By Brendan McTaggart
McKeague feels Cuchullains Strength in Depth has been a factor this season
Dunloy Captain James McKeague had been outstanding at full back for his side throughout the hour. Mr Dependable in the Dunloy shirt and one happy man as he was leaving the Cushendall pitch on Saturday evening. McKeague led by example on Saturday and while his management team refused to speak of their previous encounters with Ballycastle, McKeague said that his side used it as motivation to push on at half time: “There was a big emphasis this year on getting to the county final. We came up against a very good St John’s side in the quarter-final and we knew that Ballycastle would be coming very prepared here today and very focussed so for us, today was all about getting a job down and working hard and thank God we’re through it.
“We came into this game for the last two years and come unstuck against Ballycastle while leading at half time. We threw them games away.”
Playing with the wind, Dunloy went about building a substantial lead after the first 30 minutes and McKeague told us that his side were prepared for any scenario that they might have been faced with, regardless of the conditions: “It didn’t matter about getting a lead. We wanted to come out and perform and express ourselves in a semi-final. Semi-final’s are for winning and it didn’t matter if we were one point up at half time or five points, we knew we had a job to do in the second half. We’re a very focussed team and if we were playing with the breeze in the second half, I don’t think it would have made a major difference because we were coming out to do a job in the second half regardless.”
The second Dunloy major effectively ended the Ballycastle challenge in the 42nd minute, McKeague praised the strength of the Cuchullains bench when he continued: “We knew that we had big impact players to come off the bench in Nicky (McKeague) and Ally Dooey. The first ball Ally got, he skinned his man and put the ball into the bottom corner. It was a massive statement from the young fella to come on and do that. He was probably disappointed that he wasn’t starting so it was massive for him to come and do that.”
A first final since 2012 now beckons and the Cuchullains are now 60 minutes away from bringing ‘Big Ears’ back to the village for the first time since 2009. McKeague told us that they know they will be up against class opposition regardless of the outcome of Sunday’s second semi-final: “We don’t care who we play, we just thank God that we’ll be there. Whoever we get, either Loughgiel or Cushendall, we’re going to be underdogs. That’s two serious teams playing tomorrow and it’ll be interesting battle.”
Dunloy captain James McKeague and his Ballycastle counterpart Matthew Donnelly with matach referee Fíonntan McCotter before Saturday’s semi-final. Pic by Dylan McIlwaine
Donnelly Praises Cuchullains after Semi-Final Defeat
Ballycastle full back Matthew Donnelly was obviously bitterly disappointed after his sides loss on Saturday evening but, as always, the McQuillans Captain was willing to share his thought on what had transpired. Donnelly started by praising his opposition with a touch of class that we have come to expect from a star of the game: “We knew that Dunloy would come with huge amounts of intensity after we had beaten them in the last couple of years. They have a lot of talented players coming through as well and they can back it up. Hopefully they push on and go on and win it.”
It’s been a harrowing season for the McQuillan’s and Donnelly gave us a bit more insight into the sudden demise and for why a squad of players who probably should have won the championship two years ago, will now be playing Division Two hurling in 2018: “We have had a lot of boys away travelling and boys injured all at the same time. It’s just all seem to happen at once. We were in the final a couple of years ago and from the 30 man panel on that day, I think it’s 15 are away due to retirement, injuries and travelling. That would leave a massive hole in any squad so we just hope now that we can regroup over the winter and bring through some of the minors from this year.”
13 points separated the sides at the interval and with the substantial wind, Donnelly told us that his side still felt that they were in with a shout after the restart: “We thought with the breeze that we were still in the game, if we could take our scores from distance then we could claw our way back into the game but to be fair to Dunloy, they won a lot of dirty ball around the middle. All the breaking balls they were winning and they took the scores when it mattered. Fair play to them.”
Donnelly finished off by adding: “It is a majorly disappointing changing room in there at the minute but we will be back next year and we’re hopeful of bringing our own group of young players up through.”