Toner lays it on the line as Ballygalget eye provincial glory
BALLYGALGET hurling club captain Ben Toner certainly believes in telling it like it is.
When his side just managed to get the better of Portaferry in the Down senior championship final last month, 2-13 to 2-12, Toner promptly hailed the faith shown by the management in the players.
“Fair play to them, when we had poor numbers at training earlier in the year the management stood by us and we have been able to go on and retain our title,” declared Toner.
Tomorrow Ballygalget can take a step towards further success when they meet Fermanagh representatives Lisbellaw in the Ulster club championship semi-final on their home soil (2.30pm).
It’s a challenge which Toner and his team-mates are relishing as they see it as another opportunity to do their management proud.
“We know it’s going to be tough but we are up for it,” he asserts.
Ballygalget’s progress has been underpinned by the work-rate of Gareth ‘Magic’ Johnston and Brook Byers at midfield, the finishing ability of Cormac Coulter and Toner’s leadership skills.
The peninsula outfit will face a Lisbellaw side that, while a closeknit, cohesive unit, has not had the advantage of any champion- ship action because of their ‘free passage’ into the Ulster club series.
Nonetheless in brothers Ciaran and Sean Corrigan, the McGarry duo John Paul and Kevin, Ryan Bogue and John Duffy they have players capable of posing problems for their opponents.
Lisbellaw manager Sean Duffy is very anxious to see his side get into their stride early and remain vigilant at the back, given that Cormac Coulter in particular is likely to pose a major threat.
Should they succeed in these two objectives, Lisbellaw will have some cause for optimism — but the indications are that Ballygalget should book their place in the final.
ACOUPLE of minutes after the whistle sounded for the end of the Antrim county hurling final, Pauline O’Kane made her way onto the Ballycastle pitch and planted a kiss on the cheek of her big brave tough son Gregory after Dunloy had dispatched Ruairi Óg Cushendall.
In the way that Antrim hurlers of a certain vintage can have several nicknames, ‘Dick’ was in his fourth year as manager of the club that he served with such distinction and this was his first Volunteer Cup, one of the hardest fought for prizes in club hurling.
In many ways, there are a lot of similarities between Dunloy back then and tomorrow’s Ulster semi-final opponents Slaughtneil.
Hard to believe that Dunloy’s first county title came in 1990. They went on to carve up the ‘90s with Ruairi Óg Cushendall, winning five titles apiece.
That team went on to become possibly the best ever club side not to win the Tommy Moore Cup, losing two braces of All-Ireland finals — 1995 and ‘96 as well as 2003 and ‘04.
With that level of expectation it comes as no surprise that O’Kane had felt a little heat under his collar. The role of senior team manager confers upon the bearer a status along the lines of Lord Mayor of any hurling-mad village. For many, it can be suffocating.
“Clubs are clubs. Everybody has an opinion on hurling in the club, as you know,” he says with a light chuckle.
“Sometimes, clubs can be nasty. And our club is no different than any other GAA club, that’s just bread and butter.
“This last few years, since I met this group of players and saw how they worked and the way they trained and wanted success, I always felt they would always improve year in, year out. That’s what they have done.”
The final was Dunloy’s first in five years. Their first title in eight.
Some had spotted the rot setting in quicker than others. When Dunloy underage teams started being re-graded to the ‘B’ Championships, it focused minds sharpish.
Their Hurling Development Committee, spearheaded by the manager of the ‘90s edition Tom McClean, thought they might construct a ball wall.
“And then people asked if we could put a roof on the ball wall?” laughs club stalwart Tony Shivers.
A delegation was sent to Cork to examine club facilities. This being a time when the Celtic Tiger was roaring loudly, there was no limit to their ambition.
By the time the dreaming was finished, they had acquired a 15-acre site and had drawn up plans for an indoor hurling facility. The overall cost was estimated at just over a million. It ended up £1,200,000.
Dunloy bogged themselves into debt and with the project inching its way past projected costs, some in the club lost sleep worrying about what would become of them all.
Was it all a great white elephant? How would it ever wipe its face financially?
They got creative. They formed a supporters club, ‘Club Dunloy’. They thought of hosting a ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’, and changed the name to ‘Thousandaire’.
“Then we had to figure out