Ulster hasn't always been a happy hunting ground for Ballinderry, but James Conway told Kenny Archer that this year's team are ready to make a mark...
NEW blood, sweat, and tears - with those ingredients Ballinderry certainly won't be lacking fighting spirit this year, according to long-serving midfielder James Conway.
It's now 12 years since the Shamrocks won Ulster, en route to their only All-Ireland Club SFC crown, and although Conway's not making any bold predictions, he believes they're well-prepared for the provincial challenge.
In a way it is fitting that Ballinderry embarked on their Ulster journey earlier than all the other quarter-finalists this season. Coming through the preliminary round against Tyrone champions Clonoe reflects the early start and the hard work the Shamrocks have put in this year.
Older players like Conway, now 32, are also driven on by heartbreaking defeats over the past decade, while the new talent that has come into the team is impressive.
The outside view of Ballinderry is that they've under-achieved since 2001/2, and manager Martin McKinless concurred last year, but Conway offers a different analysis: "We've just been unfortunate. We played Cross' four times, took them to a replay in 2008, lost Collie Devlin in '06. In 2011 I was injured, I had done my cruciate. Every time we met Cross' we seemed to have players injured and just couldn't get over the line. There's not too many teams beat Cross', they're a serious outfit."
Besides those losses to Crossmaglen, their other two defeats in Ulster this century have come against Tyrone's Errigal Ciaran, in 2002 and last year. Indeed last season was the only time that Ballinderry's conquerors didn't go on to lift the provincial trophy - and Cross' went on to win the All-Ireland in 2006/7 and 2011/12.
Basically, it takes a very good team to beat Ballinderry in Ulster - but Conway says Sunday's opponents Scotstown fall into that category: "I saw them live on TV, they're a damned good team. Those two Hughes brothers [Darren and Kieran] are serious players now. My da played against Scotstown years ago in the Ulster Club too. They've been knocking on the door - and when I was down in Dublin a boy told me Scotstown would be the team to beat this year. They're very physical!"
Note the irony of big James Conway saying that. Under the management of Martin McKinless, Ballinderry won't step back either, Conway pointing out the effects of the boss's incredible will-to-win over several spells in charge of the Shamrocks: "Martin has won five Championships in five seasons. He's a very passionate man. He took Ballinderry reserves for three years, won everything with them, then took Derrylaughan and won an Intermediate with them. His passion gets you over the line. He'd rather see you running
through a man than going around him."
Ballinderry shouldn't fall short either in another physical aspect, stamina, as Conway explains, due to a different approach from trainer Fabian Muldoon: "He's stepped it up in some style, took it to a new level. He met Mick McGurn at the start of the year and Mick gave him a programme. "At the start of the year people laughed at us because our training only lasted 35, 40 minutes, but it was just brutal running around our bottom pitch. We've never done this before. Mick McGurn and Fabian, that's all they wanted us to do, big long runs. The quicker you got those runs done, the quicker you got up the road."
Conway's job as a plasterer has taken him up and down plenty of roads this year. "It's steady enough but it's hard to get money out of it," he says, "I work serious hours because prices have dropped."
He's grateful to Ballinderry native Brian Macklin for work at his Malone Lodge Hotel in Belfast and also nursing homes he owns. There was also a stint in Dublin for 12 weeks but Conway's commitment to his club wasn't affected: "This is my first year in about four or five years that I've been injury-free. I haven't missed any training. "The first week [working in Dublin] I stayed three days but I soon knocked that on the head. Men were going drinking and then not getting there the next day."
When he price of drink is mentioned, he replies with a laugh: "I don't know how people survive down there." The Shamrocks have survived, indeed thrived, in Derry, but only due to plenty of perspiration - and a wake-up call from outside the county, as Conway recalls: "I would be quiet, I wouldn't really talk in training or in matches. But we played Cargin in a challenge match and they beat us by 13, 14 points. I turned round and said 'Look, boys, this is going to be the making of us this year'. We were papering over cracks in the league, beating teams by five or six points, but not playing well. Cargin came up and gave us a lesson. "From that, our training has stepped up. We're training three nights a week and then at the weekends is four. There's not too many clubs doing that. That's serious commitment, it's like county commitment."
The pay-off, so far, has been the completion of a hat-trick of Derry championships: "That was our aim when we met at the start of the year. Martin said 'Look, boys, we have to take it to another level'. We have dieticians in for the first time, physios every night, everything's been taken to a professional level. There are women in to feed us every night [at training]. Martin and the club have to take a lot of credit for that."
The 'three in-a-row' means a lot, as he acknowledges: "Och, before we played Ballinascreen [in the county final], that morning was very emotional, there were men crying. We let one [three in-a-row] slip 10 years ago against The Loup when we went in as 1/12 favourites. We were thinking we mightn't get this chance again. "Three in-a-row is a big thing round our club. My da [Malachy] got a three in-a-row and he'd always say about it. The [current] players were always saying 'We want to be like them' - they're legends round our club."
Conway won't say it himself, but he and the other 30-somethings surely deserve that attribute too, many of them having won seven Derry championships, while Enda Muldoon has eight.
They added an Ulster and All-Ireland, and Conway has happy memories of that 2001/2 season, despite injury restricting his involvement, as he recalls: "I started every game that year in the [Derry] club championship until I did my ankle ligaments in the county final. Then I couldn't get my place back. [Manager] Brian McIver was sorta superstitious; I was always first sub on, he always kept the same team. You can't knock a man when he's winning, that's the way he was. It was nice to be involved but you want to be playing." The only game he didn't feature in was the All-Ireland final against Nemo Rangers, and he admits to a tinge of regret - but only a little: "When it was all over, on the Tuesday or Wednesday, I was a bit gutted that I didn't play, especially having played every game, I was gutted I didn't get game-time. But when you see your brother [Darren] playing and my other brother, Brendan, was there too, he was on the panel, it was nice to be involved with everybody involved. "It would be a wee bit selfish if you were just thinking about yourself. It was nice to see my parents, family and all celebrating."
Ballinderry have done plenty of celebrating since and Conway believes there's more to come. Although he obviously has huge admiration for 'Big Enda', he rejects suggestions that the Shamrocks are a one-man team: "People are saying that when Enda goes we're finished. Enda hasn't started a game for us this year. "I'm 32, our Darren is 33, Kevin [McGuckin] is 32, Mickey C[onlan] is 34, 'Deets' [Conleith Gilligan] is 34 coming - but see the rest of them? Serious young. We've 'Crook' [Raymond Wilkinson] coming back, Tony Martin's in Australia but he's coming home shortly, I hear."
Conway admits to being pleasantly surprised by the talent coming through: "Our U16s and minors recently weren't as strong as when we were underage but there's still two or three have stepped up to senior level every year. We've found players that we didn't expect to find. People know about Ryan Bell, but Gareth McKinless is different gravy too."
James was involved with the Shamrocks U21 side that reached the Ulster Club final early this year and the senior side includes five from that team: the senior manager's sons, Gareth and Daniel McKinless, plus Darren Lawn, Aaron Devlin, and Ryan Bell, with others on the bench. "In my opinion, it's probably the best team I've played with in Ballinderry because we're mixing youth with experience. The experienced boys know what to do and then you've boys like Aaron Devlin, Ryan Bell, Gareth McKinless, wee Darren Lawn, and they've the legs to run."
So do Conway and the elder statesmen, thanks to all their tough training. The question now is how far can Ballinderry go?
32
IT'S 32 years since Ballinderry and Scotstown met in the Ulster Club SFC. The Shamrocks ended An Bhoth's attempt to win a fourth consecutive provincial title in the preliminary round, winning by 2-7 to 1-9, and went on to collect the Seamus McFerran Cup themselves, beating Ardara, Kingscourt (in a replay), and then Burren in the final. Scotstown had beaten Ballinderry by 1-11 to 0-5 in the 1980 Ulster Club.