FEATURE: Fermanagh’s Lory story

Two of the stars of Fermanagh’s Lory Meagher success lift the lid on their glory trail all the way to Croke Park

By Shaun Casey

WHEN Brian Teehan cracked home Fermanagh’s third goal in the sunbaked surroundings of Croke Park, Joe Baldwin’s men already had one hand and four fingers of the other gripped onto the Lory Meagher Cup.

Teehan’s second major of the day handed the Erne County what looked like an winning ten-point lead as the game entered its final quarter. But All-Ireland finals are hardly ever one as easily as that and by the time the final whistle sounded, Fermanagh were relieved.

Longford stormed back into contention when all seemed lost and in the final 10 minutes of the match, they outscored their Ulster opponents 1-5 to 0-3. Thankfully for Fermanagh, they held on to win.

“We got off to a great start, at half-time we were comfortable,” recalls captain Ryan Bogue. “But we knew Longford would come back. We played them in the last game of the group, and it was the exact same, and they have plenty of good players.

“We knew they were going to come back; we rode out the storm and held out well in the end. We have plenty of firepower up front too, we knew that if we could limit them to scores at the back, we had enough up front that was going to keep our noses in front.

“I was playing centre half-back, so we were just trying to keep them out. It was hectic but we always kept our noses in front, we got a couple of good big scores around that time as well, and it was great to win it.”

Fermanagh had been reduced to 14 men late on when Ryan Porteous was “harshly” dismissed, leaving a nerve jangling final few minutes.

“I got the first red card I’ve ever gotten in my career,” added Porteous, reflecting on those frantic final seconds

“I’ve played football and hurling from when I was 10 or younger and I’ve never ever been sent off. I ended up getting sent off, in my opinion, harshly.

“I’ve never had a feeling like that, having to walk off a field and pray that the other 14 fellas can hold on for me. I was very, very scared that I’d let everybody down and for the boys to come out on top and hold on, it was brilliant

“Some of the fellas were coming back from injury and there were guys that didn’t have a whole lot of hurling behind them through the year. They stood up and were incredible, putting match-winning performances all over the field. It was special for me because of that.”

Fermanagh had lost the Division 3B league final earlier in the season, their only defeat of the entire year, and they used that as a springboard for championship success. When another final came around, they weren’t leaving empty handed.

They had chalked up four wins from four in the league to qualify for the decider, where they faced off against Warwickshire, who they’d already beaten by 11 points. But things were much different with silverware on the line.

Warwickshire turned the tables and picked up a five-point win to collect the league trophy.

“We learnt a lot from that league final,” said Bogue with hindsight.

“We were very disappointed with the league final but the Tuesday night after when we got back together, we sat down and said that realistically it’s the Lory Meagher that we want to win, so we parked the league final and put it behind us.”

Porteous echoed the thoughts of his captain, suggesting the league final served as a turning point for the rest of the campaign.

“We targeted a good league campaign to set us up for a good championship,” he said.

“Losing the league final was not pleasant, but it gave everybody the kick up the backside that they need to focus their mind on going into the championship.

“Throughout the course of the year you have to try and find ways to turn any negatives into positives and learn from them so that you’re not making the same mistakes over and over again.”

It wasn’t the only stumbling block that Fermanagh experienced this season. Back in January, before a pre-season training session, the players were informed that their manager, Joe Baldwin, had taken a stroke.

Baldwin’s own personal health was of foremost importance, but the Fermanagh boss soon demonstrated how valuable hurling, and this team, were to him.

“We found out when he was sitting in the hospital at the end of the day that it happened,” remember Porteous.

“Over the last few years, he’s always made a point to surround himself with good people. We have a good backroom team. Those boys were able to carry things forward and keep us moving along, even in his absence.

“Somebody like Joe, there’s very little else that he focuses on other than hurling. He puts hurling first above so many things that many other people wouldn’t, and he surrounds himself with fellas who have a similar mindset.

“Whenever you have somebody like that at the helm and good people around him, even though he wasn’t there for a short time, probably not a well-advised short time, things kept on track because we had good experience in the team and a good backroom team.”

Bogue added, “He wasn’t about for a few weeks, but he was back sooner than he should have been. He sent a message into the group and said he had taken a stroke, and he was going to have to take a few weeks away and removed himself from the group for a few weeks.

“It wasn’t that long until he was back at training, and everyone has great time for Joe and great respect. He’s a great hurling man and he loves Fermanagh hurling. Everything he does is for the greater good of Fermanagh hurling.

“To be honest, his illness didn’t really affect the group at all because Daithi Hand, Peter Galvin and Aaron Smiley, who were in with us this year, just took over and everything moved on just as normal.”

Now that Fermanagh are back up competing at Nickey Rackard Cup level, where they feel they belong, pushing on and challenging is the next goal on their to-do list. They were relegated from the Nickey Rackard Cup last year but were by no means out of their depth.

They last won the Lory Meagher Cup back in 2021, but it didn’t provide the platform to push on that they hope this achievement will this time around. Heading into next year, they’re determined to show their true worth.

“We were right in every single game last year,” explained Porteous. “Even the young fellas we have now, most of them are still young but they’re two years more experienced that year and there’s more young fellas coming along under them.

“I think we’re in a better position maybe than we were before and I don’t think we realised that we needed that wee bit more experience but now we have it. I think we’re in a much better place to keep things moving forward and progressing Fermanagh hurling.”

Skipper Bogue added, “We know we can compete in the Nickey Rackard because we did it two years ago. We lost every single game in our group by one or two points so we know we can compete, but we need to be winning those games.

“We know we’ve got the team, we know the players are there, but we just need to do that extra bit now and really get dug into it. Two years ago, we were in the heel of the hunt for every game and were very disappointed to be relegated.

“Next year it’s all about pushing on and trying to turn those one-point defeats into one-point wins and it’s a big challenge because there’s great teams up there like Mayo and Armagh and teams like that.

“It’s definitely a big challenge, but one that we would relish and it’s where we want to be. We want to be in the Nicky Rackard, that’s the biggest prize of winning the whole Lory Meagher is to gain promotion back to that higher level.”