AIB Ulster Club Senior Hurling Championship final: Cuchullain’s, Dunloy (Antrim) 0-10 Robert Emmet’s, Slaughtneil (Derry) 1-15
SPREAD the word – the Slaughtneil mean machine is back. Twelve months after trudging from the field at Corrigan Park, downhearted and defeated, the Derry champions ascended back to the Ulster throne with an utterly dominant display against Dunloy.
From first minute until last, they edged almost every individual battle with a powerhouse performance, shutting down a Cuchullain’s attack that had devastated Ballycran two weeks earlier.
Clutching the Four Seasons Cup for the third time in four years, in his victory speech captain Chrissy McKaigue talked about what happened 12 months ago, and how it had driven them to where they stand now.
That day, Ballycran punished every error a tired Slaughtneil side made. They never looked like being out-fought yesterday.
And, when it mattered, the experience of long campaigns through the winter stood to them. Take the opening five minutes as an example.
Before Slaughtneil even got a point on the board, they had amassed four wides and spurned a gilt-edged goal chance as Dunloy edged into an early lead.
It would have been so easy for heads to drop; not a bit of it. Slaughtneil don’t do panic.
Instead they stuck to their high intensity pressure game, allowing Dunloy nothing like the freedom granted at the Athletic Grounds a fortnight previous as they swarmed their opponents in numbers, and with serious intent.
Dunloy’s forwards managed just three points from play the whole afternoon, with Shane McGuigan shackling Keelan Molloy brilliantly, Sean Cassidy keeping a close watch on Eoin O’Neill and Meehaul McGrath completely nullifying the threat of Nigel Elliott, who cut a frustrated figure as he made the long walk to the line after picking up a second yellow card with 20 minutes left to play.
That defensive effort was supplemented brilliantly by Chrissy McKaigue. Pushing up on Paul Shiels, McKaigue didn’t allow Dunloy’s influential captain a second to settle in an imperious first half, nicking possession time and again with perfectly executed hooks and blocks to add to the Cuchullains’ unease.
The rest of Michael McShane’s men took their lead from him, and must have wondered how they were only two points up – 0-8 to 0-6 – at half-time as Brendan Rogers, Se McGuigan and Jerome McGuigan all proved more than a handful for the Dunloy backs.
That series of early wides drew a few groans of derision, and in the fifth minute Rogers had the chance to settle any nerves as he bounded onto Brian Cassidy’s pass. However, Ryan Elliott was equal to his driven effort, deflecting the sliothar around the post for a 65.
When the normally dead-eyed Cormac O’Doherty put that wide, you just began to wonder.
Those early warning signs didn’t go unnoticed among the Dunloy ranks however as Shiels dropped back around the 40 to try and cut off the space that Slaughtneil were finding with ease, even if they weren’t making it pay on the scoreboard - yet.
McKaigue went with him and stayed on his toes, and with Dunloy so often being forced to go long towards their increasingly isolated forwards, the Derry men slowly but surely gathered momentum as they ate up possession and dominated the skies before unleashing their own artillery up top.
They reeled off five points without reply midway through the half, although Dunloy were unlucky not to hit the Slaughtneil net during that purple period when Ronan Molloy’s scuffed effort beat ’keeper Oisin O’Doherty but not the post, bouncing back into play.
The Emmet’s managed to avert the danger, with Rogers sending over a smart score less than a minute later before Se McGuigan, an O’Doherty free from distance and a superb Gerald Bradley score left them 0-7 to 0-3 ahead.
Dunloy battled back to close the gap heading towards half-time, a Conall Cunning free and Ronan Molloy’s added time score giving them something to cling to heading down the tunnel.
After the break though it took just 20 seconds for Se McGuigan to swivel his hips, taking two Dunloy players out of the game, before splitting the posts.
That got Slaughtneil off to the perfect start, and their cause was helped by Cunning clocking up three wides in-a-row, two from frees.
The challenge facing Gregory O’Kane’s men became all the greater when they were reduced to 14 men as a second unnecessary foul from Nigel Elliott saw him make his exit. Yet you have to give Dunloy huge credit for hanging in there, and a Cunning free in the 43rd minute again reduced the gap to two, 0-10 to 0-8.
But it was Slaughtneil who struck the killer blow when they bagged the breakthrough goal 13 minutes from time, Cormac O’Doherty going down in the square under pressure from a swarm of bodies in green and gold.
Referee Aiden Ferguson had no doubt, and O’Doherty dusted himself down to skid his penalty across the turf and beyond the hurl of Ryan Elliott in the Dunloy goal.
They had a chance to close this contest once and for all in the 53rd minute when Se McGuigan cut in and burst beyond a tiring Dunloy defence before lofting a hand-pass over to Jerome McGuigan in the square.
Elliott was out on top of him in a shot though, forcing the towering Slaughtneil attacker to lash over the bar instead of going for glory to extend their lead to five.
With the game heading into added time, Chrissy McKaigue found an extra gear to advance forward and land the penultimate score of the game. The Emmet’s support loved it, and so did McShane as he turned towards them, fists clenched.
Yesterday was a triumph for the Slaughtneil players, but also for him after the disappointment of last year. The Ballycastle man can’t have had too many more satisfying days on the line.
As darkness fell in Newry, the supporters who made the long journey from Derry got to celebrate for the second time in a matter of hours after watching their camogs do the business earlier in the afternoon.
The Leinster champions are up next on the first weekend in January as the All-Ireland road opens up for Slaughtneil once again. And this time there is only one prize in their crosshairs.
Dunloy: R Elliott; P Duffin, C McKinley, C Kinsella; E Smyth, R McGarry, K McKeague; P Shiels, K Molloy; N Elliott, N McKeague, R Molloy (0-1); E O’Neill (0-1), C Cunning (0-7, 0-6 frees), K Molloy. Subs: G McTaggart for E O’Neill (44), S Elliott (0-1) for N McKeague (50), C Brogan for R Molloy (56)
Yellow cards: N Elliott (33, 40), K Molloy (36), N McKeague (60+3)
Red card: N Elliott (40)
Slaughtneil: O O’Doherty; K McKaigue, S Cassidy, C McKenna; Shane McGuigan, S O Caiside, M McGrath (0-1); G Bradley (0-1), C McKaigue (0-2); M McGuigan (0-1), C O’Doherty (1-3, 1-0 pen, 0-3 frees), B Rogers (0-3); Se McGuigan (0-1), J McGuigan (0-2), B Cassidy (0-1). Subs: C McAllister for C McKenna (46), C McKenna for J McGuigan (58), G O’Kane for Se McGuigan (60+4)
Yellow cards: Shane McGuigan (41), B Cassidy (45, 60+6)
Red card: B Cassidy (60+6)
Ref: A Ferguson (Fermanagh)
Att: 4,984
