The 2024 version of county final week is different for Conor Stewart. He is on the inside looking out this time.

One of a handful of key players missing from All-Saints’ defeat to Glenravel, Stewart recalls being there but he wasn’t really in the room.

Injured players are like that. You are there at training, offering a word of support and wishing everyone well. But you are not there. Not really.

Just 17 minutes into last season’s Tailteann Cup quarter-final win over Carlow in Corrigan Park, Stewart’s game was over. A knee injury followed by pain followed by worry followed by the dreaded few words.  His cruciate was torn.

Like Dermot McAleese, who was replaced before him with a jaw injury, Stewart’s first game looking over the whitewash was a double whammy.

It was a trip to Croke Park. Missing a chance to play on the hallowed turf was doubled up by watching on as Meath took advantage of Antrim failing to maintain a hold on the game.

By August, Stewart was under the knife before getting on the bumpy road back to covering the grass as one of those box-to-box players for club and county.

He is indebted to Antrim and physio Jason McAnulla. The fact the Omagh man endured two ACL injuries left Stewart in good company.

“That helped as well, Jason was someone that knew the niggles and the feelings I was going to get,” Stewart said. “I got a bit cautious at the start and he was just reassuring me.

“Over the 12 months, I was just working away with him. Then it would be sessions with Antrim and he’d be giving me the strength the conditioning work to do…guiding me through the whole return to play, so every step of the way.”

By the time All Saints qualified for last season’s intermediate final, Stewart, Paddy McAleer and Kavan Keenan – who was a hit in his first season with the Saffrons this year – were amongst the key players on manager Liam ‘Baker’ Bradley’s injury list.

In their absence, Glenravel had a smoother path to glory and All Saints – like after their defeat to Tír na nÓg in 2021 –   were the bridesmaids.

You have to go back to 2011 for the most recent of three intermediate titles. Liam Cassley’s goal was the key score as they came from two points down at half-time to have five points to spare on Portglenone by the final whistle.

A teenage Peter McReynolds kicked two points. Fast forward 13 years and he has shaken off a career threatening injury to returning to training, making him an option this weekend.

Emmett Killough and Paddy McAleer were young guns who are still on board. The experienced trio of Sean McVeigh, Peter McNicholl and Michael McCarry are still on board.

“Those boys are probably hungry for another one (championship) but for us young boys, this is our third final in four years,” said Stewart.

They crave their medal. A Tír na nÓg team managed by Baker’s nephew Michael O’Kane beat them in 2021 decider. Conor Stewart’s three points from midfield wasn’t enough.

And last year is still fresh in the memory. More emptiness. Defeat lasts longer. It cuts deep. That’s the nature of sport.

“Sometimes Baker would say ‘county finals don’t come down too often’ without really thinking and then he’d remember about the others,” Stewart jokes.

It’s not something the All-Saints squad shy away from. They use those painful memories enough to channel into a message of Saturday being a chance to right the wrongs.

“I definitely found last year’s defeat hard…just having to watch on,” Stewart recalls. “We probably were up against it; it was a strong Glenravel team and we were down a few men.

“Don’t get me wrong, we’d still be disappointed and still feel we had opportunities on the day to go on and win it but I’m sure Baker’s happier with the squad he has this year.”

Ahead of the 2021 final, there were knocks. There was last year and a handful of key men injured and on the outside looking in.

All the while, Stewart was a sponge as Jason McAnulla walked him down the road to recovery and coming on for Patrick Ferris in the last league game of the season, a win over Aghagallon on the familiar grass of Quinn Park.

Stewart’s point, with virtually his first touch put Ballymena six points up and on their way to a sixth win on the bounce to secure third spot in Division One and a semi-final against St Paul’s.

They’d more than met their target of staying clear of any relegation worries. With a mere 16 players available during the peak of holiday season, Ballymena came up short.

Now it was championship time. After hammering Gort na Mona, they came a cropper to Sarsfields and a hotly disputed disallowed goal in a one-point defeat at the hands of Sarsfields in the Bear Pit.

It was a wake-up call of sorts and All Saints’ championship odyssey took them to a semi-final win over Division Two champions St Paul’s after a blistering start.

Now they’re back where it matters. Its county final week and St Teresa’s stand in the way of a fourth title coming back to the shadow of Slemish.

“It’s sort of different from playing senior league and then going into the intermediate championship,” Stewart admits.

“We played St. Teresa’s a year ago in the semi-final but we haven’t seen them at all this year so you’re sort of not knowing what to expect.

“With that, you can only really look at your own group and your own performance so it’s all about us performing on Saturday.

St Teresa’s will give as much as we will but we’re just looking at a performance on Saturday. If we turn up, hopefully we can do the business and get over the line.”

Conor Stewart’s county final week is different. Twelve months on, he is on the inside now. All-Saints will hope their team’s fortunes will be different too.