AIB Ulster Club SHC final: Portaferry 1-19 Sleacht Néill 2-19
AS Cushendall rowed gradually clear of them in Newry twelve months ago, it almost felt like the sun was setting on Sleacht Néill’s dream of an All-Ireland club title.
It has never been more alive than it is now.
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“Lads, what a chance we have now. Let’s put our heads down for the next two weeks and try to do something really special,” said Mark McGuigan from the pulpit in Ireland’s ecclesiastical capital.
It is fast becoming a real cathedral of hurling.
Even when Portaferry went up eight and looked in complete control, you knew the Emmet’s would come with something.
What it would be, if it would be enough, nobody knew. But they’d not found any kind of rhythm and a team as good was not going to go through 60 minutes of an Ulster final without having a spell.
When it arrived, the two goals in a minute it garnered blew the game as wide open as this All-Ireland race now it.
They face Sarsfields now, Ballygunner’s conquerors who will have the same mental challenge for the next two weeks that Sleacht Néill had for the last two.
Portaferry knew it. From the second the game started, you could see they knew it. Sleacht Néill had beaten Cushendall in an epic and no matter how hard they would have tried to tell themselves it wasn’t done, something in the back of their minds was always going to say it was.
Matthew Conlan won the throw-in and rather than safe or sideways, he ran straight at their heart. A point within seconds. A second for Eoghan Sands before the first minute was out.
It kept on going. By the time Conlan got his second, Portaferry were 0-8 to 0-2 up inside 14 minutes, and worth every penny of it.
Gerard McGrattan’s side invested so much of themselves in the first half.
Their puckout strategy was brilliantly thought out and executed. Sleacht Néill’s half-back line was dizzy trying to deal with the runs of Finn Turpin and Niall Fitzsimmons, who would go really deep and then burst into pockets that the players behind them had manufactured.
Sleacht Néill were off. Their touch was poor, their energy low, their movement sluggish, their striking, their decision-making, all of it.
The six-point lead grew to eight coming up to half-time. Tom McGrattan’s eye was in. Turpin was strolling down the highway that Sleacht Néill found running through the middle of their defence. 0-12 to 0-4, at half-time 0-13 to 0-6, then 0-18 to 0-10 midway through the second period. What was going on?
So much of it was Portaferry’s energy. They were first to every ball, more physical, driving through non-existent tackles.
At some point, it was going to change.
Shane McGuigan was the man who changed it.
While Ruairi Ó Mianáin’s official TG4 man of the match would be hard to take off him, for he had an outstanding second half that included three monster points at crucial stages, it was the energy that McGuigan gave them that dragged Sleacht Néill back into the game.
The Derry footballer had roused them with a great first half point and was their best player in that period.
It was when he took the ball and straightened up for goal that the game changed. It ended up in the hands of his cousin Sé, who slid inside and finished off his left side.
The gap was down to five. Gerald Bradley is on. Next attack, it’s Shane’s brother Mark who offered the drive. Conor Coyle’s pass, Shea Cassidy’s finish. Eight becomes two and the Ulster final becomes a contest.
In truth, from the moment Cassidy scored the second, there didn’t seem to be any way that Sleacht Néill would lose.
They had 15 attacks in the last 19 minutes, scoring 2-9. Whether it was their conditioning or simply shaking themselves out of it, the last quarter was much more like their semi-final performance.
Portaferry were living off scraps. Daithi Sands hit a wonder score. A free drops short, batted into the hand of sub Cathal Coleman who swivels to find the net. Five to go and the Down champions are two up again.
But the wave had grown too tall. Those two scores were Portaferry’s entire tally in that same period were Sleacht Néill hit 2-9.
Tom McGrattan couldn’t miss for a long time but as the breeze grew, every chance he got seemed to just be an unfortunate five yards out of his range, out wide or from 85 metres. He missed a few late on but they were all big asks. It became a desperate crawl to the line as the Sleacht Néill hooves trampled from miles back.
The middle of the stand was Sleacht Néill territory and they created a thunderous noise. They got caught up in the thrill of the chase, drowning out the Portaferry pocket.
There were some brilliant battles. The Conlans against Meehaul McGrath and Jack Cassidy at midfield. Ciaran Milligan and Caolan Taggart doubling up on Brendan Rogers until he stepped inside and Tom Murray met him. Ronan Smyth on Cormac O’Doherty.
The Sands brothers Daithi and Eoghan had their work cut out with Paul McNeill and Shane McGuigan.
For 43 minutes, the Four Seasons Cup looked bound for a first trip to the peninsula in ten years.
Instead, it’s a fifth run to south Derry since 2016.
The Tommy Moore Cup is nowhere near touching yet but it will bear a brand new name in January.
All four will recognise the opportunity this presents.
Sarsfields, Loughrea, Na Fianna.
Why wouldn’t Sleacht Néill win it?
MATCH STATS
Portaferry: P Smyth; D Mallon, T Murray, R Smyth; B Trainor, C Taggart, C Milligan; M Conlan (0-3), S Conlan; N Fitzsimmons (0-2), F Turpin (0-2), E Sands (0-1); D Sands (0-2), T McGrattan (0-9, 0-6 frees, 0-2 65s), N Milligan
Subs: C Savage for C Milligan (49), C Coleman for N Milligan (49), C Fox for N Fitzsimons (52), P Doran for B Trainor (58)
Sleacht Néill: O O’Doherty; F McEldowney, P McNeill, C McAllister; R Ó Mianáin (0-3), C Coyle, Shane McGuigan (0-3); J Cassidy (0-3), M McGrath; M McGuigan, Sé McGuigan (1-1), C O’Doherty (0-7, 0-6 frees, 0-1 65); E Cassidy, B Rogers (0-2), Shéa Cassidy (1-0)
Subs: G Bradley for E Cassidy (46)
Referee: C Cunning (Antrim)
Attendance: 2,274