MILKING cows is his business and, going back, his people have always been farmers. Scotstown skipper Damien McArdle had no family ties, playing-wise, to his club but since he swapped his wellington boots for football boots there’s been no stopping him.
“I had no connections,” he says.
“My uncle would have played a bit for Roslea. My mother is from Fermanagh, she says that’s where I get the football from.”
Wherever it came from, the football gene is in there. McArdle made his senior debut for Scotstown way back in 2010 and the 34-year-old is still going strong as the lynchpin of the An Bhoth defence. He won his 10th county medal last month and on Saturday evening he goes into his fourth Ulster final and will give all he has to secure that first win.
He’s come up against opponents Kilcoo three times down the years. The Down men have won twice, Scotstown have won the other one when they beat them in a Newry semi-final but then lost to Derry’s Glen in the decider. Now they have another chance, can they go a step further this time?
“We’ve been on the road this last number of years and it’s all the talk around Scotstown - the Ulster Club,” says McArdle.
“It’s another game and it’s one we’ll look forward to and we’re very, very happy that we’ve put ourselves in this situation and we have a chance of winning.”
There’s no doubt they have a chance of winning but they’ll start as slight underdogs against a side that stuck five goals past them in last year’s quarter-final and have motored through the early rounds of Ulster with no alarms.
“There was a lot of hurt there after last year,” says McArdle, recalling the 5-10 to 0-14 loss.
“We didn’t perform. I think that was the most disappointing thing, we didn’t turn up and play to what we were fit to.
“A couple of things went against us. Like, Rory (Beggan) saved the ball and it came off one of our boys and went into the net and then there was another quick-fire goal and we sort of started chasing the game. We pushed out, trying to go after it and, in hindsight, it was probably the wrong thing to do. But at the time, it’s very hard to change that. So, look, that’s all learning curves.
“It’s great 12 months later that we’re fit to put ourselves in that situation again. But with the new rules, it will be a completely different game and it’ll be up to us to bring our ‘A-game’.”
Scotstown brought that ‘A-game’ out against Derry’s Newbridge in a semi-final that was one-sided for the best part of an hour until a Conor Doherty goal two minutes from time sparked a brilliant comeback from the Oak Leaf county champions.
Having had the game in the bag, Scotstown had to gather themselves and win it again on penalties. McArdle and his team-mates are well aware that they can’t take their foot off the gas like that against Kilcoo.
“Any day you win an Ulster Club semi-final, you’re going to be happy but when it comes to game management, it’s one thing that we’re going to look at from the Newbridge game,” said McArdle.
“That game definitely was mental. Ulster Club games… You sort of have to just take them as they come.
“With these new rules, weather conditions and everything, momentum is a massive thing. If it’s with you, it’s great, but if it’s against you, it’s very, very hard to wrestle it back.
“With the new rules any lead doesn’t seem to safe. With the weather, if you’re playing against the wind and them two-pointers… Two or three of them and the game’s right back on.”
McARDLE is one of so many veterans in this Scotstown side who seem to be immune to old Father Time. Himself, the Hughes brothers, Darren and Kieran, goalkeeper Rory Beggan, Shane Carey, Conor McCarthy… They’ve been soldiering on in the blue jersey for years and for this campaign manager David McCague, their former team-mate, has given the squad a massive injection of fearless energy, pace and skill with a half-dozen eager youngsters like Tommy Mallon who had added an extra dimension.
“It’s a massive boost,” says McArdle.
“They’ve added that bit of extra legs, extra pace, and even just the way they carry themselves and how grounded they are. It’s just great to have them about the place.
“They have a freshness and that extra bit of speed that you have to deal with when you’re on opposite teams at training.”
Their energy alongside the experience and knowhow of the old guard and established inter-county players like Jack McCarron, Beggan, McCarthy, Ryan O’Toole makes Scotstown a very difficult proposition for any club side.
“Everybody benefits from the experience (of the county players), they definitely drive the thing on,” says McArdle.
“Moreso than the likes of the younger boys, the likes of Tommy Mallon, Max Maguire and they’re bringing their own thing too.”
HE’LL know how those young players feel because he was in their boots back in the day. McArdle was part of the club’s talented minor side – it included Shane Carey and Beggan - that won a three in-a-row in Monaghan.
“Kieran Hughes was a year above me and Shane and Rory would have been a year below me,” he explains.
“That crop of players all came through together and then you had the boys already there like Darren Hughes.
“When you look at the likes of Darren the other day against Newbridge… He’s still going well.”
At the start of his journey, McArdle came into a senior side that had lost its way. After back-to-back Monaghan titles in 1992 and ’93, Scotstown went 20 years without a senior title and McArdle was one of the youngsters who brought a new energy to the side.
The barren years ended with success in 2013 and since then ‘An Bhoth’ have won 10 titles in 13 season.
“Funny enough, for the first one we had a backdoor system at that point and the first game we played was Clontibret and we were beaten in it,” recalls McArdle.
“It was a rebuilding thing from there and we got Clontibret in the final and we’d a really good day in the final. It just went from there.”
It has taken Scotstown to this showdown with Kilcoo. With 13 titles in 14 seasons, two Ulster clubs and an All-Ireland to their credit, the Magpies know all about winning. Having lost their last two Ulster finals, the know about losing too and will be determined to end their losing streak against their Monaghan rivals.
“There’s a right few dangermen,” says McArdle.
“They have a good spread.”
He’ll see plenty of the Johnston brothers, Paul Devlin and the other Kilcoo forwards and, if he and his colleagues in defence are able to hold his own, his club has every chance of winning this title.
Born in 1991, he wasn’t around for Scotstown’s last Ulster Championship win in 1989. That victory over Tyrone’s Coalisland was Scotstown’s fourth after the three in-a-row which began in 1978 when the Monaghan champions dethroned Antrim’s St John’s in the provincial decider.
They retained their title with a one-point win over Armagh’s Carrickcruppen the following year and completed the hat-trick against St John’s in 1980. The 1989 victory brought Scotstown tally to four and they can move level with Burren into joint-second in the all-time list (Crossmaglen lead on 11) if they can get the better of Kilcoo.
“Football around Scotstown is like a religion, it’s all anybody’s been thinking or talking about,” he says.
“Those boys (the players from the Ulster-winning sides) judge you on how many Ulster clubs we have. Hopefully we’re fit to have something to talk back about after Saturday.”
There mightn’t be a cow milked in Scotstown on Sunday if he brings home that cup…
