O’Doherty hails the Sleacht Néill grit after another title

By Michael McMullan

CORMAC O’Doherty hailed Sleacht Néill’s ability to hang tough after winning a 14th successive Derry Senior Hurling Championship title.

Despite playing with 14 men after Brendan Rogers was sent off with half-time approaching, the reigning Ulster champions held most of the aces.

They were never behind and pushed six points ahead in a controlled second- half showing.

Kevin Lynch’s twice pegged the gap back to three points but Sleacht Néill always found a response.

The six-point lead in the closing stages was the cushion that absorbed Tiarnán McHugh’s late goal.

“We had a lot to deal with across 75-70 minutes but the beauty of this team is the character and the desire,” O’Doherty said.

“The day we lose, it’ll never be for lack of want or lack of fight. That second half just showed what this team’s about.

“We love to play a nice hurling and it’s great when it happens but if it comes to the gritty stuff too, we can turn up.”

Referee Tarlach Conway sent Rogers off, after being called in by his umpires, for interference with a faceguard.

It happened with 26 minutes on the clock, giving Sleacht Néill time to regroup after two Gerald Bradley points had settled them.

“The beauty about the experience in our changing room is that we’ve been in a lot of corners and we’ve got ourselves out of a lot of holes. Today was just another one,” O’Doherty said of how they pushed on in the second-half.

“We definitely weren’t worried but we got our set up and our structure right.

“For a lot of that second half we controlled the game, we dictated a lot of the things that went on and we chipped the scores when we really needed them.”

🏆🇦🇹 All over at Find Insurance Owenbeg, where @GACSlaughtneil have claimed their 14th successive Leadon Timberframe Derry SHC trophy with victory over Kevin Lynch!

What a brilliant final – in the mix right until the last play 👏 pic.twitter.com/Rcx9vI2bVH

— Derry GAA (@Doiregaa) September 20, 2026

It took points from substitutes PJ Glover, Peter McCullagh and Jerome McGuigan to steer the champions towards the finish line.

In some ways, it was like the 2014 final when Sleacht Néill had to fend off a strong onslaught in the closing stages.

On their final few moments, O’Doherty highlighted the importance of having players prepared to stand up and be counted.

“I was chatting to like a few boys during the week,” he said. “A lot of ones outside the camp talked about hunger and desire coming from (Kevin) Lynch’s or other teams coming up against us.

“When you see what Shane (McGuigan) did at the finish, just putting his body in the line, Meehaul (McGrath) the same.

“If that’s not want and that’s not desire, I don’t know. This group will never be found wanting for that.

“We just we stood up, to a man, at different times of the game and it’s just nice to get across line again.

“You never get sick of it. People outside the circle maybe take these for granted.

“If you look back through every year, whatever the celebrations are outward, inward it’s just a ball of emotion, of joy, relief and celebration.

“It might be a long time ago, but there’s a lot of people on this pitch (the Owenbeg celebrations) now that that don’t have the success that we’ve had.

“We’re humble enough to know that it’ll not always be this way. We don’t take these for granted.

“We honour every one of them and you can see that in the smiles of players faces today.”