Sport

Brilliant Dunloy hurlers will want to erase Ulster memory of 2019

Dunloy captain Paul Shiels celebrates their three-in-a-row Picture by Mal McCann.
Dunloy captain Paul Shiels celebrates their three-in-a-row Picture by Mal McCann. Dunloy captain Paul Shiels celebrates their three-in-a-row Picture by Mal McCann.

AS soon as you stepped into Corrigan Park last Sunday, you felt genuinely uplifted. No more crowd restrictions, a tidy new stand that was jam packed and where patrons could almost touch the action, the Black Mountain overlooking the scene and scores of kids pucking around on the pitch at half-time.

The way GAA Sundays were meant to be.

The Antrim SHC final itself didn’t quite catch fire but still, the Whiterock Road venue felt like Belfast’s authentic version of Parnell Park.

Competing in their first final since 2004, O’Donovan Rossa left the local venue with a bagful of regrets – but perhaps not as many as they should be carrying when you consider the soaring trajectory of this Dunloy team.

This wasn’t the same Dunloy team of 2020, or for that matter any of the sides that lifted the Volunteer Cup over the past few seasons.

The class of 2021 is a much improved version.

Arguably the biggest advantage Dunloy had over Rossa was simply knowing the terrain of county finals and the huge psychological dynamic that accompanies days like last Sunday.

In the early stages of finals, the sole aim of the more experienced team is to completely unnerve the inexperienced. You do that by getting early goals. While Rossa will be haunted by some basic errors, Dunloy didn’t allow them to breathe.

After five minutes, Dunloy’s first goal. On 22 minutes, a second goal. Five minutes later, Dunloy notched their third. Game over.

Each of those goals were worth three points on the scoreboard but in psychological terms they were worth immeasurably more.

Paul ‘Shorty’ Shiels was most people’s pick for man-of-the-match. There are no superlatives left to quantify the Dunloy captain’s ability.

You just need to sift through the finer detail of the first half of last Sunday’s final to appreciate just how integral he was to Dunloy’s successful pursuit of three-in-a-row.

Kevin Molloy loves big games as much as ‘Shorty’ does and has the kind of experience you can’t buy. He grabbed two goals in last year’s final win over Loughgiel but his contribution of five points from play last weekend and his appetite for winning dirty ball was out on its own.

Another distinct advantage Dunloy had over Rossa were the higher number of players playing at county level. You can see the serious improvement in the likes of Ryan Elliott, Conal Cunning and Keelan Molloy over the past 18 months.

Given the incremental improvements made at Rossa and particularly their stylish displays in 2020 and ’21, you’d imagine their quota of players will rise at county level in 2022 that will improve them and enhance their chances of winning a senior club championship.

As for Dunloy, they’ve been an intriguing watch ever since they landed their first senior crown in eight years back in 2017. Given their youthfulness and with a degree of hindsight, it was always unlikely they’d deliver back-to-back titles the following year.

They were too young, not battle-hardened enough, and as with nearly all young champions they were seduced by the first title. But they’d too much natural ability to disappear from the podium.

Gregory O’Kane has now guided them to four county championships in five years and three-in-a-row was completed last weekend.

They’ve arguably got better in each of the last three finals. So where to now for Dunloy? Ulster and the All-Ireland of course.

This is the next step for the Cuchullain’s. While the Down champions can never be discounted, the provincial meeting everyone wants to see is Dunloy versus Slaughtneil, providing the latter come through their domestic clash with Kevin Lynch’s on October 24.

The Derry champions announced their arrival on the provincial stage in 2015 when Cushendall just about edged them out in a titanic extra-time battle at The Athletic Grounds.

Even though they lost that day, everyone knew the Emmets were coming. They backed that up by winning three of the next four Ulster Championships, beating new champions Dunloy in 2017.

Their last provincial success came in 2019 at the expense of Dunloy in Newry.

Slaughtneil won virtually every duel on the field that day in a game the Antrim champions were more fancied than in 2017.

It was one of those scarring defeats all good teams suffer at some point in their careers.

The 2019 Ulster final was Dunloy’s career-defining defeat.

After last Sunday’s comfortable county final win over Rossa, Conal Cunning was asked about that Slaughtneil defeat of two years and where it ranks in their collective careers.

“It stuck in all our minds,” Cunning said. “I remember in the changing rooms after and it was the worst changing room I think I have ever been in in my whole career.

“We all said to each other that we could bottle that feeling up. Because we would get chances again and we would be working towards changing that feeling.”

Of course, the provincial and All-Ireland series were cancelled last year due to the pandemic so Dunloy didn’t get the opportunity to rectify that painful defeat.

Winning the Antrim championship for the last three years is a brilliant achievement by O’Kane and this gifted bunch of players.

But it’s fast approaching the time when they step back into deeper waters in December and see if their ascension can continue.

There is no disputing the incredible score-taking ability and pace in their attack. And while they don’t have many outstanding ball-winners, at the back they look tighter and meaner than in previous years.

If they are to dance with Slaughtneil again, they will need to be. It is the next level - and their shot at redemption.