BETWEEN them, Loughgiel and Cushendall have won 9 of the last 11 Antrim hurling titles, and it’s been 15 years since there was a county final without either of them present.
As much as it stings Ballycastle, Dunloy and the rest, this is the rivalry that has defined the early 2000s. They last met in the final three years ago, when the Shamrocks claimed a fourth straight title, but since then Cushendall have beaten them in a semi-final (2015) and quarter-final (2014) en route to back-to-back Championships.
On Sunday week they will come face-to-face once more, this time in the showpiece, after Loughgiel’s impressive second half eased them past Ballycastle on Sunday.
Watching from behind the wire as Cushendall claimed county and Ulster successes last year before going on to reach the All-Ireland final earlier this year will have stuck in Shamrock throats.
But it inspires as well, just as the Loughgiel success of 2012 did. Johnny Campbell was the man tasked with climbing the Hogan Stand steps to collect the Tommy Moore Cup four years ago. Now in the Bainisteoir bib, he was quickly relishing the September 25 date with their old rivals.
“It’s a great rivalry, and sport needs those rivalries. Of course it hurts. Any time you don’t win a championship it hurts. If it wasn’t hurting those boys, I’d be worried.
But fair play to Cushendall, they got to the All-Ireland final and they deserved to be there, the way they hurled and the preparation they put in. It’s up to us to try and knock them off now.
“It’s one to be looked forward to. We haven’t been there the last couple of years. They’ve raised the bar and it’s us that are playing catch-up with them now.
“If you’re not there, you can’t win it. We’ll look forward to the next couple of weeks and take it as it comes.”
When they went off at half-time on Sunday just three points up having played with a massive wind at their backs, it looked as though Ballycastle were in with a serious shout of reaching their second straight decider.
But the composure of their second half display, and their ability to use the space up front to pick off the Town in the final 15 minutes, was in marked contrast to the opening 30 minutes.
They rode their luck on a couple of occasions, none less than when Saul McCaughan hit the crossbar when there were three between the sides early in the second half, but by the end there were few qualms over the Shamrocks’ victory.
“We didn’t really get going in the first half and if someone had told me at that stage that we’d won by seven, I’d have been more than happy,” admitted Campbell.
“The lads didn’t panic, they held their composure and they started to play a wee bit towards the end of the first half.
“They started to create a bit of space and look for runners, and it was just about refocusing at half-time and not panicking playing against that breeze. We wanted to play to our strengths rather than Ballycastle’s.
“Over the last few years, the way we play hurling, we probably play better against the breeze. You always want to be a wee bit further ahead than three points with a breeze as strong as that, but the boys have been around the block and we’ve a good mix with some young boys that have come through the ranks as well, and they’re hurling well in fairness to them.
“It was just about the leaders on the pitch organising themselves. Us on the sideline have to hand the ropes over to them and they did that, they snuffed them out.”
