Conor McGrogan savours ‘unbelievable’ title triumph

By Niall Gartland

A MAGICAL moment captured for posterity. Conor McGrogan sank to his knees and embraced Mark and Conleith, also of the McGrogan stable, at the final whistle of a long-awaited Derry Senior Championship triumph for Newbridge.

Not only had the O’Leary’s clinched their first senior title in 35 years, but they’d done so in Oscar-worthy fashion, overcoming the reigning All-Ireland champions Glen by a single, solitary point – and it was thoroughly deserved at that.

Speaking after the game, Conor McGrogan repeatedly deployed the word ‘unbelievable’ to sum up his thoughts on the matter, and you couldn’t blame him for feeling almost overawed by a success that was literally decades in the making.

This was their moment – and virtually nobody outside the camp gave them so much of a puncher’s chance – and the entire GAA world has taken note of a classic underdog tale.

And McGrogan was happy to acknowledge that their underdog status did them no harm whatsoever.

“The pressure was completely off us. There was pressure against Bellaghy in the quarter-final and Magherafelt in the semi-final as they were two monkeys we had to get off our back, but not one single person outside our camp thought we’d beat Glen.

“I think that showed in our performance, we played with no fear or sense of pressure. When Glen got that late goal to bring it back level, I thought maybe it wouldn’t be our day but we kept on going and got our reward.”

Their last-gasp winner came from an unexpected source, defender Ciaran Brooks claiming legendary status with his decisive late contribution.

McGrogan commented: “It must’ve been the first point he’s ever scored in his life! ‘Brooksy’ was brilliant.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling – a dream come true. After we lost last year’s semi-final, we really put our heads down and so much work went into this. Sleacht Néill, Glen and Ballinderry have all had their big days and we just prayed it would be our turn some times and I can hardly put into words how much it means to us.

“It didn’t happen overnight, we’ve been building towards this for the last four or five years and I have to mention the young cubs on our team, every single one of them was unbelievable.”

Their success was all the more impressive as Derry star Padraig McGrogan has missed the entire season with a ruptured ACL while Shea McAteer missed out with a significant hamstring injury. The future is bright as well with underage stars Eamon Young and Cathair McBride coming through the ranks, but for now they’ll get ready to have a crack at Armagh representatives Clann Éireann in the first round of the Ulster Championship.

McGrogan said: “Shea missed out and Padraig’s been injured all season so it really is unbelievable. I hope to God that’s us not done either. We’ll enjoy this more than anybody that’s ever won a championship but we’ll look forward to Ulster and hopefully make the most of that opportunity too.

“This has given a massive lift to everybody and there’s so many young supporters who will be taken in by this, it’ll hopefully breed another generation of Newbridge football and keep it going and going.”