AIB Ulster Club Senior Hurling Championship semi-final: Cuchulainn’s, Dunloy (Antrim) 2-23 St Joseph’s, Ballycran (Down) 0-11
DUNLOY sent out a warning yesterday with an 18-point destruction of Ballycran to set up a mouth-watering Ulster final showdown against Slaughtneil on November 10.
Twelve months ago the Down champions sprung a major surprise when they sent an Ulster treble-chasing Emmett’s side out the exit door, but they never looked like repeating those heroics at the Athletic Grounds yesterday.
The quicksilver Conal Cunning led the way with 1-7 for the Cuchullain’s, while the sending off of Ballycran corner-back Gerard Hughes just a minute into the second half effectively killed the game off as a contest.
Now it is Mickey McShane’s Derry kingpins who stand between Dunloy and a first Ulster title in 10 years.
They know each other well, with the Emmett’s – convincing winners over Armagh’s Middletown in yesterday’s other semi-final – ending the north Antrim side’s hopes at the semi-final stage two years ago.
Some suggested that game had come too soon for a talented young Dunloy outfit but, on yesterday’s evidence, they are more than ready for the challenge now.
“We won the championship in 2017 and people said the team hadn’t improved; that was sort of the take going into this year, that Dunloy maybe hadn’t improved,” said boss Gregory O’Kane.
“But all you can do is win your club championship and then progress to Ulster. The development of the team is there and we just want to get better every day and get the best out of them. We’ve a nice blend of youth and experience, and they’re gelling nicely to where we want to be.
“Look,” he added, “Slaughtneil’s in an Ulster final and we’ll just prepare for that the same as we do any day and hopefully the boys go out and perform. That’s all we’re looking for.”
O’Kane insists his memories of that 2017 clash is limited “other than the result didn’t go our way”, but he couldn’t help but be impressed with the ruthless fashion in which his men earned themselves another crack at the Emmett’s.
“The Antrim championship is hard to win and we’ve been four weeks out now, so that was the thing we’d built into our training sessions - we just wanted to start the game at the pace we left off the Antrim championship. So we were delighted to start at that pace and tag on a few early scores.
“They’re hungry this year, and we were wanting to kick on. We have 35 players and every man is as honest as the next man, and that’s all you can ask for.”
The free-scoring Cunning was withdrawn towards the end after catching a hurl across the knuckles as he sent over his final point of the afternoon, but O’Kane says the decision to take him off was purely precautionary.
“He got a loose stick there at the end, a loose block as he took the point so with a player like that you want to get him out of there without picking up any knocks.
“I spoke to him there after the whistle and he’s grand.”
