Brendan McTaggart shares his final thoughts on Sunday’s final, the whos, the whys and the where….. and still ends up sitting on the fence. It really is that hard to call
There’s a buzz during the weeks leading up to the championship final both football and hurling that is captivating. Even though the work load increases from a journalistic perspective as you try to look at different perspectives and angles so you’re not going over old ground, you know what lays ahead makes it all worthwhile. Even as neutrals and punters at Fr McGuigan Park last weekend grumbled their way back to the cars about the football on show, I was caught in the middle of the moments on the field, enticed and seduced. It’s these moments that make the work beforehand and what lays ahead with reports and interviews all worthwhile. The ecstasy. The outburst of passion and cries of joy. Unbridled euphoria that only a win in a championship final can bring.
It’s what the championship is all about.
Cargin have the bragging rights over the neighbours and now it’s the turn of the small ball on Sunday. Two huge rivals go head to head and while they may not exactly be neighbours, the passion, will to win and ‘bragging rights’ will be there in spades. Cushendall versus Loughgiel. The Shamrocks vs The Ruairi Og’s. The biggest rivalry in club hurling in Antrim in recent times and they face off for the right to be crowned Antrim senior hurling champions.
By 5pm on Sunday, I’ll be in the middle of the euphoria once again. For one side, all the hours on the training pitch, the blood, the sweat and tears will have been worth it all. The other side will want the world to stop turning, the clock to turn back or a place to hide.
Loughgiel come into Sunday’s final on the back of a morale boosting win over their neighbours Dunloy. A performance no one seen coming but on the face of it, unsurprising. Passion, work rate and determination. It’s always there in the championship but against Dunloy, Loughgiel took it to new levels. That’s all I want to talk about that particular semi-final…..as a Dunloy man, it still hurts.
It was their ‘plan B’ and let’s face it, their ‘plan A’ isn’t too bad either. A dogged defence, classy midfield and an attack who on their day can be devastating. Damon McMullan at centre half has perfected the art of marshalling the Loughgiel defence while Tiernan Coyle and the evergreen Ding Gillan form part of a defence that yields fierce little.
The poc-outs from DD Quinn are well known within the county and beyond. To pick a player out with pin point accuracy 70 plus yards away with a bullet pass has become the norm while watching Loughgiel hurl through the years. It’s a huge asset and from a journo’s perspective and pain in the derriere. It’s tough enough keeping up with play during a hurling match without that carry on but the jewel in the Shamrocks crown? The unearthing and rise of James McNaughton. The Shamrocks, like Cushendall have been hit with injuries all year and McNaughton made the most of his chance. A massive threat from open play and a style of hurling that, even as a Dunloy man, is easy to watch, McNaughton’s coming of age has helped Loughgiel untold this year but his biggest asset is his free taking. Anything from his own ’65 has been a guaranteed point this year for him and was the difference between the Shamrocks and Dunloy the last time out. That is definitely the last time I mention that match.
For all the attributes shown by Loughgiel four weeks ago, the same attributes have been synonymous with the Ruairi’s for the last number of years and rarely does a match go by without me noting down on my match day notes the work rate and desire of Cushendall. In their replay against St Johns, Cushendall went from the sublime to ‘ok’ before ending with the same gritty never-say-die attitude we’ve seen so many times before but they had to ‘go there’ with the Johnnies pushing them all the way once again.
Every time I think on their championship this year, I draw similarities to their win in 2015. Three times the Ruairi’s were pinned to the collar of their shirt and three times their opposition were left thinking how did we lose that one!? St Johns, Loughgiel and Ballycastle. You could take that a step further and say Slaughtneil took their ‘fourth life’ from them in the Ulster Final after a replay and yet they went onto their first All-Ireland final in March of the following year. St Johns could quite easily have been preparing for a tilt at the Volunteer Cup having led deep into the hour on both matches but they couldn’t quite dampen the Ruairi’s spirit.
That type of spirit is undeniable. It’s not something you can instil. It’s something you develop and Cushendall have it in abundance. What is more satisfying from a Cushendall perspective is the young blood within their team is becoming part of that spirit. Niall McCormick, still a minor this year but hasn’t looked out of place in a senior shirt. Ed McQuillan, another with a healthy future in front of him a lot with Fred McCurry, Joe McCurry but the rise of Fergus McCambridge this season has been the biggest plus for the Ruairi’s. He’s become a fixture of the team and un-droppable. He has all the work rate and determination but a sprinkling of class and a deadly eye for a goal.
Páirc MacUílín will be the venue once again, just as it was 12 months ago when the Ruairi’s edged a titanic battle in horrible conditions between Sunday’s finalists. A dramatic, nail biting ending between these two great rivals. Sunday will be more of the same. 
Big Ears will be toasted in the Lurig or The Pound on Sunday evening. Who’s going to win? Like the pundits and experts I’ve been talking to all week, I too believe there will be nothing but a poc of the ball between them. When the final whistle is blown, something that hits home for me since I started covering matches over six years ago is the pain of defeat from the side who want to disappear. Three weeks ago, I helped Ruairi Brolly to his feet after the son of the man himself was crouched in devastation. He put in a monumental display for St Brigids against Dunloy in the minor football championship only for his side to fall short. 11 months ago my heart sank with Arron Graffin after Dunloy beat the Ruairi’s in the decider. The humane side of the GAA and championship finals that is hard to not see when you look around within the moment but it’s for this moment we follow our teams to prospective glory.
They say familiarity breeds contempt. That you can get too much of a good thing. Not when it comes to Loughgiel and Cushendall. From a neutral’s perspective, it’s the one match that excites me as much as following my own club. Every match produces something different, something that grips the thousands in the ground. On Sunday, that something could be the winning of the championship. 