Hurling & Camogie

Favourites means nothing says inspirational McCullough as Ballyboden seek Dublin hurling crown

Michael McCullough won the All-Ireland junior title with the Antrim camogs. Pic: Seamus Loughran
Michael McCullough won the All-Ireland junior title with the Antrim camogs. Pic: Seamus Loughran Michael McCullough won the All-Ireland junior title with the Antrim camogs. Pic: Seamus Loughran

“I was born with one arm but I got the better of many a hurler when I never should have stood a chance. Favourites means nothing…”

Ballyboden St Enda’s coach Mickey McCullough

MICKEY McCullough was blessed with qualities that can’t be taught or bought so being born with his left arm half as long as his right was never going to stop him from playing hurling.

Still as passionate a hurling man as you could meet, Mickey was besotted with the game from childhood and he found his own way to grip the hurl and strike the sliothar.

He practised long and hard to become a key forward for his native O'Donovan Rossa in Belfast and he went on represent Antrim, at underage level, and at senior level for his adopted Tyrone.

As a coach he has inspired the Ulster Schools side, UCD, Down minors, Derry, Meath, Antrim camogs, Swatragh, Middletown and Rossa among others to success and this season he has propelled Ballyboden St Enda’s to their first Dublin senior championship final in five years.

On Sunday the Knocklyon outfit take on Kilmacud Croke’s (another of his former teams) in the decider after their south Dublin rivals dethroned back-to-back All-Ireland champions in the semi-finals.

“We beat the Cuala in the group stage when they were half a team and not concerned about winning the game,” says primary school teacher McCullough.

“When we beat Cuala both teams were already qualified for the knockout stage. Croke’s beat Cuala whenever they were going flat out and had their full team out – what they did was an achievement; all we did was win a game.

“But who’s favourite doesn’t matter a damn to me. I was born with one arm but I got the better of many a hurler when I never should have stood a chance. Favourites means nothing, yes Croke’s are favourites and rightly so but when the referee blows the whistle what the odds are is irrelevant.”

A couple of years ago McCullough was in the Kilmacud dugout so he is well aware of the quality in the side. Former Clare Allstar and Dublin manager Anthony Daly has a wealth of talents to choose from including McCullough’s former Ulster Schools and Down minor protégé Lorcan McMullan.

“When I went in I said to them: ‘You are actually the lowest standard team I’ve ever taken’,” he said.

“You weren’t even in the top four in Dublin last year – Cuala, St Vincent’s, Kilmacud and Lucan Sarsfields were in the semi-finals.

“Ballyboden weren’t even in them. I think they were in the semi-final the year before, they went out in the group stages the year before that… They haven’t been in the final for five years and with the quality of players they have I don’t think that was a good return.

“You have Gary Maguire, who was a Dublin Allstar goalkeeper, Paul Ryan, an Allstar nominee, Conal Keaney, who is just a force of nature, and then Shane Durkan, Dave Kirk, Niall McMorrow, Simon Lambert and James Madden who are all inter-county hurlers. It just wasn’t good enough.”

Returns have been much better this year. After picking their way through a group that included Cuala, St Brigid's and Craobh Chiaráin, ‘Boden saw off St Vincent’s in the semi-finals.

Their success has been built on two of the qualities McCullough holds dear - honesty and workrate.

“I learned at St Mary’s that there’ll be days you’ll put your hurl out and the ball will pop off it into your hand and then there’ll be other days when, no matter what you do, that ball will not sit right for you,” he explained.

“But the one thing that you can make sure of on both those days is your workrate and your honesty. If they are good then the other things will fall into place and we have been looking at that a lot this year.

“We have gone through tough sessions – no different than Croke’s have – and I think we are where we deserve to be. It doesn’t mean we’ll win the final but we have put the work in.

“If we don’t win the final I can drive up the road on Sunday night knowing that we have given it everything. Losing is not something that bothers me but not giving it your best bothers me.

“Conal Keaney – who wouldn’t speak a lot – said at our team meeting on Sunday night: ‘Everybody goes to bed and dreams about being the man who scored 1-8 in a county final. But forget about that, come in on Sunday just prepared to give your best and if your best isn’t good enough then that’s something you have to accept’.

“We’ll give our best and we’ll let the wee man with the remote control look after the scoreboard. At the end of the game he can tell us if we’re good enough.”

Ballyboden won when the sides met in the league but Kilmacud’s championship form has been excellent and, despite that league result, McCullough insists his side have it all to do on Sunday.

As a proud Ulster hurling man, he understands the significance of his role on Sunday and recalled a conversation he had with former Bredagh and Down star McMullan during their time together at Kilmacud.

“I remember saying to Lorcan at the time: ‘It would be great to win a Dublin championship together’,” he explained.

“Look what fate has done; it has thrown us against each other. But at least one of us will win a championship.

“I remember thinking it would be great to win a Dublin championship because everybody thinks Ulster is sh**e. So at least on Sunday evening one of the Ulster men will have done it.

“What I did is easy. I can be part of a good set-up but I take my hat off to Lorcan. He packed up and moved for hurling. He was a fantastic hurler and he wanted to go down test himself against the best. Look at him now; he’s probably the player of the Dublin championship so far.

“I’m fed up with people looking at Ulster hurling and going ‘God love them, God love them’ because there are more players like Lorcan in Ulster. Hopefully Lorcan is the trailblazer and other people can follow his example and go and push themselves and be as good as he is.

“I just hope he leaves it until next week.”