{"id":309,"date":"2015-02-18T13:04:31","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T13:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/?p=309"},"modified":"2021-03-17T11:27:02","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T11:27:02","slug":"derrys-best-rise-to-big-occasions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/derrys-best-rise-to-big-occasions\/","title":{"rendered":"Derry\u2019s best rise to big occasions"},"content":{"rendered":"
[First appeared in The Sunday Times, 15 February 2015.]<\/pre>\n
Over the decades Derry\u2019s contributions to the club football championship have become part of the bones, meat and sinew of the competition. They have delivered romance and hard-headed winners, created shocks and barged open doors to success previously bolted shut to other clubs and counties.<\/h3>\n
In 1972 Bellaghy spent the week getting used to the fiercesome skull and crossbones emblazoned on the UCC jersey so it wouldn\u2019t faze them before they took down a team of young greats in the first All-Ireland club final. In 2002 Ballinderry recycled the indignity of an eight hour journey to Thurles for the All-Ireland final against Nemo Rangers while Croke Park was being rebuilt into the last coals that fired them to a great victory. Lavey invaded Croke Park in 1991, beat Salthill in their final and left a marker for Derry to follow in 1993.<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Lavey_1991.jpg” imgwidth=”695″ caption=”17 March 1991; Henry Downey and the Scullion brothers (Anthony and Brian) in action for Lavey against Salthill. AIB All-Ireland Senior Football Club Championship Final, Salthill, Galway, v Lavey, Derry, Croke Park, Dublin.” credit=”Ray McManus, Sportsfile” align=”center” captionposition=”center” lightbox=”off”]\n
Today Slaughtneil follow the fluttering banners of the neighbours that went before them with the same self-belief and remarkable expectations of themselves. No county has delivered as many Ulster club champions or as many different teams into the Ulster final. Their three All-Ireland titles from four different finalists all came from clubs coralled into a 15 mile patch of countryside across south Derry. Only Dublin and Kerry can claim more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s that much of a competitive edge between the clubs that getting out of the county is like releasing a pressure valve,\u201d says Colm McGurk, who won an All-Ireland title with Lavey in 1991. \u201cThe tension is that high, it\u2019s a severe preparation for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their success was rooted first in fierce rivalry and the hard work that grows good players. Back in the 80s Derry schools and underage teams started winning Ulster titles and making Croke Park, obliterating any inferiority complexes that might have taken hold as they got older. It all fed into a county championship that thrived on bitterness and the constant need for teams to better each other in every way and in every game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as a league game not mattering,\u201d says Ballinderry\u2019s Conleith Gilligan. \u201cLast year coming up to the championship Derry lost players injured to club league games. Compared to most other counties, most county players in Derry play the majority of their club league games.\u00a0 They\u2019re expected to be there for every game. You want to play in them all. You might play a league game with Derry on Sunday and a club game on a Thursday night. Pride makes you play the extra game even if your body doesn\u2019t need it.\u201d<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/adrian-mcguckin-feile-1.jpg” imgwidth=”695″ caption=”24 February 2002; Adrian McGuckin, Ballinderry, celebrates with team manager Brian McIver at the end of the game. AIB All-Ireland Club championship semi -final. Ballinderry v Rathnew, Pearse Park, Longford.” credit=”David Maher, Sportsfile” align=”center” captionposition=”center” lightbox=”off”]\n
It creates an attitude that expects success. Before the 2002 All-Ireland final Ballinderry were seen as handmaidens against the bluebloods of Nemo Rangers but flattened them by seven points. They celebrated that night at a victory banquet in a Thurles hotel. \u201cThere wouldn\u2019t have been a notion of such a night if we\u2019d lost the game,\u201d says Gilligan. \u201cI don\u2019t know if anyone even thought of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a mindset,\u201d says former Bellaghy player Karl Diamond. \u201cThere\u2019s no fear. When you play club football this time of year, it\u2019s usually a one or two point victory. When it\u2019s down to that, it\u2019s a belief thing. The bar is set so high by previous teams. You\u2019re constantly looking over your shoulder seeing how the neighbours compare.\u201d<\/p>\n
For all the benefits, club rivalries have spilled into Derry dressing rooms and poisoned promising teams. In the early 90s Eamonn Coleman forced a handful of players from warring clubs to make peace and pulled a brilliant generation together to win an All-Ireland title. \u201cBefore 1993 there was an undercurrent in the county,\u201d says Diamond. \u201cTeams didn\u2019t like each other. Players didn\u2019t pull together with Derry. Coleman nipped all that in the bud.\u201d<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/1972AIChampions.jpg” imgwidth=”695″ caption=”Wolfe Tones Bellaghy 1972 – The first All-Ireland Club Champions.” align=”center” captionposition=”center” lightbox=”off”]\n
Even now pockets of rival clubs will row in behind the champions when they move beyond Derry, but the support is fickle and selective. \u201cIt\u2019s said that the biggest cheer when Damian Cassidy missed the penalty (for Bellaghy in the 1995 All-Ireland final) was in a pub in Lavey,\u201d says Diamond. \u201cBut the players we played with would\u2019ve cheered us on. Anyone who\u2019s been through it knows what it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diamond visited Slaughtneil last week to watch them train and noted the similarities with Bellaghy in 1994\/95, a team with a core of experience freshened by the courage of youth unblemished by dark thoughts of Kieran Donaghy and Austin Stacks and Kerry. \u201cIf you get to an All-Ireland semi-final you shouldn\u2019t feel inferior in any way,\u201d he says. No fears and no doubts in front of the neighbours. What divides the clubs has always made them stronger.<\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”http:\/\/derrygaa.ie\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/MoranMickey_AtRallying_SlaughtneilTroops2014.jpg” imgwidth=”695″ caption=”16 November 2014; Slaughtneil manager Mickey Moran. AIB Ulster GAA Football Senior Club Championship Semi-Final, Slaughtneil v Clontibret O’Neills, Healy Park, Omagh, Co. Tyrone.” credit=”Oliver McVeigh, Sportsfile” align=”center” captionposition=”center” lightbox=”off”]\n
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Over the decades Derry\u2019s contributions to the club football championship have become part of the bones, meat and sinew of the competition. They have delivered romance and hard-headed winners, created shocks and barged open doors to success previously bolted shut to other clubs and counties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n