doherty at either end maintaining that gap into the interval.
Loughgiel’s introduction of Joey Scullion went a long way towards turning the tide. His deployment at wing-forward, and the switch of Donal McKinley on to McKaigue, made a discernible difference.
The speed and accuracy of DD Quinn’s puckouts alleviated the pressure. They had won just two of their own puckouts in the 22 minutes before he was introduced.
Given the manner of the start, Loughgiel would have been happy enough to be seven down at the break, but ten minutes after the restart they remained as far out and looked like a lost cause.
Cormac O’Doherty, who finished with 1-9, fired a beauty from the sideline to make it 2-11 to 0-9 after 40 minutes. Michael McShane’s side looked set to free-wheel to the finish.
But Loughgiel are made of more than that. Johnny Campbell had hailed their performance against Cushendall as “manly” and, whatever about the merits of its quality, this second half fell into the same bracket.
They took control in the half-back division and Slaughtneil struggled to get any service near Brendan Rogers or Sé McGuigan for the last 20 minutes.
42 minutes in, Joey Scullion took off on a superb run right down the middle towards the Slaughtneil goal.
He looked to have lost control but he got his reward when the ball fell back and he squeezed it through Oisin O’Doherty and cut the gap to five.
Sé McGuigan quickly responded but the red and white gander was up. Mark McFadden, Maol Connolly and Barney McAuley twice landed scores, the latter three from dead balls, to bring themselves back to within a goal.
The first of McAuley’s scores came from a 65’ after his go at goal from a 21-metre free was turned away by Oisin O’Doherty. By that stage, Loughgiel had replaced both free-takers Maol Connolly and Liam Watson, with the latter’s discipline starting to fray.
The Slaughtneil nerves were on edge as the clock ticked towards the end. It took their captain to settle it when he grabbed hold of Cormac O’Doherty’s line ball and squeezed a shot over DD Quinn’s crossbar from 25 yards to offer the insurance of a four-point lead.
Four added minutes were offered to Johnny Campbell’s side but they were so fractious that they could make no use of them. A scuffle at midfield led to a red card for veteran Paul Gillan after he tangled with Brendan Rogers.
Some more dragging in the goalmouth slowed the game up again and as a result, very little of the four minutes actually contained any hurling.
But whether it was four or forty minutes added, it was just destined to be Slaughtneil’s day.
Oisin O’Doherty threw the last puckout into oblivion as James Clarke signalled time, and the maroon and white descended on the grass for their weekly successful invasion.
Half the Slaughtneil players are now Ulster club medallists in both hurling and football. With a ludicrously young age profile, there’s no sign of them stopping either. The Leinster champions are on the horizon post Christmas.
But they’ll enjoy this one first.
And this one was for Thomas Cassidy.
