ONE of the key themes that emerged from Scotstown’s Ulster final victory was their determination to leave no regrets behind them in Armagh.
They had, they felt, left all of their three previous finals behind them in one way or another.
Momentum was with them at the end of normal time against Crossmaglen in 2015, but in horrendous condition a much younger, greener Rory Beggan’s last-gasp free fell short. Extra-time got away from them.
They were three up on Gaoth Dobhair in 2018 but got pegged back and beaten by Seaghan Ferry’s extra-time winner.
Against Glen they led going into the last ten minutes. By the time Kieran Hughes swung a leg at one from 20 yards in stoppage time, they were trying to claw back a three-point deficit.
You got right back to leading Ballinderry by three in 2013 when his brother Darren’s dipping effort came back out off the underside of the bar.
Kieran had marked Ryan Bell to a tee for an hour that day until the injury-time winner. Ballinderry would go on to win Ulster and 12 years later, Scotstown still hadn’t.
Now they have, and it was a lot to do with the contrast in how they approached the second half of normal time compared to how Kilcoo had gone about the first period.
Nothing typified it better than the two brilliant scores he kicked. It was the easiest thing in the world to turn the two shots down. Into a swirling gale in a low-scoring game. Most players would have said ‘no thanks’ and shuffled the ball off sideways.
Kieran Hughes has never been like most players, seen as a bit of a maverick, a wild horse with this left foot that was capable of anything.
It was interesting, then, to hear him talk afterwards about how much the game had changed him in the last few years and how he struggled to re-adapt this year when the rules changed in a way that ordinarily would have really suited him.
He noticed, particularly in the second half, how Kilcoo would swarm him with 3 and 4 bodies every time he got the ball in his favoured position along the left touchline.
“I was after giving a couple of balls away along the line which is not like me. I realised when I was on it around here [the sideline], there were 3 or 4 coming after me, I was nearly after that saying to boys ‘don’t give me the ball, yous go on yourselves because I’m getting surrounded here’.
“The young boys, Donnchadh [Connolly], Max [Maguire], all those boys know is front-foot football, playing heads up.
“The way we’ve been playing the last few years, it was maybe getting it and cutting back across the row, that’s where I struggled with the rules this year, I didn’t get the hang of it, I was always coming back.
“Kevin O’Brien came to me at the end of full-time and said ‘just go forward with it’ and I’m saying it’s just not as easy any more, I don’t have the capacity to be taking on men and bringing that to the party. Got away with it.
“I would have been disappointed losing a couple of them. I actually forgot about the second score. We went three up then with Rory’s two-pointer, I thought there was a hand on it [the cup].
“The last score, they knew they just needed a point to get back in the dressing room. We’d sorta said after the Newbridge game that if that happened again and there’s three in it, let them come inside the arc.
“We let McEvoy come in and we were hoping he’d shoot off the left, but he got the head up and flicked the pass in. Once they got the point it’s just get back into the dressing room and set up again.
“Extra-time can be easy enough with the wind, all you do is get set up and get your breather, hope you win the break and get a free, that’s what happened in the first half of extra-time.
“There was frig all running done. It was just trying to get positions, if they did win it pick up a man of some sort and try to cut off the supply. It was 15v14 for six minutes of it as well.
“I didn’t care what way it was done today, it was a matter of getting it over the line. I didn’t care if it was pretty or outstanding football, we just had to get the job done. Testament to the boys, every man stood up.”
He mentions Kevin O’Brien so that’s where we go next.
Hughes tells the story of how Shane Carey happened to be beside him at a game in Croke Park four years ago.
“Shane would be a cute enough operator.”
Carey sidled over beside O’Brien, got chatting, swapped numbers. Six weeks later, he and David McCague got in the car and headed down to O’Brien’s house, laid out the plans and got him on board.
“It’s been unbelievable, bringing in a man of that experience over the years, with Corofin and what they’ve done, and especially the style of football they played.
“They were unbelievable in those number of years, even against the wind, they worked their asses off for each other.
“He’s been class. I’ve touched base with him plenty of times over the last number of years. Discipline is one area for me, boys can talk all you want but if you lose it for that wee millisecond out there, it can be night night.
“He was brilliant for me and he’s been brilliant for all the players. It’s been up to them individually whether to touch base with him or not, and a lot of them did thankfully.”
The game with Kilcoo last year is an inescapable chapter. Scotstown had beaten them before, as recently as two years ago, but last year was so out of kilter with that.
“That was…’humiliation’ was pinpointed,” says Hughes.
“After any of the Ulster final losses I was still a proud man because I thought we turned up and performed on a lot of those days but just didn’t get over the line, but last year, that was one where it stung, and it stung and it stung for months.
“Maybe until I saw the young lads in the flesh and started training with them, that was the only time it started to leave me, that pain, when I realised hold on, these young lads can drag us over the line.
“A lot of clubs nationwide will talk about getting their young lads through but there are young lads who are ready for it. The S&C that they’ve done, the pace and the power they bring to it, it’s outrageous what they’ve done.
“And then the older lads, myself, Darren, Rory, those boys. But it’s not just for us, it’s for the boys that played the last 10 or 15 years.
“It was great to see them after and have that moment.
“There’ll be some craic the next locka days, I can assure you that.”