SLAUGHTNEIL manager Mickey McShane says the Derry club will “make amends” after their dream of a treble of All-Ireland final appearances was dashed on Saturday.
The footballers and camogs from the inspirational Oak Leaf county club are already in national deciders and their hurlers fought hard to join, but they were never able to get close enough to a mighty impressive Cuala side to make their passion and determination count.
From early on the writing was on the wall for the Ulster champions and Cuala cracked in three superb goals to seal a deserved win that saw them become the first Dublin club to reach the St Patrick’s Day final where they’ll take on Clare’s Ballyea.
After Con O’Callaghan stunning 10th minute goal, the Dalkey outfit took complete control and had built an impregnable 1-13 to 0-5 lead by the break. Slaughtneil were greeted by an encouraging roar from their supporters as they emerged for the second half, but Cuala’s Sean Treacy found the back of their net after just 45 seconds and that was that.
The Emmet’s battled on to the finish and replied with goals from Gerald Bradley – who was outstanding in the second half – and Se McGuigan but, as manager McShane conceded, the best team won on the day.
“From the start of the game to the finish, the best team was Cuala,” he said.
“Some days you get beaten by a better team and today we were, I’m just bitterly disappointed, as are the players, that we didn’t play to the level we know we can.
“We didn’t do ourselves any justice out there today. I wouldn’t lay the blame at any players’ door – nobody went out there today to play badly.
“They gave it everything they had and it wasn’t enough. Cuala are a very good team and today they were just too good for us.
“It’ll be a good team that’ll beat them. Good luck to them in the final and I mean that genuinely, I hope they go on and win it.”
You couldn’t argue with his honest assessment, but there is no doubt that fighting on two fronts at this level has brought its challenges for Slaughtneil.
“We have no excuses, we were beaten fair and square today,” said McShane (below).
“Probably the fact that we didn’t get doing as much hurling as we needed to do or as Cuala got done was against us there today. Our touch was a wee bit sloppier than theirs, our striking wasn’t as sharp and we didn’t get playing enough challenge games to get us to the speed and the level we needed to be at.
“But that’s not an excuse, it’s just an observation.
“We fumbled a few balls and we were slow to the breaking ball and that comes from real sharp challenge games. Going into a game like this you probably need half-a-dozen and we got three, we haven’t had a challenge game in five weeks and that is the life of a dual club. It’s the burden you have to carry and it didn’t burden the footballers.”
McShane is convinced that his young Slaughtneil side will give a better account of themselves in the future.
“We’ll be back at this level again and we’ll make amends for that,” he said.
“The average age of that starting team today was 22 and we’ll be back, more determined than ever.
“Our goal at the start of the year was to win an Ulster title and we achieved that. We’ll reset and next year we’ll go out to win a Derry title and get ourselves back to defend our Ulster title. If we can do that we’ll be back at this level – whether it be next year or the year after, we’ll be back.
“This team will not go away.”
He added: “Slaughtneil supporters have been fantastic all year. They’re out nearly every weekend and they’re behind us. It would have been easy for them to leave the ground early today we they saw that we were beat but they stayed to give us a really rousing send-off going off the pitch.
“While the players are hurt today, they’ll appreciate that, I know they will.”
McShane’s men got their noses in front when Chrissy McKaigue galloped through the centre of the Cuala defence and cracked over the opening score.
David Treacy’s frees were a feature of the first period and he cancelled it out, but Brendan Rodgers conjured up another score for the Derry men with neat control and an accurate finish.
That was as good as it got for the Emmet’s. Mark Schutte levelled and a mighty David Treacy hit from a free on the halfway line sent the Dublin and Leinster champions ahead.
Oisin O’Doherty’s puck-outs were coming straight back at him as the sharp Dubliners hoovered up the breaks at midfield and David Treacy added two more frees.
Cuala’s full-forward line combined for their first goal. Schutte competed for Sean Moran’s ball out of defence and Cian Waldron nipped in to pick up the break. He squared the ball to O’Callaghan who turned his marker and blasted an unstoppable shot into the top corner of the Slaughtneil net.
Four more points from David Treacy followed and though Chrissy McKaigue (who was shadowed by John Sheanon), Cormac O’Doherty and Rogers posted points, the Dubliners had established a commanding 11-point lead by the interval.
The Slaughtneil supporters gave their side a rousing reception as they returned for the second half, but Cuala half-forward Sean Treacy caught their defence napping when he broke into acres of space and beat Oisin O’Doherty with an accurate finish.
There was talk of a ‘20-point win’ but Gerald Bradley gave his side hope when he bundled the sliothar into the Cuala net from the restart and his effort set the tone for an improved Slaughtneil performance in the second period.
The Emmet’s were quicker to the breaks and used the ball better and put together a run of 1-5 that was broken by just two points from the Dubliners. Se McGuigan got the goal and Cormac O’Doherty (0-3) and Bradley (0-2) registered the points but Cuala closed the game out when Niall Carty slotted home their third goal and Naoise Waldron grabbed a point after coming on as a late substitute.
Cuala manager Mattie Kenny – a Galway native brought up “just down the road form Joe Canning” – said the Dublin outfit’s first half performance had been the key to their win.
“You’re in an All-Ireland semi-final so you have to take everybody seriously and Slaughtneil are on a great run,” he said.
“They’re a fine club, a fine hurling team and we had to be at our best to make sure we got the victory.
“The early scores gave us some momentum and we got our noses in front and maintained that gap all the way to half-time.
“Then we came out for the second half and we said we’d concentrate for the first 10 minutes and try to get a foothold and we did. But fair play to Slaughtneil, they got two goals in the second half and they played very well.”
When it was put to him that his team had ruined a fairytale for Slaughtneil, he replied: “It was a fairytale for us too.
“Both teams were trying to get to the final for the first time in their history. It meant as much to us as it did for Slaughtneil.”
