Slaughtneil have to triumph again to gain

JUST under a year later, and the Slaughtneil hurlers are made to feel like there was something less than authentic about their Ulster final win over Loughgiel Shamrocks on that momentous day.

Under a watery sun, the Emmetts became the first Derry club to win the Four Seasons Cup with an incredible performance just days after burying the parish’s father of hurling, Thomas Cassidy.

There was nobody leaving Armagh that day wishing Slaughtneil anything but the best. But once the emotion of the occasion slipped away, and their sub- sequent defeat in the All-Ireland semi-final to eventual champions Cuala, manager Michael McShane has detected a certain patronising tone to the conversations he has with some hurling people.

“There is a sense that maybe, just maybe, we didn’t get the credit we deserved in certain quarters. Some people saw it as a case that Loughgiel lost the Ulster final rather than Slaughtneil winning it,” states McShane with a hint of relish ahead of tomorrow’s Ulster semi-final against Dunloy.

“We are very determined to win it again this year to show that it was not a one-off. Good teams can win things and great teams win back-to-back titles and that’s what we want to do.”

The feeling is nothing less will copper-fasten Slaughtneil’s right to consider themselves as belonging in the company of Antrim clubs.

In a club that have won the last three Derry hurling, football and camogie titles, motivation has to come from somewhere. Though this is no stunt or an attempt to work up some ‘us against the world’ mentality, insists McShane.

“You would have stopped and talked to people. Reading between the lines they would have been saying to you that we got lucky last year, that we caught Loughgiel on the hop, that they went into the game with a wee bit too much confidence and we caught them cold,” he explains.

“That certainly wasn’t the case. Any of their players would tell you they certainly didn’t feel like that. We won last year because we were the better team on the day. We were the best team on the day and we deservedly won it.

“I think there is a feeling about that we got lucky. We want to make sure that we come back to prove ourselves all over again, to ourselves as much as anybody else.”

Last year’s triumphs are over and done with. The hurlers lost their semi-final against Cuala and the football team won theirs