FEATURE: The unfamiliar familiar road to Saturday’s Ulster Senior Hurling showpiece

The Ulster Senior Hurling Championship final between St John’s and Sleacht Néill is a novel pairing in one respect but it’s not the whole story. Mickey Johnston and Micky Glover recall the clubs’ crossing of paths on the way to Saturday. Michael McMullan writes….

MARRIAGE took Micky Glover from the shadow of Belfast’s Black Mountain to Sleacht Néill where he now looks up at Carntogher.

A former St Paul’s player, he ended up in the maroon and white of where he now calls home.

It wasn’t long before the late Thomas Cassidy enlisted him to help coach the u-14 hurlers.

Cassidy had many disciples. Hurling men. Men like Glover. In it for the long haul. It’s a pathway that takes the Emmet’s to an 11th Ulster hurling final on Saturday, aiming for a sixth title.

Glover knew Mickey Johnston from his time in Belfast, growing up around the Bingnian Drive area of Andersonstown, a decent puck of a sliotar from Casement Park.

In the days when official hurling began at u-16 level, communities hurled at the younger ages in street leagues.

“They had rigs of their own,” Glover recalls. “St John’s was established in 1929, so it was always there, but these were street teams the kids played for before they integrated into club teams to play club hurling.”

Sleacht Néill reached their first Ulster final in 2000, losing to Dunloy. On the day Thomas Cassidy managed them to the Derry title, he also coached the club’s first ever u-12 winning team.

It was a team that included Chrissy McKaigue who captained them to the title 12 months later, coming on the back of entering the North Antrim Indoor League.

It was cubs packed into cars or vans on a Saturday morning. Anywhere they’d get a seat.

It was their first taste of Ulster. Hurling outside Derry. Small-sided games. Hurls with rubber bases. Togetherness. Craic.

It was new and opened doors to different opponents and to learning, the tiptoe steps of their ascension to one of Ireland’s famed hurling teams.

By 2006, Cassidy had Glover on board, alongside Mark Lowry and Gerry Doherty, to coach a group of u-14s he’d never set eyes on before.

The basics were coached and a team shaped together to become their first Féile winning group in 11 years.

Oisin O’Doherty and Sé McGuigan were key men. Karl McKaigue was captain. Éanna Ó Caiside was another to go on to win Ulster medals. Brendan Rogers and Gerald Bradley were still u-12s, with a nine-year-old Cormac O’Doherty as goalkeeper.

It took them to Cork where a group including Newtownshandrum was too tough a nut to crack. But it was a first taste of competitive hurling on a national level.

A key part of their growth had been entering the Antrim underage leagues. Below that, the Glover-Johnston link led to Sleacht Néill and St John’s playing two challenge games a year. One home and one away.

“I would have known Mickey all my life,” Glover said of his relationship with Johnston.

“His sons (Conor and Ciaran) were that age, Mickey Dudley, Ryan McNulty and one or two others were crossing paths with our boys at u-14 regularly.”

It was a time when St John’s were hosting underage tournaments with teams coming from all over Ulster and beyond.

“Sleacht Néill were always a given to be invited,” Johnston said. “That was because Thomas and Mickey said they’d always be there.

“They never let you down, they always turned up and they saw the benefit of playing those games.

“Even at u-16, we always would have played Sleacht Néill before we went to the county final, just as a measure of where we were at.”

At the All-Ireland Féile in 2007, Castletown Geoghegan emerged from Sleacht Néill’s group before beating St John’s in the Division Two final at Kilkenny’s Nowlan Park.

St John’s went one further the following year, beating Portlaoise in the final who had beaten Sleacht Néill the previous day.

“We played four games in the one day on a Saturday, we played two final round games in the morning,” Glover recalls.

“We played Lucan Sarsfields in the quarter-final in the afternoon and had to play Portlaoise, who were the host team, at seven o’clock at night.”

Future senior camogie star Aoife Ní Chaiside was in top form over the weekend despite a broken finger but by the semi-final, Sleacht Néill were out on their feet. The four-game Saturday load was too much with Portlaoise having just one game to contend with.

2008 success didn’t end there for St John’s who made it an All-Ireland Féile double by adding the football title.

Sleacht Néill were at the Féile the following year and reached a semi-final but stellar performances from Cormac O’Doherty and Meehaul McGrath weren’t enough to thwart Portaferry.

“We met St John’s in the semi-final of the Ulster Féile and we beat them,” Glover also recalls of 2009.

As the teams paraded around Dungannon ahead of the final, the talk was of a highly fancied Loughgiel team standing in their way.

“Cormac O’Doherty gave the display of his life that day,” Glover recalls of their victory.

The St John’s and Sleacht Néill link continued through u-16, two Ulster Minor finals – won by the Johnnies – in Ballinascreen and on into senior hurling.

“The rivalry was intense because me and Mick knew each other for years and we wanted to always get one over on each other, two Belfast men,” Glover said with a laugh.

“We’d started preparing properly in the club and they (St John’s) were being prepared really well. Mickey was a superb coach.

“He had his team in the south of Ireland, as we did. He was really developing a good team and a good group of players, so whenever you met, there was massive rivalry.”

When Glover and Johnston became involved in the respective senior teams, the challenge game tradition continued.

“In the Ulster League, in 2011 or 2012, we played them in our bottom pitch,” Glover recalls. “It was another intense match and we won it. Ciaran, Conor (Johnston) and all them boys were playing.”

Going into this weekend, Glover feels both sides will respect each other but won’t fear each other either. Playing underage hurling in Antrim took Sleacht Néill out of their comfort zone.

“There’s probably just a lot more teams and it’s a different brand of hurling,” Glover said of what Sleacht Néill gained.

“I wouldn’t say they’re a lot better in us in terms of hurling, but they’re a lot more technical. The Antrim teams spend a lot more time developing hurling than we do, because obviously we’re a big dual club.

“The circle has turned, our teams are going to Antrim now, and they don’t fear any Antrim clubs.

“We’ve been the dominant senior team in Ulster since 2013, which we showed against Loughgiel,” said Glover of his side.

“They were All-Ireland winners 18 months earlier and we could compete with them, with a very young team.”

Like Glover, Johnston looks in from the outside at Saturday’s final. He is taking time to recharge the batteries for whatever comes next. He knows the Johnnies are safe in the hands of Gerard Cunningham.

“He’s highly respected,” Johnston said of the current St John’s manager. “He was involved with the camogie team with his own daughters playing.

“He’s been around that senior group, both as a player and involved in the management structure, for the last 10 years at least and comes from great DNA.”

Johnston knows what makes Paul McCormack tick too, having made him Armagh captain when he managed the Orchard County to Nickey Rackard glory in 2012.

YOUNG STARS….A St John’s u-14 teams from 2008/9, including current senior players Michial Dudley, Ciaran Johnston, Conor Johnston, Ryan McNulty and Domhnall Nugent

“We beat a star-studded London team in the final. Paul was a wonderful, wonderful player and a superb captain,” Johnston said.

“I know what Paul will be bringing to the dressing room in Sleacht Néill. He’s a super guy. He understands the game and has fantastic leadership abilities.”

Johnston also knows what’s under the Sleacht Néill bonnet having beat them in the titanic 2011 and 2012 Ulster minor finals and having followed their pathway since.

“We knew the minor team that we had at that stage, 2011 and 2012, were as good as any team in Ireland,” he said.

At that time, across the span, St John’s, under Johnston’s watch, played the county champions in many of the leading hurling counties and the beaten finalists in some cases too.

“We knew that we had travelled a good enough bit around Leinster and we were part of Munster.” Johnston added.

“We tended to work at three or four weeks of coaching and then one weekend of games.

“We opened Rapparees’ pitch in Enniscorthy. The opening game was a minor game and their manager, Declan Ruth, invited us down.

“We had to do everything to keep that group going and keep it interested. We had to create a totally different environment.

“We didn’t have a history of winning and we were trying to get boys to be playing at senior level.

“Of that 2012 minor team, six of them went straight on to play county senior hurling in Kevin Ryan’s first tenure as manager.

“I would say there’s nine of that starting group of Sleacht Néill players currently who would have played against us,” he said, pointing out the similarities between the respective paths from minor level to Saturday’s Ulster final.

From the St John’s minor group, seven will be on Sleacht Néill’s radar again on Sunday.

Johnston’s sons Conor and Ciaran. Ryan McNulty, Michial Dudley, Domhnall Nugent, Michael Bradley and Donal Carson.

“Around 2001 or 2002, we put a plan in place for development of hurlers,” he said of their efforts.

“It wasn’t the player pathway to senior, but it had a four-year review, so we went from u-10 to u-14.

“Then we played in another national Féile, I think that was maybe 2010 or 2011 when Cuala beat us at Croke Park in the final.

“That would have been players Shea Shannon, Peter McCallin, big (Conall) Bohill and Oisin Donnelly.”

It’s the same return as Sleacht Néill but St John’s had a thicker door to knock to get out of Antrim at senior level.

“We won two county u-21 titles and people in Antrim seem to forget that,” he added.

“We have a haul of medals right up through. The only thing we couldn’t break was the senior, but we were there or thereabouts.

“It would have been easy for us to crumble and go away. It’s that bit easier when you’re winning championships to stay at it.”

St John’s were bidding for the Volunteer Cup alongside Dunloy and Cushendall teams who ended up at the cutting edge of the All-Ireland race.

“We took those two teams to the pin of their collar but we just couldn’t get over the line. We were knocking on the door but we weren’t winning. The ability was there and the belief was there to keep going. Eventually, they kicked the door down and thank God this year they did.”

Johnston has been around enough corners to know how hurling works. He can see two teams with a similar focus this weekend, only on a different level.

“St John’s were fighting to win a county title but Sleacht Néill are probably fighting to win an All-Ireland title,” he said.

“Their aspirations are to be in Croke Park at the end of the year and they’ve proved that.

“Their performances against Ballyhale and Ballygunner have been superb, so they are within the top six or seven clubs in Ireland.

“Their time to win an All-Ireland Club, that window of opportunity is closing, like our window of opportunity to win a county title was probably closing.”

Whatever way the result goes for the Johnnies on Saturday, Johnston looks further than the current team’s playing days.

They’ve given a decade of graft in search of the biggest prize and he earmarks them to coach the next generations of hurlers craving to take home the silver.

“That’s probably the key thing for me as a hurling man,” he said. “Players understand the jersey is only theirs for a wee while but it’s important that we’re developing and working.

“It’s probably even harder in a city club because we don’t have a parish. We need 10 hurlers to get one senior hurler,” he said, already referencing their recent minor B winning team that needs tapped into.

There is also the respect for the men in maroon St John’s will challenge themselves against.

“We had a massive and healthy respect for Sleacht Néill because myself and Micky (Glover) would have gone on really well,” Johnston summed up. “We’re two guys interested in their teams, interested in development and interested in coaching. Thomas was too; you couldn’t have fallen out with Thomas.”

On the outside, Saturday is new ground. Inside the St John’s and Sleacht Néill team buses, it’s an extension of their underage lifespan. There is one difference. The biggest cup in Ulster club hurling is now up for grabs.