Full focus on Ulster task for veteran Brendan Rogers

Slaughtneil's Brendan Rogers celebrates a goal. Pic: Lorcan Doherty

The story goes that, back in the day, Paddy McCormack went to school with Christy Ring in Cloyne.

But a family holiday as a 12-year-old in the early 1930s to visit an aunt in Keady, in far off Armagh, led to a relocation. 

As a 15-year-old, McCormack hurled senior with the local outfit in Armagh and was, by all accounts, the star of the show in a successful era.

Decades later, the McCormack family name is synonymous with hurling in the region. Paddy's son, Jim, won nine Armagh senior hurling titles as a player, managing them to several more while Jim's son, Paul, has proven to be of a like mind.

Given the county they're in, they love their football too and both Jim and Paul played big ball for Armagh, Paul being part of the squad for the Ochard's 2002 All-Ireland win under Joe Kernan.

Paul is now manager of the Slaughtneil hurlers in Derry and has found a kindred spirit there in Brendan Rogers, one of the greatest dual players Derry has ever produced.

On Sunday, Brendan will line out in what will be Slaughtneil's ninth AIB Ulster club final in 12 seasons. Remarkably, Rogers has started every one of them so far, scoring in all but one of them and contributing 3-11 in total.

At the tail end of his career now, it surely helps to have someone like McCormack on his side, to know exactly what he's going through?

"Oh, massively," said Rogers ahead of Sunday's trip to Armagh to face Portaferry. "We've had a lot more dual sessions now. Paul, being the GAA man he is, he would have come and watched football sessions, knowing that the hurling was on after.

"And if hurling was ever over first, he'd have stayed on to watch the football. He has a watchful eye on everything around the club and that helps him to understand what players' volume is like, what their skillsets are like, what they're good at, and he's keen to see boys flourish in both codes.

"He wouldn't have just said to focus on hurling only. I think he would have tried to develop the person because he knew it was for the betterment of the club.

"So yeah, it's good to have that experience there. I think it's a different dynamic in our club to a lot of others so having that bit of background in both codes definitely makes it a better mix for what we need."

Rogers has collected four AIB Ulster club hurling titles at this stage, from 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2021. The good money is on him and Slaughtneil making it number five on Sunday. 

They've already slayed Cushendall, a revenge act of sorts for their December 2023 final loss to the Glensmen, and for many that was the real final given the quality of the extra-time encounter.

Naturally enough Rogers recoils at that sort of talk, as well as references to Slaughtneil possibly playing the might of Ballygunner in the All-Ireland series.

"I haven't given that any thought whatsoever," said the versatile veteran. "We've not gotten out of Ulster in the last couple of years so our only focus is to get the win at Ulster level and we'll worry about whatever comes thereafter.

"I suppose they haven't won Munster yet either so there are no guarantees and one bad day could change everything. We'll just look forward to Portaferry and try to bring our best to the game because nothing less will be good enough. I haven't looked outside this game and I don't intend to either."

If Rogers does catch any of his peers glancing towards the All-Ireland series, he will draw their attention to the fact that, like Slaughtneil, Portaferry drew with Cushendall over the hour only last year.

"It took Neil McManus heroics again in that game, a goal at the death, to take it to extra-time," said Rogers of that 2023 Ulster semi-final. 

"Portaferry could very easily have won that game. So they're also at that level. I wouldn't say any game is a walkover at this stage. That's the level Ulster's at now. It's highly competitive and it should be probably a similar enough battle this weekend."