Ulster GAA Senior Football Club Championship – Round 1
Dunloy v Newbridge
Saturday 1 November
Venue: Owenbeg – Throw In: 6pm
Brendan McTaggart speaks with Dunloy manager, Anthony McQuillan ahead of Saturday’s showdown with Newbridge in the Ulster Club football championship at Owenbeg.
This Sunday will mark three weeks since Dunloy dethroned Cargin as Antrim champions and the Cuchullains have their sights firmly set on causing further tsunami like waves in the Ulster Championship.
The last time Dunloy won the McNamee Cup, there was no Ulster Championship to think of. An 89 year gap bridged but this group of Cuchullains are intent on making their own mark on history.
They come up against back to back Derry champions Newbridge on Saturday evening. A side who has steadily improved in the championship after succumbing to an opening day defeat to Dungiven. They went into the Derry final as underdogs but left with the John McLaughlin trophy, seeing off a much fancied Magherafelt side with two points to spare.
Dunloy will go into Saturday’s game as underdogs with some bookies giving odds as far out as 5/1. There could be a few around ‘The Village’ who have taken advantage of those odds, the same who took the bookies to the cleaners with the 12/1 odds offered at the start of the Antrim Championship.
Team manager Anthony McQuillan is steeped in football within Dunloy. He was part of the Dunloy team who reached the Ulster intermediate final in 2007 – beating Saturday’s opponents in the semi-final. He’s gone through the heartache of beaten finals at Intermediate and Senior before finally landing both crowns in Antrim, few would have begrudged him a celebratory pint after that day in Corrigan Park. He told us that when the team came back to the Village that Sunday evening, he wasn’t ready for the welcoming: “The home-coming after the final was superb. The Creagh lorry, the fireworks, Pappy’s Band, smoke bombs, everything. It was just something else, you couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
If you’re going to go at a thing, go at it full pelt seems to be the Cuchullain mantra. Work hard, play harder but, time was on their side as McQuillan added: “We knew we had three weeks from the Antrim championship until this game. We told the lads to enjoy the next few days and have the week off.
“You have to enjoy these days, it’s not too often they come around. These lads have been going through the most difficult of schedules since early August with games week on week. Big games at that and that takes its toll both physically and mentally. Those lads deserved that break, they needed that break.
“You look at the lads that’s been involved with the county hurling set up, training since January then the league and Leinster championship before they come back to us. We said they could take three or four weeks off but when they came back it was going to be a tough schedule. Some of them took three weeks, some took a couple of weeks, some only a week.
We had to be sensible about the thing, you can’t flog a dead horse. The rest and recovery are and have been every bit as crucial during the championship as training.”
As they prepare for Saturday’s showdown, McQuillan said that the excitement and anticipation has been building. With the vast majority of the squad having played in the provincial championship with hurling, the size of the occasion won’t faze this group of players. McQuillan gave us a rundown of the thoughts in the camp when he added: “It’s something new for us, yes there’s the experience of playing in Ulster with the hurling side of things but there’s a real sense of excitement in the camp and we’re all really looking forward to it.
“Last week was just a matter of getting the lads back together, this past week was all about our game plan and how we want to set up against them. Apart from the two long standing injuries with Paudie Martin and Anthony Smith, we have a fully fit panel. Deaglan Smith played through the pain barrier against Cargin and has shaken off any ill effects of that hamstring injury. We got about 20 minutes out of Coby in the county final and he’s working hard, giving us a real headache but what a headache to have.”
