WHEN the ball fell into Niall Sludden’s hands deep into injury-time against Cavan, there wasn’t a man in Dromore who doubted him.
Five years down the line, he had a place in an Ulster final in his hands. Adept off either foot, the chance fell on his right once more. Thirty yards from goal with the game level, it was a familiar scenario. This one dropped short into Raymond Galligan’s hands. 'Inexperience', they said. Not so.
As a 19-year-old, with 58:05 on the clock and the sides level, he found himself 25 yards from goal, dead in front of the posts with the destination of the O’Neill Cup in his hands.
Colm McCullagh to Conor O’Neill to Sludden, a lightning counter-attack. He had another two men outside, but he was in the best position to take the shot himself. Damian Burke threw himself to block it, but the youngster had enough composure. It dropped between the posts at the Gortin end of Healy Park to break Clonoe hearts and secure a third championship title in five years for Dromore.
His performances that year led to a call from Mickey Harte. With his sparkling club form and his background as an All-Ireland minor winner in 2010, Sludden had already been on the Tyrone manager’s radar. But he declined the advance, deciding instead to concentrate his efforts on Tyrone’s U21 campaign and his club commitments.
Never shy of confidence, nor was the then-trainee teacher sucked into false belief. It was just too soon. Lady Luck turned her hand on him two years later: June 16, 2013. Just over 10 minutes left in a league game with Cookstown, a game Dromore were leading by 11 points, Sludden suffered a broken leg.
It effectively robbed him of two years’ football. By the time he was back playing in 2014, it was only a case of building his fitness up: “It kept me out for a full season and I suppose you could say two seasons because, mentally, it was pretty tricky trying to come back,” he says.
“By the time I had my recovery done, it was June [2014]. I had missed pre-season. It was crucial just to keep the self-belief going and I've done that.”
He recovered fully by the summer of 2015 and was back to his brilliant best for the club. The sight of him careering up and down the pitch during Dromore’s first round win over Ardboe is etched in the mind, he was outstanding that night.
Mickey Harte wanted him and this season has proven why. An unknown beyond the county’s borders prior to the National League, he has appeared in 10 of Tyrone’s 11 games this year, starting nine of them. Does that surprise him?
“A small bit, yes," he admits.
“I'd be quite confident in my ability and I've worked hard. Like coming into any team, I thought I would have to wait to get my chance. But I suppose I got my chance very early in the year and I knew I would have to take it because of the level of competition, but I still need to be kept on my toes.”
His versatility is such he could appear anywhere in the half-back or half-forward lines on any given weekend. The switch of himself and Peter Harte from the former to the latter for the replay win over Cavan was key to their success.
But it’s being named at six earlier in the year that underlined Harte’s belief in him: “I suppose the fact he's putting me in the team and putting me in at six, where some people might feel is a place where greater responsibility lies, I suppose that gives extra confidence to myself," Sludden adds.
“As a younger player, it's great to have the confidence of the manager and the backroom set-up as well, that's very important.”
Sludden is a devoted student of the game. It’s a family obsession. His brothers Ruairi - a familiar name to Tyrone fans - and Kenny both play for the club, while younger brother Oran looks to be very much in the same mould.
A cruciate knee ligament injury suffered playing for Dromore minors stunted Oran's hopes of playing for Tyrone a year early, but he’s likely to feature in his final year at the grade in 2017.
Their father Kevin is a former player and club chairman. Niall himself can be found at the St Dympna’s grounds every Saturday morning, coaching the U10s - something he began when still a teenager himself.
“He does a fair bit of coaching around the club himself,” says his clubmate and mentor Ryan McMenamin, who coached Sludden at U8 and U10.
“You could always chat about players coming up and different ways of coaching them. He’s always picking your brains that way. He just loves football. I think he’s the kind of lad that just likes to take that half-hour after work and sit down and read everything about sport: soccer, Gaelic, whatever.”
The primary six teacher at St Malachy’s Primary School in Coleraine will have plenty of time to study the game over the next six weeks. Modern in his attributes and modern in his outlook, the experience of missing a year’s football is encouraging him to play with a smile on his face.
“You have to be a thinking player and adapt to whatever way you are playing. On different days, you have to adapt to different ways of playing and with different personnel, but I don't find that too much of a challenge," Sludden says.
“I enjoy that tactical side of the game and changing up my game whatever way the other team plays and whatever way we're playing as well. The tougher times we were speaking about earlier has made me appreciate my football a lot more.
“What do you train for? You want to train for days like this. I personally don't put myself under that much pressure going out. I just go out and enjoy it, but I know there is a lot of heavy competition around the squad and things can change quite easily.
“Sport, football, as we know, is a very fickle world, so I just focus on the next game, the next performance, regardless of whether I'm on the team or in the panel.”
It’s taken a while to get to this point, but Niall Sludden is here to stay.
