AFTER seven years of waiting to back up their 2019 success, the primary emotion for Magherafelt manager Enda Muldoon was “relief”.
His side had hit an incredible purple patch in the middle of the game, landing a scarcely believable 1-12 on the bounce to go from 0-7 to 0-4 down to 1-16 to 0-7 up.
But as champions do, Newbridge threw everything but the garden shed at them.
A stoppage-time two-pointer from Oisin Doherty cut the gap back to two.
Having lost the kickout, they managed to force a turnover and broke for Eoin McEvoy to score before Cormac Murphy netted with the last kick to settle the affair.
“The feeling is definitely one of relief. It was comfortable enough at one period in the second half, we were 12 up and Newbridge pulled it back to two and I thought at that stage this is one we better dig out or you’ll not be allowed back into Magherafelt,” said Muldoon, an All-Ireland club winner as a player with Ballinderry.
“To be fair, you knew Newbridge were gonna come, they’ve been great champions the last two years and you knew they were gonna come with a purple patch. Our boys dug in and got over the line.”Magherafelt went after the issues that dogged them in last year’s final.
Having banged in goals the whole way there, they found the middle clogged up.
Adding more strings to their own, finishing with 17 points, allowed them to create the three second-half goals more naturally.
For Muldoon, who has Louth boss Gavin Devlin and Stephen Kernan in along with him, the real value was in how hard they had to work to get to the final this time.
“Last year, you’ve heard us saying it all year, after the kickouts and starting to win dirty ball and a bit more primary possession.
“We definitely got better at it through the year. Last year we probably cruised through the championship and got to the final, Newbridge were the better team. This year we had to scrap a bit, battle with Sleacht Neill in the first game, then Lavey, then Sleacht Neill again.
“Me personally, if you give me a cruise to the final I’ll take it every day of the week. If you’ve been tested and the going does get tight, you’re turning around to each other on the pitch and we know what it takes to work this out, without having to look to the line.
“Magherafelt had been beat in 2020, ‘23, ’25. If they had been beat today again, it would have been hard to bounce back, especially from 12 points down.
“That’s the main thing tonight. It’s probably relief.”