Above – St John’s manager Gerard ‘Cut’ Cunningham
Ulster Senior Hurling Championship – Semi Final
St John’s vs Setanta
Date: Saturday 15 November – Throw-in : 6pm
Venue: Owenbeg, Dungiven
Brendan McTaggart speaks with St John’s manager, Gerard Cunningham as they look forward to Saturday’s semi final against Donegal champions Setanta.
Sunday will mark four weeks since that memorable day at Páirc Mac Uílín when St John’s became ‘Kings of Antrim’ and on Saturday evening, they begin their journey for the Four Seasons Cup.
The Monday Club has ended on the Whiterock Road and all thoughts of that have been cast to one side as the Johnnies set their sights a little further. Owenbeg is the venue as Gerard Cunningham takes his side to face Donegal champions, Setanta.
The Donegal men have been crowned champions of Tír Chonaill 18 times with their most recent success coming a win against Letterkenny side, St Eunan’s. Setanta are no strangers to Antrim teams with Gort na Mona and Shane O’Neill’s coming up against them in the Ulster junior championship in recent times (2017 and 2022). They’ve had success at junior and intermediate level in the recent past, winning Ulster Junior championship in 2017 and 2022 and the Intermediate in 2023 where they beat a strong Éire Óg Carrickmore side in the final.
It’s fair to say their hurling trajectory is on an upward curve for a while now and when we spoke with St John’s manager, Gerard Cunningham, he said they are going into the unknown a little: “We don’t know a huge amount about them to be honest. We got our hands on a video of the Donegal county final, it was played back in August. They’re a good hurling side, very physical and fit. They have had a lot of time to prepare for this game and to get ready for us but as it always has been, our main focus is on us and what we want to do on the day.”
While Cunningham’s focus is one his side, he also told us that they will be treating this fixture with the upmost respect. He continued: “We can’t be looking any further than this game. This is our first time at this stage in 50 odd years so we have no right to be looking any further. They are county champions and there on merit. They’ve played in Ulster before at Intermediate so we’ll be treating them and preparing for them like we have any of the knock out games in the Antrim championship.”
The conundrum facing all teams at this stage has always been the same. How do we best prepare and deal with the break. That hasn’t been a problem for the Corrigan Park side who have welcomed the gap since their final win against Loughgiel. 52 years is a long time between coronations and with so much heart breaking losses for this group of players in the very recent past, the Monday Club might have went into extra time for the Johnnies. Cunningham said that he let his players ‘off the leash’ to celebrate with a view to getting back to business a week later: “It’s a long time (four week break) but to be honest, we needed it. The county final was a tough, physical battle and the lads were sore after it.
“We told the lads to go out and enjoy the first week after the county final but the second and third weeks were back to hard training and the last week has been about preparing for the match ahead.
“We’ve a few niggles from the Loughgiel game and we’ll have to wait to see how a couple of lads come through the warm up on Saturday before sorting out our 15. They’ve all been training, but we’ll need to see what way they are before making that call.”
Owenbeg is said to be located at the heart of the Oakleaf county and makes it the perfect place to bridge the chasm between the north and south of the county. It was used for all of the senior hurling and football matches throughout the Derry championships and has seen a few Ulster matches also.
With the rain there has been in the last week, all ears will be pinned back to hear if there is a change of venue for Saturday’s game. Nothing has been whispered as yet, quite surprising given this is the second of a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon but Cunningham had nothing but praise for the Dungiven venue: “We’re happy enough with Owenbeg. When we heard it was the Donegal champions, we had an idea that’s where it was likely to be played. It’s a great set up and as good as anywhere else in Ulster for a game like this, along with the likes of the Athletic Grounds in Armagh.”
With the journey the Johnnies have been on to reach the hurling summit of the Antrim hurling landscape, some might be forgiven for thinking that anything thereafter as a bonus but ‘Cut’ said they’ve parked the Volunteer Cup win and are now they are here, they have their sights set on bigger things: “We don’t see it as bonus territory, absolutely not. Winning Antrim was fantastic but now we’re here, we want to go out and win Ulster, that being said, we’re not looking beyond this semi final but hopefully we can go out and do the business.”
The last time St John’s played in an Ulster club hurling semi final, they faced Ballygalget. That match is almost 52 years to the day when they take to the field against Setanta (18 November 1973). They would go on to win that game against the Down men (9-07 to 2-02) before beating Derry opposition in the final.
The parallels can be seen, it’s up to this crop of St John’s players to go out and make their own piece of Ulster history. That journey begins on Saturday.
