Hurling & Camogie

Long-awaited Ulster SHC red-letter day could be Sunday for Slaughtneil

Loughgiel's last Ulster final appearance saw them beat Slaughtneil at Celtic Park in 2013 <br />Picture by Margaret McLaughlin
Loughgiel's last Ulster final appearance saw them beat Slaughtneil at Celtic Park in 2013
Picture by Margaret McLaughlin
Loughgiel's last Ulster final appearance saw them beat Slaughtneil at Celtic Park in 2013
Picture by Margaret McLaughlin

AIB Ulster Senior Club Hurling Championship final:


Loughgiel Shamrocks v Robert Emmet’s, Slaughtneil


(Sunday, 2.30pm, Athletic Grounds)

FIFTEEN minutes into the Ulster final of 2013, the unbackable favourites were in shock.

Loughgiel were priced at 1/50 before the game, but Slaughtneil’s whirlwind start saw them lead by 1-6 to 0-1. With the breeze at their backs, in a first ever provincial final, Slaughtneil went without a sweeper and took the game to the 2012 All-Ireland champions.

In the end, the lack of scores in their forward line proved their undoing that day. Of the 1-15 they tallied, 1-9 came from frees. That had been the issue for Slaughtneil for more than a decade in which they came close to Derry titles, but could never quite get over the line.

Four of the starting six that afternoon will start again on Sunday, though one of them - Oisín O’Doherty - has long since established himself as first-choice goalkeeper for the club. Cormac O’Doherty, Brendan Rogers and Sé McGuigan were all teenagers at the time, but they have since developed into the attacking trio that will hope to unpick Loughgiel. 

Gerald Bradley and Karl McKaigue were only youngsters as well, while Sean Cassidy and Cormac McKenna were hardly past it at 22 and 25 respectively. In the three seasons since, they’ve gathered up a wealth of experience between them. That defeat, and the losses to Cushendall in 2014 and 2015, would’ve been short-term pain. But this is a team determined to turn that into long-term gain.

Bradley’s well-timed return from a cruciate knee ligament injury is a massive boost for the Derry champions. He was able to get in 15 minutes of the county final against Banagher and an impressive 55 in their Ulster semi-final win over Middletown two weeks ago.

His presence will be required at midfield at some stage, particularly if Éanna Cassidy is unavailable. The untimely loss of his father, Thomas, this week leaves a huge chasm in the sporting community of Slaughtneil. His imprint on this team is unmistakable, and his sad passing will serve as further motivation to the legions of young hurlers he helped mould.

How Slaughtneil will line-up defensively is difficult to predict. Sean Cassidy will have seen Benny McCarry plucking ball from above Gabriel Clarke in Loughgiel’s semi-final win over Ballygalget. In doing so, he opened the Down champions up and created two goal chances.

Liam Watson played at centre-forward against Ballygalget and built on the sharpness he showed in their gritty county final victory over All-Ireland club finalists Cushendall. Their manager Johnny Campbell, who captained the 2012 team, described their performance that day as “manly”. And in the analysis of Slaughtneil’s defeats over the last three years, it has been the physicality of the respective Antrim champions that they’ve at times struggled with.

But Loughgiel are a different prospect from Cushendall. They can mix it, as they’ve shown, but their preference is to involve their attack and give them space to run at the opposition. Their deceptive system offers them that space. Donal McKinley has been an unsung hero on this run, impressing on each outing, and his deep positioning creates the room for McCarry and Shay Casey inside.

Eddie McCloskey has found his gear in recent weeks, and was superb in what was a routine win over Ballygalget beyond a testing opening 20 minutes. Their attack, in general, found their rhythm that afternoon but it was largely because they were allowed to. The Down champions came to play but simply hadn’t the quality to go man-for-man and get near the Shamrocks.

One of their biggest downfalls, and that of the Ballycastle side that Loughgiel beat in the Antrim semi-final, was how much 50-50 ball they hit on top of the Antrim champions’ defence. Ballycastle were particularly disappointing. They had two great outlets in Saul McCaughan and Ciaran Clarke, yet they spent 30 minutes with a strong wind at their backs just raining one ball after the other on top of Neil McGarry and DD Quinn. The kind of ball those two love.

Corner-back Paul Gillan, at the age of 38 and with 20 years of Championship experience behind him, has been outstanding on their run to what will be a ninth Ulster final in the club’s history. Nobody, though, has been able to test Loughgiel’s pace in that area. Ballycastle played the wrong ball. Cushendall hadn’t the pace, and Ballygalget hadn’t the quality.

Only Cushendall’s puckout strategy caused the Shamrocks any real problems. Loughgiel like to load their half-back line and have been strong there all year, with Tony McCloskey rock solid at six. They will often leave Slaughtneil with a free man in defence on their own puckouts, and Oisin O’Doherty will be playing into Loughgiel hands if he thumps ball after ball down on top of the full-back line.

Loughgiel are good at protecting their full-back line and Gillan will be happy enough to see Sé McGuigan come in to him. There are scores - particularly goals - in the young Slaughtneil full-forward, but he isn’t the type to burn the veteran full-back for pace.

Brendan Rogers’ speed and insatiable eye for goal, though, is something that most teams struggle to contain. Neil McGarry’s battle with him will only swing Slaughtneil’s way if they can supply Rogers with the right kind of ball. Both of the respective free-takers, Cormac O’Doherty and Maol Connolly, have been in unerring form and are guaranteed sources of scores in the Athletic Grounds.

If it’s half the game last year’s final, which went to the very wire in extra-time, was then it’ll have been entertaining. Loughgiel have won all eight of their previous Ulster final appearances and, if their attack fires, they could well make that nine from nine.

But Derry hurling, which has never had a club on the plinth of the Four Seasons Cup, has never had a stronger contender than this Slaughtneil team. The day is coming that they will get across the line. That day could well be Sunday.