TWO years ago, Gerald Bradley’s potential looked limitless. He was the match-winning goalscorer when Slaughtneil footballers collected their first county title in ten years back in 2014, and had already developed into one of the best hurlers in the land.
Then the curse of the cruciate befell him. He buckled the knee in a football championship game against Magherafelt and missed a year and more in both codes.
He was only just on the way back when Slaughtneil claimed their, and Derry’s, first ever Ulster club hurling title at the expense of Loughgiel last autumn.
But watching him dominate the game against Dunloy on Sunday, it was clear that the 2013 Hogan Cup winner is getting back to his very best on the hurling field.
And well-timed too, because the Emmet’s needed him and Chrissy McKaigue in particular to click them into gear after a sluggish start against the Antrim champions, who lost their first ever game in the Ulster club series.
“It was enjoyable. Once you get out of Derry you can start to express yourself. When it comes to games against Antrim sides over the last couple of years they have always been good games.
“We just try to focus ourselves, on our own simple jobs, our man-marking jobs, the forwards' jobs…
“Getting out onto Owenbeg especially, we haven't played on Owenbeg this year. It is a good big pitch and we can express ourselves and the forwards did that. They are mighty forwards up there and when we get the balls into them, they will do damage.
“It wasn't even the finishing, it was the workrate from the forwards, tackling, tackling back from midfield right into defence and even our 'keeper coming back too.”
It wasn’t just the fact that Slaughtneil won the game, but the manner in which they bossed it and enjoyed a great degree of comfort in the second half.
Having been six points down early on, they hit a remarkable 1-8 in 11 minutes to go in five up at the interval, and their lead never came under any serious duress during a more subdued second period.
Given that last year’s Ulster final was the first time a Derry club had ever beaten their Antrim counterparts in the provincial series, Bradley admits it represents a significant psychological swing in the dynamic of Ulster hurling.
“It's tough when you are coming out of Derry. There are some games you are not really getting up for and when you come to Ulster, the games aren't hard to get up for.
“I thought when we were 1-4 to 0-1 down and I seen Sean ‘Tad’ [Cassidy] going off injured, things could have been at their lowest.
“Then again, when things are at their toughest, in Slaughtneil everybody gets together and the same thing happened today.
“When Sean went off everybody just came together, right from 1 to 15 just tackled hard and really got on form.
Sean is a leader on our team.
“We are a good bunch of men, football and hurling. This is how Slaughtneil go.
“Last year, it was the first time we had got over an Antrim team. Then, basically people might have thought it was a one-off and that was what we were trying to go out and prove it wasn't.
“We were trying to prove that we can compete in Derry and in Ulster.
“And then, hopefully, if we can get by Ballygalget, it's competing on the All-Ireland stage, where we didn't do ourselves justice last year.
“At the minute we are just thinking of Ballygalget and an Ulster title would be massive for us. Back-to-back for a Derry club would be massive for Slaughtneil.”
