Hurling & Camogie

We expected to win because we have dominated Ulster: Slaughtneil boss Michael McShane

Slaughtneil celebrate after beating Dunloy during the Ulster Club Senior Hurling Championship semi final at the Athletic Grounds, Armagh&nbsp;<br />Picture: Margaret McLaughlin
Slaughtneil celebrate after beating Dunloy during the Ulster Club Senior Hurling Championship semi final at the Athletic Grounds, Armagh 
Picture: Margaret McLaughlin
Slaughtneil celebrate after beating Dunloy during the Ulster Club Senior Hurling Championship semi final at the Athletic Grounds, Armagh 
Picture: Margaret McLaughlin

Ulster Club Senior Hurling Championship semi-final: Cuchullain’s Dunloy 0-14 Robert Emmet’s Slaughtneil 1-18

YOU’D have to travel a long way to experience the kind of silence coming from a winning changing room like the Slaughtneil hurlers’ yesterday.

The job satisfaction from their commanding Ulster semi-final win over Dunloy must have been immense, but Michael McShane’s men didn’t show it.

It was the south Derry men’s third provincial victory over Dunloy since 2017. The prospect of the Antrim champions’ flipping that narrative appears as far away as ever.

Taking refuge against the cold, concrete wall outside the changing room, McShane was asked did he expect his side to win, he replied: “Of course we did, yeah. We are Ulster champions three times out of the last four seasons. We are a very, very good hurling team which sometimes we don’t get the credit for - but we will not go over that.

“It’s not an arrogance or an over-confidence. You come into the game expecting to win. We were coming up against a very, very good Dunloy team, an excellent Dunloy team, and knew we were going to have to play right at the top of our game to get them, and we did in the second half.”

Leading 0-9 to 0-6 at the break, Dunloy cut that lead to one point by the 37th minute [0-10 to 0-9] before Slaughtneil’s Brendan Rogers produced a devastating 1-3 in a dramatic eight-minute spell that killed off the Antrim champions.

Slaughtneil capitalised on one of Dunloy’s nervy short puck-outs and Rogers translated the mistake into a major on 43 minutes.

Afterwards, McShane revealed his talismanic attacker was unwell in the lead-up to yesterday’s last four encounter.

“I see Brendan’s GPS stats week-in, week-out. He is a phenomenal athlete. What a lot of people didn’t know was that Brendan was quite sick all week. He didn’t train at all, he had a vomiting bug that weakened him.

“So we were a wee bit concerned coming in. I thought it took him until the second half to get to the pitch. But by God once he got up onto his feet he was unstoppable.

“As were a lot of the lads: Meehaul McGrath, Shane McGuigan, Chrissy McKaigue… I thought Jerome McGuigan and Sé McGuigan, two men up front on their own, battled so hard. They turned the ball over that got the goal. But everybody worked their socks off.”

At times Dunloy put themselves under serious stress by persisting with short puck-outs – a tactic that suited the intense work-rate of the Slaughtneil forwards.

“Dunloy played a wee bit into our hands,” McShane acknowledged. “They started to play about with it rather than leave it in, and that gives you a chance to get a stick in to break a ball away.”

While many will expect the Emmets to add a fourth Ulster title to their list of honours next Sunday at Corrigan Park, McShane was quick to remind reporters of the last provincial meeting between themselves and Ballycran.

“We have won nothing here,” insisted the Ballycastle native.

“We have won the right to go and play in the Ulster final. But we reminded each other that the last time we played Ballycran in the Ulster Championship [2018 semi-final] they beat us by 10 points in Corrigan Park.

“We will not forget that. I suppose it gives us something to focus on. We have a week to prepare for an Ulster final. Ballycran will be loving it. They are sitting fresh and we'll see what Sunday brings.”