A Grand Old Team To Play For: Loughgiel end 21 years of hurt

By Ronan Scott

IN 2010, few outside of Loughgiel expected the Shamrocks to win the county title. The club had lost six finals in-a-row from 2003 to 2008 and were beaten in the semi-final in 2009.

The club hadn’t won a Senior Championship in 21 years. For a proud club with a strong hurling history, it was a dark time.

Johnny Campbell was the captain that year and he explained that the start of the 2010 season was no different to any other year. Loughgiel had the belief that they were good enough to win.

“2010 began like every other year with the hope of winning a championship.

“We had competed in six out of the previous seven finals. We hadn’t got to the final in 2009 and threw away the Feis final against Dunloy. So confidence was pretty much on the floor.”

The mood was one of frustration, and goalkeeper DD Quinn echoed Campbell’s analysis.

“The expectation was that we wanted to win a championship. As soon as the bright evenings come around everyone is focused on hurling. We talk about wanting to win a championship.”

Eddie McCloskey agreed with that.

“In our heads we always knew we weren’t far away from a championship, but it was always about getting over that line.

“Everyone around the parish talked about the monkey on the back. That was the mental block that we all had. As far as we are concerned that year was about getting over that hurdle. That’s what we had at the forefront of our minds.”

For Neil McGarry, the hurt of the previous year played its part in inspiring the team.

“There wasn’t a great year prior to that when we got beat by Cushendall in the semi-final.

“But the team had got to six finals in-a-row, which was a feat in itself, albeit a disappointing one. We had beaten every team in Antrim during those championships.

“There wasn’t a great deal to be done to get that team over the line. As the years went on there was more of a psychological aspect. Maybe the turning point came in that Jim (Nelson) and those older guys were able to come in and delve into that and get the best out of those players.”

There was a change in management that year. PJ O’Mullan took over the team for the 2010 season, and he brought Jim Nelson, the legendary Antrim coach, into the team.

Johnny Campbell said: “PJ came with a real strong team around him. The players wanted for nothing. He’d got Jim Nelson and Joe McGurk involved. What they gave the players was the confidence, discipline and belief that they could go on achieve what they wanted to achieve.”

For Eddie McCloskey, the change in management, effectively increased confidence.

“There was a buzz there. When you have a new manager the players on the periphery feel like they have a chance of getting on the team. And the players who are on the team probably thought that they needed to prove themselves. So it brought about a change in attitude.”

McCloskey said that the addition of Jim Nelson was important.

“It can’t be overstated how much of an impact he would have on that team, both in that year and in years to come. He was a massive figure in our later success.”

Neil McGarry described Nelson’s joining the squad as a coup.

DD Quinn felt the same. Though one of his memories was of how the new management wasn’t able to get everyone on board.

Quinn said: “My brother Joey had left the panel. PJ came to me and asked me if he would be interested to come back. I said I would go to him and ask him and see what he said.

“I went to him and I said that ‘look, I think there is something different this year’, and that it might be worth a go. But he never listened to me. It was his loss I suppose.”

DD’s brother had perhaps suffered through the hurt of the previous seasons, losing six county finals on the trot. Then losing to Cushendall in the semi-final in 2009. There were those who must have reached the conclusion that it wasn’t going to happen for the Shamrocks.

But the players didn’t believe that. They could see a change that had come with the management team.

Neil McGarry said: “People would have said that PJ, and Jim and the other guys involved coming in was a major turning point in the club’s history. That’s not taking anything away from the previous management teams. Every one of them brought something to the table.

“The way that the team bought into what the management were doing said a lot.”

DD Quinn agreed with that take.

“We were talking about things in training, we were working on things at training and then bringing them out at the weekend. Then on Tuesday night at training after the match we’d talk about them again. We would weigh up the pros and cons. The management were always open to feedback. The turning point that season was our training.”

Yet Eddie McCloskey had a different understanding.

“The turning point that season was our discipline. There was a culture in our club where when we were getting it tight we would have blamed the referee. We wanted to get rid of that. The management helped to bring that in, where we would forget about the referee and concentrate on our own game. That brought less yellow cards, less frees being moved forward, less red cards. I don’t think we had any sendings off that year. Maybe we had one.”

Yet discipline extended further than the field of play. It seems that the management wanted the off-field behaviour to change as well.

Johnny Campbell told the story of a game against Ballycran during the league when the team weren’t playing well.

“We were getting tore apart. We went into the changing room at half time. A selector was tearing strips off us at half time, which was fully deserved. But Jim came in and he put a stop to it. He said that it wouldn’t be happening. He said ‘these fellas are winners. They are going to be winners.’

“That was the first time that we heard and thought that this man believed in us.”

Their style of play had to change too.

Eddie McCloskey said that they changed to a more hand-passing game. He said that they looked at increasing their hand-passing in order to retain possession.

“We felt that if we were out hand-passing (our opponents) then we were doing well and generally that brought about the win.”

Retaining possession is a key element of the modern game of hurling, but 10 years ago at club level the priority was advancing the sliotar up the field.

McCloskey said: “We had to (handpass] along with hooking and blocking. Those three stats were what the management were looking for, hooking, blocking, hand-passing.”

The Loughgiel men saw their plan come together when they went to play James Stephen’s in a challenge match.

Johnny Campbell said “I think the game ended up in a draw, but it showed that we could hurl with the best as long as we kept our discipline. That gave us the confidence that the Antrim Championship was doable.”

Loughgiel beat St Gall’s in the first round. That set up a semi-final against Dunloy.

DD Quinn explained the rivalry with Dunloy, who were the defending champions.

“Form goes out the window. It’s a battle. It is two neighbouring parishes going at it.

“We played with the breeze in the first half. We went in with a lead at half time. We knew that going out to play against the breeze that you needed a big lead. We also knew that it was going to be another dog-fight and that was what it turned out to be. It was never free-flowing. There were a lot of frees given. It was just a typical Loughgiel-Dunloy match.”

For Neil McGarry, the game was one that was important for the defence.

“It was a confidence builder, which was what we needed.”

Forward Eddie McCloskey was pleased with the mental strength that the team showed.

“The massive thing was that we didn’t bottle it. We didn’t give away the lead that we had got. That gave us the belief that we could see out the win, and we had the mental capacity not to be overwhelmed by the situation.”

That game set up a final with Cushendall.

Johnny Campbell said: “I remember not feeling pressure going into the that final. I felt excited.”

But when the ball was thrown in, it was intense. They got the good start as Eddie McCloskey garbbed an early goal.

McCloskey said: “Cushendall know how to congest things for a forward. They know how to work the ball around you. Everything is difficult. But I thought we held our own.

“I remember scoring the first goal, Liam (Watson) put it on a plate for me and I couldn’t really miss.

“I scored a point after that. After having a poor game against Dunloy I knew the importance of getting a good start.”

McCloskey said that the defence played a massive part.

“’Ding’ (Paul) Gillen, Johnny Campbell, Martin Scullion they had monster games. They came out with so many balls and sent some great balls in.”

Yet the game was not going to go smoothly.

Declan Lavery went off with a hand injury. For Johnny Campbell, that was important.

“That seemed to change the momentum of the game. Cushendall came back into it. They went two points up halfway through the second half.

“Then you start to think, ‘is this going to happen again, are we going to get over the line?’”

The memories of those six lost finals might have crept back into some of the players’ minds. Yet they didn’t show their fears.

Campbell said: “I remember Liam Watson being impeccable from frees that day, him and Barney McAuley got massive scores. They got us back into the game after not scoring for 19 minutes.”

DD Quinn said that in that period of the second half pressure was on.

“We were struggling to win ball from the puc-outs. I saw Martin Scullion, he was always a great outlet. He was on the stand side. I hit the ball to him, into his hand. He went up the sideline and I think he maybe got a free. That relieved the pressure.

“Then going into the last few minutes, we were a point up, but the ball wasn’t sticking. Then again from a puc-out, Martin did his usual thing. He ran out to the wing, I spied him, and I struck the ball and it was going straight to his hand but Paddy McGill got in front of him and got it. He struck it, but straight away I knew it was going wide. But you talk about one relieved man. I knew if that had went over the bar my days of hurling for Loughgiel would be over.”

Eddie McCloskey emphasised that the memory of the day was of the team standing up.

“Years prior we would have folded, but this year we didn’t. Looking back at the game it could have went either way.”

Johnny Campbell remembers the final stages and an important score.

“I think Declan Lavery had to get the hand patched up and came back on. He got the ball and won a foul. It wasn’t an easy one. It was 60-70 yards. No better man to stand over it than Liam Watson. He didn’t miss.”

Neil McGarry said: “Look everyone played their part, even the lads who didn’t come on.

“There was raw emotion when the final whistle went. Just to get over the line after so many years of trying.”

Johnny Campbell said it was unbelievable.

“I can remember five or six of us just grabbing each other and screaming into the air. We probably didn’t know what to do. That quickly turned into hundreds. It was a sea of red out onto the pitch. Everyone knew where the team had come from, and the hurt we’d suffered.”

For Neil McGarry, that day was the most important of his hurling career with his club.

“People ask me what is my best day in a Loughgiel jersey and that day was it. Winning the All-Ireland was monumental, but having been in all those finals, and to finally get over the line was the best day I had.”

Johnny Campbell’s abiding memory is being hustled to the sideline so he could accept the trophy.

“I was lucky to be captain that day. A couple of officials got to me and were bringing me over to the stand. I fell in with so many people. There was unbelievable emotion. The joy in people’s faces, the tears in their eyes, I will never forget that.”

DD Quinn said: “It was unbelievable for the club. After being in all those finals, you see other teams winning and you wonder if you are ever going to get it. So to see it actually happen, it was great.”

Eddie McCloskey explained how important it was for the parish.

“The club had not won in 21 years. For a club like Loughgiel that’s far too long of a time. The tradition we have in Antrim, Ulster and All-Ireland is massive. For us to be out for that length of time was a disaster. We got back into the winning mentality, and the winning culture.”

Neil McGarry said: That win set that group of players on the course for the next number of years. People would say that if we had got the win earlier we would have won more. I disagree. I think that the defeats made the groups stronger.”

McCloskey agrees with that analysis. “What was instrumental for that team as that all those boys were involved in those final defeats. Those lads that had come back year after year, defeat after defeat, carried that with them.

Neil McGarry said: “When we tasted that success it drove us on. We wanted more and more.

“We never should have went without one for so long. To get over the line in 2010 pushed that group of players to a place where they knew they could get over the line.

“In the years to follow we played some of the best hurling that I have ever seen. We travelled the length of the Ireland and we gave some of the best teams their fill of it, and beat teams including county teams. It pushed the club on and it still continues to do that.”

Loughgiel won four Antrim Championships in-a-row. And they won again in 2016. Their biggest success was the 2012 All-Ireland title, joining the 2012 team with the 1983 champions, as the club’s only All-Ireland senior champions.

An incredible achievement for a club who has returned to prominence after a long period in the doldrums.

r.scott@gaeliclife.com

This feature was originally an episode of Take Your Points. You can watch that show on our site gaeliclife.com/take-your-points.