FINALLY slaying Slaughtneil in the Ulster Championship made the Dunloy hurlers grow “two foot taller” and paved the way for them to reach this season’s All-Ireland Club final, according to Cuchullain’s 'keeper Ryan Elliott.
Despite being kings of Antrim five times in the last six seasons, for this Dunloy team to be truly remembered, they needed to beat the Derrymen.
After suffering provincial defeats to Michael McShane’s men in 2017, 2019 and 2021, the Cuchullain’s finally avenged those losses in last month’s Ulster final and showed they are more than good enough for the All-Ireland stage by beating Galway champions St Thomas’s in the semi-finals.
Speaking at last week’s press night in the Dunloy clubrooms, Elliott still feels they are fighting to earn respect on the national stage.
“After the Slaughtneil match, it was as if we grew two foot taller and the confidence we got from that... Going into the St Thomas’s match the bookies had us at a big, big price – 4/1 or 9/2 – but we were very confident going into that match that we were going to win. The final [against Ballyhale Shamrocks] is going to be a different test but we have plenty of confidence.”
Asked does the perceived lack of respect down south bug the Dunloy players, Elliott replied: “It’s one of those things. You obviously want as much respect as you can, but it’s not that the teams we’re playing aren’t giving us the respect – it’s maybe the media down south.
“You need to earn the respect as well and not many [Ulster] teams have got to the All-Ireland final. Loughgiel, Cushendall and ourselves and Rossa in ’89. Maybe they have a right to say that because not many have got to All-Ireland finals.
“Maybe they just haven’t seen us a lot and they’re judging us on the St Thomas’s match.”
Even though they’d clinched their place in the All-Ireland final for the first time since 2004, the county goalkeeper insisted they had so many areas to improve in from their semi-final performance as they racked up so many wides in their four-point win over the Galway men.
“We’ve watched the game back a number of times and we saw areas where we weren’t too good at and areas where we were,” he said.
“But we’ve done a lot of work since then. We hit a lot of wides that day, I think it was maybe 16. So we’re working on that too.”
Sunday will be the north Antrim club’s fifth All-Ireland final. In each of the four previous deciders, Dunloy finished runners-up (Birr 1995, Sixmilebridge 1996, Birr 2003 and Newtownshandrum 2004).
Trace Elliott’s family tree back to the mid-90s and early Noughties and the Dunloy team was packed with many of his relations, including his father, Shane, who kept goal.
But there is no sense of history on the shoulders of the current squad ahead of Sunday’s eagerly awaited showdown with the Kilkenny kingpins despite being surrounded by the framed photographs of those sides in the clubrooms.
But what was decreed before he could even hold a hurl in his hand was that he would follow in the footsteps of his father and keep goal for his club.
“I didn’t choose to do nets - I got put there,” Elliott smiled.
“I didn’t have much option. Obviously sometimes you wish you were playing out field but I wouldn’t do goals if I didn’t like it.”
Over the past number of years, Elliott has emerged as the most consistent goalkeeper in the county and has made the number one jersey his own under county boss Darren Gleeson.
Even on the rare occasion he’s made an error in big games, Elliott has shown great mental resolve to “wipe away” any mistakes and be flawless thereafter.
“Mistakes are always going to happen all over the pitch,” Elliott added. “That's goalkeeping: you can be the hero one day and the villain the next.
“When I was younger I probably would have got worked up about stuff. You see nowadays, football especially, and top ‘keepers make mistakes all the time, but you can’t beat yourself up. Obviously it’s natural you’re disappointed when you make a mistake but you can’t let it get to you too much as another mistake can happen.”
