ALL-IRELAND CLUB HURLING:Despite having no illusions about their underdog tag for Sunday's semi-final against Portumna, Dunloy are ready to give it their all, writes IAN O'RIORDAN
DEPENDING ON which way you look at it, Dunloy have two chances of beating Portumna in Sunday’s AIB All-Ireland hurling semi-final: slim, and something a lot less than that. They’re being quoted at odds of 12 to 1, whereas Galway champions Portumna are 100 to 1 on.
However, what does give the Antrim champions some hope is the previous meeting between the two clubs, at the same stage of the competition, in 2004. Dunloy were outsiders that day as well (although not as distant as Sunday), and yet won out three-point winners, 2-13 to 2-10. Actually, that makes them the last team from outside Galway to beat Portumna, who have pressed on to become probably the most feared club hurling side in the country.
Dunloy forward Paddy Richmond is one of the few survivors from that victory six years ago to be lining out in Parnell Park again this Sunday, and he has no hesitation in admitting Portumna are a far more daunting prospect in 2010 than they were in 2004.
Then, they had just won a first ever Galway title. Now, they’ve three All-Ireland titles, including two back-to-back, and boast a certain Joe Canning in their ranks – probably the most feared hurler in the country.
“They are the benchmark now for all clubs teams,” says Richmond, “and have been for maybe the last five or six years now. They’ve got a fantastic squad of players, and four or five individuals who are absolutely first class, and proven by the All Star record.
“So we’re under no illusions whatsoever about Sunday. We’ve some challenge to meet, but we’ll get ourselves into the right frame of mind, and do our best to meet that challenge.”
There’s no denying that if Dunloy are in the right frame of mind then they can be a match for any club. Sunday marks their ninth appearance in the All-Ireland semi-final, since 1991, and over those years they’ve toppled several other club heavyweights, including Glenmore (in 1991), Athenry (in 1995), and Mount Sion (in 2003).
They’ve been the dominant team in Antrim for two decades, winning 10 Ulster titles, and Richmond says the hunger for success is as strong now as ever – particularly in the search for that elusive All-Ireland title.
“We’ve a very good club structure, with some very good work being done. We’ve been in four All-Ireland finals now. When you experience those days, it’s never hard to raise your game again, to try get back there. Ulster club hurling is improving all the time as well. We only drew with Ballycran in 2007, they’ve been coming through strongly, and we’d to work hard to beat them again this year.”
It’s no great secret that to have any chance of beating Portumna on Sunday, Dunloy will have to keep a tight grip on Canning. Easier said than done, of course, Canning has been in typically uncontainable form with Limerick IT in the Fitzgibbon Cup (hitting 0-10 against Waterford IT on Wednesday).
“We’ll keep our eye on him,” says Richmond, with obvious understatement. “Everyone in the country knows how good he is. You just can’t give him a dead ball, from a free, or a sideline, or a 65. Or you’re in trouble.
“We’ve got some good young players of our own, that hopefully can get stuck into him. But we’ll just be looking at our own game. We can’t be too worried about what they have in mind. We know what they have in mind, and what they’ll be going for.
“So we know what they’re like. We’ve played them before. And we beat them before, in Clones, in 2004. That was a tough game too that day, but I think we showed what way we can hurl.
“We came through at the right side of the result. Since then Portumna have improved, and have a better team. There aren’t too many teams who would like to play them this time of year. But we’ll be in the right frame of mind for it.”
They’ll want to be.
