‘If you could clone him you would’
As they warmed up with kicks towards the post, he was at the other end of the pitch rehearsing a move: running from the sideline and taking a shot at goal.
“We would have looked up and said ‘what’s he at?’,” smiles Kevin O’Boyle. “But in the game he made that exact same run and finish to the top corner. It was one of the best goals of the championship.
“It was odd to look at it but when he pulled it off we knew it was what he was preparing for. It just showed his attention to detail.”
In just a few games, it’s obvious Cork have picked up a good one in Loughrey (pictured). There’ll be no mention of Larry Tompkins or Shea Fahy just yet but his elevation has been remarkable. Remarkable, that is, for anyone who doesn’t know the 27-year-old.
“The thing is he could have made it on any team in Ireland,” insists O’Boyle. “James is very much the type of sportsman that will take to whatever he decides to do be it Gaelic football, basketball or athletics.
“ He trains how he plays and the intensity he brings to everything he does is incredible. Whether it’s the warm-up or the main bulk of a training session, he’ll be leading whatever is being done.
“He’s grown in stature and you see how he’s reading games better. In the Munster final, he was looking for that wee gap to go and burst through. He always provides that option and is great for taking points and goals.”
Ask O’Boyle why Loughrey didn’t remain in the half-forward line where he had been stationed for two seasons and he replies, “Because we needed him in the half-backs as well. If you could clone him you would!”
Having moved to the county to live with his Mallow-born girlfriend, fully-qualified accountant Loughrey picked up a job in Bank of New York Mellon on the Kinsale Road. His transfer from St Brigid’s to Mallow was a quiet one. Even quieter was the half-back’s call-up to the Cork panel and after just one substitute appearance against Mayo in April he was promoted to the starting team under the veil of a dummy team to face Limerick.
It can’t be understated what a wrench it was for him to leave St Brigid’s. Loughrey was set for a career in basketball before the influence of friends convinced him to play for the club.
He’d been there from its genesis in 1998 when it was started as an underage set-up.
It’s a club that has broken down barriers in the city, training in Harlequins rugby ground where they have a full-time GAA pitch. Their adult team also played the PSNI’s first Gaelic football team after the scrapping of rule 21. His visits back to Belfast since moving south have been frequent and he recently lent his support to a fundraising night.
“You couldn’t say enough about him,” says club chairman Marc Murphy. “He still plays his part and went to Cork with our blessings.”
O’Boyle hasn’t been shy in trying to extract information from Loughrey on what the Cork set-up is like and what Antrim can learn from them. He knows but for love Loughrey would have contently played on for St Brigid’s and Antrim.
“He’s an example that players in Antrim just as much as in Cork and elsewhere are training as hard as anybody else. We train four or five nights a week and don’t get the same recognition.
Antrim’s official Twitter handle, moments after his call-up to the Cork panel was confirmed, read: “Ah James... those damn rebels won’t even know how lucky they are.”
They’re beginning to. And quickly.
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