Dunloy hoping to avoid equalling unwanted record

If they lose Sunday's final to Ballyhale Shamrocks, as many expect, they will join Rathnure of Wexford as the club with the most final defeats - five

Thu, 19 Jan, 2023 - 07:05

Paul Keane

In Antrim colours, Ryan Elliott has won two Joe McDonagh Cup finals at Croke Park in the last three seasons.

It is a ground where he has experienced his greatest days as a hurler yet for his club, Dunloy, the venue may very well feel like it is cursed.

Four times the north Antrim club has pitched up on AIB All-Ireland final day and four times defeat has been the outcome; in 1995, 1996, 2003 and 2004.

If they lose Sunday's final to Ballyhale Shamrocks, as many expect, they will join Rathnure of Wexford as the club with the most final defeats - five.

Current manager Gregory O'Kane played in all of those losses. There are many more direct links between the two eras, like goalkeeper Elliott and his father, Shane, who played in the first two finals.

"To be fair to him, he leaves me be, he knows the craic, he knows from past experiences himself that maybe he didn't want boys in his ear," said Elliott. "But he's always good if I ask him. You talk to all them boys and they tell you what they think and that. Their experience is very good."

Elliott is too young to remember much about any of the finals - 'I would have been only five or six for the last two finals' - so the Croke Park hoodoo doesn't mean much to him. Dunloy know they can win there having overcome St Thomas' earlier this month at GAA HQ to set up the Ballyhale tie.

A feature of that win over the Galway champions and 2013 All-Ireland winners was Dunloy's blistering pace. Keelan Molloy's stunning solo goal is the standout memory but that dynamism was on show all afternoon in a game they led virtually from start to finish.

Spacious Croke Park should suit them again this weekend.

"We have a lot of pace, particularly up front, that everyone can see now," said Elliott. "It probably suits us in the wide open spaces."

That pace comes from their youthful profile.

"Around 2017, myself and about six or seven others came up from a good minor team," explained Elliott. "It helped the overall group in Dunloy because we hadn't won an Antrim championship in maybe eight or nine years. And the likes of Paul Shiels and Keelan Molloy were there, kind of keeping us grounded when we came in."

You could look too to the troubles Ballyhale experienced when playing Slaughtneil in early 2020, and the fact that Dunloy beat Slaughtneil in the most recent Ulster final to get here, as another positive.

"Just for ourselves, to get over Slaughtneil, it was massive," said the 25-year-old. "They beat us in 2017, 2019 and 2021, just a phenomenal team. You saw the games Slaughtneil had in the All-Ireland series themselves against Ballygunner and Ballyhale. The confidence we gained from that match, getting over them, going into the All-Ireland semi-final then, the shackles were off us."