By Michael McMullan

JACK McCloy was just five years of age when he first set eyes on the Hogan Cup.

His uncle Gerald Bradley had top scored with five points in the final at Croke Park when St Patrick’s Maghera won the last of their five titles.

Sometime after the final, McCloy can remember Gerald being among the past pupils, taking the cup back to his alma-mater St Brigid’s PS/Bunscoil Naomh Bríd in Tirkane.

“He keeps me reminding me that he has MacRory and Hogan medals, he’s kept on at me the last couple of years,” says McCloy with a laugh.

Bradley would tell him he’d two more years. St Mary’s knocked them out last season. Then it was one more year. The clock was ticking.

After Abbey hit Maghera for two early MacRory final goals, McCloy was a tower of strength. An imposing frame, plucking dangerous balls dipping into the goalmouth.

He has a MacRory medal tucked away. Halfway there. It’s in good company with two Ulster and All-Ireland minor medals with Derry.

It’s 11 days before this year’s Hogan Cup final and McCloy is seated in the boardroom in St Patrick’s Maghera.

“It was inspiring for Gerald to do that, being my uncle. I was five and can remember four of them coming into the primary school,” McCloy recalls.

“I remember them coming in and I was just thinking I’d love to be up there when I get to that age.

“It’s unbelievable when you think about the achievement. I suppose I’ll not really take it in until I get older and look back and think I won a MacRory.”

He hopes Monday will give him a chance to complete the set with his circle of friends.

Winning back-to-back All-Irelands with Derry brought him close to the players from other schools. MacRory and Hogan Cup football is different.

It’s with those from the five days a week for seven years club. There is always a special bond with school teams.

“I’ve been in class with Darach McGonagle and Pádraig Haran since first year,” he said.

“To win the MacRory as well was unbelievable. The lead up to the final, I think was special because the boys were friends for seven years.”

It wasn’t a trophy-laden crusade. McCloy, then an outfield player, didn’t make the panel when his year group were Ulster champions in first year.

He made the cut the following year but Covid pressed pause on their D’Alton Cup at the semi-final stage.

It was the same year Maghera and St Colman’s shared the MacRory Cup after the final wasn’t played.

There were other winners of the competitions going up through the school. But it was never St Patrick’s Maghera. That’s what made this year’s achievement special. An underdog story.

McCloy’s footballing career changed at club level in Sleacht Néill. When Martin McKenna sustained a broken arm during underage, manager Seamus Mulholland was on the lookout for a goalkeeper.

His first game was an u-16 game in Limavady. He can still see the first goal he ever conceded. Late on in the game, a ball beating him to his left side.

It was followed with a win over Swatragh. The fact he can still recite the 1-7 to 0-7 scoreline tells you McCloy is a thinker.

“I really enjoyed it,” he said of his new role between the posts. “I thought I could go far in the position and get my best out of it.”

He was right. He’s since played in high-pressure games for club, school and county.

With Jack Cassidy pursuing a career in the NFL, he could be wearing the Sleacht Néill number one jersey sooner rather than later.

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St Patrick’s Maghera were very much in the conversation for last season’s MacRory Cup. A stacked team. Tradition.

It didn’t happen. St Mary’s Magherafelt turned them over in the quarter-final.

Before a ball was kicked this year, there was a different mindset in the Maghera camp. They weren’t fancied but they’d pour everything they had into getting to a MacRory final.

“We were just rated as underdogs from the start,” McCloy said.

“The years didn’t work out for us down at school but we always knew we had a good bunch but never really took off.”

They went back to basics. Take a game as it came. Roll up their sleeves. Work. Back each other. See where it took them.

Results came. They might not have been comfortable but they knew how to graft and learned how to win.

“Getting to the MacRory final was a huge achievement,” McCloy admits. “We never thought after MacRory.

“The goal at the start of the year, lingering in the back of boys’ minds, was just to get to the MacRory final and it would be unreal if got there.”

Before they could catch their second breath in the final, McCloy’s net had rippled twice.

Abbey star Conor McCahill had two goals to his name and the Maghera ‘keeper was on the grass.

“I should have saved the first one definitely but my middle finger, it bent back and staved,” he said.

The second goal shook him. It was time to take stock. Park the goals. Organise his defence. Get his next kick-out away. There could be no more goals. There wasn’t. Maghera took over.

“We didn’t panic and that’s one thing about our team, we don’t panic. We held them out to half time,” McCloy added.

“As we normally do, we said it was nil-nil and we just hit them with four unanswered points.

“After that, I knew myself, this is a different team, we had the mentality that we could do it.

Their Hogan Cup semi-final against last year’s beaten finalists Mercy Mounthawk was a diluted version of the MacRory.

Ben Murphy hit an early goal but didn’t escape the shackles of marker Cahal McKaigue and cover for the rest of the game.

Dara O’Kane and Cormac McCloskey hit Maghera goals with goalkeeper McCloy standing strong in face of whatever the Tralee side could throw at them.

The underdogs had prevailed again. Now for the final step. Monday in Croke Park with St Colman’s Claremorris standing in the way of a sixth Hogan Cup title.

For all his pulsating days in the Derry number one jersey, McCloy has never played in Croke Park.

The Maghera squad went for a trip last Friday to familiarise themselves with the surroundings. They didn’t get on the hallowed turf but it was enough that Monday isn’t brand new.

“It’s going to be a deadly experience,” McCloy said. “I can’t wait for it, but once you’re out there, you try and absorb it as much as possible.

“We still have to have that real focus on the game. We have one goal, it’s just to win the Hogan at this stage, so we need to put stuff like that to one side.”

Gerald Bradley has returned to school in Tirkane as a Hogan Cup winner. McCloy will hope he follows in his uncle’s footsteps.

More Hogan Cup coverage in Thursday’s Gaelic Life