Slaughtneil achievements deserve more recognition, says McKinley

Slaughtneil camogie manager Dominic ‘Woody’ McKinley has described what he feels is a ‘disgraceful’ lack of recognition in the wider media for his team as they prepare to create history by winning three consecutive All-Ireland titles when they face Wexford’s St Martin’s in a few weeks.

McKinley pointed to the huge numbers attending the last two Ulster finals when Slaughtneil came up against his home club.

“In Dungannon there last year there was 4,000 people at the Ulster final,” explained McKinley.

“In the year previous, it was played in Glen, Maghera. There were over 5,500 people, the biggest crowd ever recorded for a camogie match in Ulster.

“Teams like Loughgiel, Slaughtneil, it’s about everybody here. It’s not just because we are in the position we are in now. We are in a strong position to talk about it and maybe can connect to the story.

“The coverage they get for all this work they are putting in is nil. I was sitting in someone’s house the year we played the game in Maghera to see BBC and UTV.

"Spent half an hour wasted thinking they would say something about it. But not a word! I think it’s disgraceful.”

McKinley insisted that the issue had not been talked about within the group, but he felt he needed to raise it for the sake of equality, name-checking the lack of coverage Down’s Clonduff camogie team have received in reaching the All-Ireland Intermediate final.

“I am not speaking to the girls about this. The girls don’t want any limelight, they are not like that. But as a person looking in and seeing what is going on…” said McKinley.

At the start when I came in, I had watched camogie and never really paid attention to it. I hadn’t the respect that I have for them now. You start working with them and get the vibes and the feelings. They care so deeply about this.

“And to get to the level they have got, anybody that knows anything about sport, there is serious dedication to it.

"Serious time and effort to get to that level and then to maintain it and stay there? You are talking about a unique group of players.”

McKinley insists the commitment from the Slaughtneil players show to their sport surpasses any senior men’s group he has coached.

It has been said within the club that the camogie team are setting the standards that the men’s teams, who have won multiple hurling and football Ulster club titles, have to reach.

McKinley, who stepped down from the role of joint Antrim senior hurling manager at the end of last summer, stated, “The amount of time and effort they put in, I have never worked with a group of girls like this in my life. I always say to those girls, I wish sometime in my life I could get a group of boys like this.

“We’re going in to February and March every year, so these girls are training nearly every other day.

"We train Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday morning. And then they have their two gym sessions to do as well.”