Sleacht Néill are taking adifferent aim

BY Michael McMullan

CORMAC O’Doherty has been around enough corners to know that Sleacht Néill must have their eyes peeled with Portaferry coming down the tracks this week.

While they’ve dominated the Derry scene for 12 seasons, they’ve just over a 50 per cent hit rate from their Ulster final appearances.

Ballycran gave them a lesson in the 2018 semi-final when they were going for three in-a-row. Covid stripped the provincial campaign from the history books two years later.

Add in their four All-Ireland semi-final defeats and the current Sleacht Néill crop have a 52 per cent win rate in games beyond their own club scene. Twelve wins, 10 defeats and a pulsating draw with Cushendall.

Their extra-time victory over the reigning champions earlier this month was their only win in six attempts against the ‘Dall.

It was a belter. A real belter. The quality of the hurling, the 1-36 to 3-25 scoreline and the level of intensity was magnified thanks to the live RTÉ television audiences. And rightly so.

For O’Doherty, he plucks the ‘chaotic’ word as his adjective. Bogged down in the game, the result is the only thing that really matters and where the next possession is coming from.

“It’s only really after you see the publicity around it that you realise just how good it was,” O’Doherty said.

It’s “up there” with the blockbuster games he has been involved in with club, college and county, with both wee ball and big ball.

“Obviously it was great to get over the line,” he said with a caveat coming before there is any pause in the conversation.

“But, if the result doesn’t go our way on Sunday, then it really becomes irrelevant.

“It was a semi-final and it gives us an opportunity to compete in an Ulster final again.

“At the end of the day, it’s about winning trophies. One good performance doesn’t give us that trophy that we want.”

There are a few bumps in the road that make O’Doherty take notice. Ten years ago, when Cushendall beat Sleacht Néill after a replay, they went into a final as odds-on favourites against Portaferry but lost.

WINNING TOUCH…Eoghan Sands celebrating his goal in Portaferry’s 2014 Ulster final win over Cushendall

Two years ago, the Derry champions needed 1-7 from the now exiled Brian Cassidy to see off a young Portaferry side who were starting to grow.

“They did a lot of improving last year,” O’Doherty added. “You only have to look at the Cushendall result.”

The Down men had the ‘Dall on the ropes until Neil McManus hit the net to force extra-time.

Cushendall pushed on for victory before bossing Sleacht Néill in the final and were very close to an elusive All-Ireland title.

“We’re under no illusions of just how tough it’ll be,” he said, referencing the need to tap into what’s gone before.

“We’re fortunate we have a fairly experienced group in the changing room. Even our so-called younger players that have only come on in the last couple of years, they’ve all been through big games, they’ve lost big games and won big games.

“They’re well aware of what’s at stake. It’s just being prepared for another battle.

“We’ve got to put ourselves in a position to perform like we did against Cushendall.

“If we do that, then we give ourselves a good chance. Nobody’s under any illusions of just how big the challenge is going to be.”

O’Doherty came on the scene, in his first year of minor, when Sleacht Néill made the breakthrough in 2013.

He came on as a sub in the Ulster final defeat at the hands of Loughgiel before nailing down a regular spot. Between both codes, he holds 17 Derry and seven Ulster senior medals.

“It’s just that drive to always want to win more and to want to better yourself and better the team,” O’Doherty replied when asked his opinion on the root of their consistency.

It’s about leaving the jersey in a better place after trying to win as much as possible. Players will be retired soon enough.

Every year they set out to retain their Derry title. That’s the bread and butter the club expect. But the box still needs ticked and the players respect that.

It wasn’t that long ago they were looking on from the outside as others dominated.

“It really is just maintaining that hunger and that humbleness,” O’Doherty added.

“We don’t take these days for granted. You’ve got to keep working to keep earning them.

“You can see what it meant to people after we beat Cushendall. To have our club back on a high and back in another Ulster final, it’s occasions like that that make you realise what we can do for our community. That keeps us grounded and keeps us driving forward.”

Another factor is the conveyor belt. Conor McAllister made his return from injury with a first start against Cushendall.

Players like Brian Cassidy and brothers Éanna and Seán Ó Caiside are in Australia. The McKaigue brothers haven’t lifted a hurl this season.

But the shows goes on and their win over Cushendall signalled a diluted version of the euphoria after beating Loughgiel in 2016. After an indifferent Derry campaign and going in under the radar, it was almost like another breakthrough.

And it was done with first-year senior starters Fionn McEldowney and Conor Coyle hurling like they were part of the furniture. It keeps the competition for a starting jersey tangible.

“It keeps the whole thing driving on,” O’Doherty said, now in his 12th season.

“Without that influx of young talent and that freshness about the set-up every year, it could go stale.

“Thankfully, we’ve got a lot of good young players in our club with great coaching the whole way through.

“It stands to them boys, so they can slip under a team at 18, 19 or 20 and be ready to perform.”

If someone goes travelling or steps aside, their loss can be absorbed thanks to an underage structure that leaves minor players equipped to search out the next step. Standards is where everything has to start. Control what you can.

“That’s something that we’ve probably prided ourselves on over the last 10 or 12 years,” O’Doherty pointed out.

“That’s been set by our older players back then and it’s been fed down to us.

“The higher your standards are, the better position you are in to keep winning trophies and being successful.

“If you can make that impression on the younger players, they know the standards required. That can put us in a good place, that’s what we’ve done with the new guys this year.”