Beware of Dunloy, the undaunted underdogs

Truth be told, they never stopped keeping the faith around Dunloy.

They always believed the road would swing back here, eventually. Dunloy Cuchullains contested All-Ireland club senior hurling finals in 1995, 1996, 2003 and 2004. They came up short in those deciders but there was an inner certainty they could survive in the rarefied air up there with the best club hurling teams in the country. Belonged, even.

They were back in All-Ireland semi-finals in 2008 and 2010 but lost to Birr and Portumna respectively. And then, well, they drifted back to the shadows. Until now.

Between 1990 and 2009 Dunloy won 10 Ulster titles, but number 11 was only garnered two weeks ago when they beat Slaughtneil, who had become Ulster hurling’s unexpected powerhouse.

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Shane Elliott, goalkeeper for Dunloy in the 1995 and 1996 All-Ireland finals, watched the Ulster final with all the ease one has when sitting in the dentist’s chair.

“I was very nervous before the Slaughtneil game and I found it a difficult watch, I didn’t enjoy it,” he says.

The Elliott family ties with the club are unbreakable. Shane’s son, Ryan, is the current Dunloy goalkeeper. And Shane’s dad, Séamus, was the coach who led them to their first Antrim SHC in 1990 before taking them on their All-Ireland final odysseys.

But it is not merely a grandfather-son-grandson lineage. Ryan’s cousins, Nigel and Seaan, both also played in Dunloy’s Ulster final win two weeks ago.

“That family thing, it keeps everything going in clubs,” says Shane. “It’s cyclical almost, kids of players from the nineties are now playing, and on it goes. It happens in every club and that’s why the club is so special to people.”

If the days before the Slaughtneil game felt like waiting to get a tooth pulled, the days after were like waking up and realising the dentist visit had been a bad dream.

“Just relief. Finally getting that monkey off the back,” explains Shane. “You could see from the emotion on the pitch after the match how much it meant to everybody. There was a real feeling that for this team to really achieve what we felt it was always capable of, then they needed to get out of Ulster. There was just relief and satisfaction when the job was done.”

It has provided them now with a chance to progress to a fifth All-Ireland final appearance, sixth when you include the replay in 1995.

But they go in as underdogs against a St Thomas’ team who have been on something of a mission this year to get back to a final after an injury-time loss to Ballyhale Shamrocks at the semi-final stages last season.

The last time a Dunloy team played in an All-Ireland final was March 17th, 2004, when Newtownshandrum beat them at Croke Park. In 2003 they lost to Birr. The Offaly side were also their nemesis in 1995, after a replay, while Sixmilebridge were too strong in 1996.

“It seems a long time ago. It seems too long, I suppose that’s how we have always felt about it,” adds Shane, who was between the posts in 1995 and 1996, and had graduated to a coaching role for the latter two appearances.

“We did get back to semi-finals in 2008 and 2010, I was in the management team then, but we didn’t perform. I never would have thought it would be this length of time before we came back to another semi-final.

“In Dunloy we always feel capable of winning Antrim and Ulster titles every year, no matter what team we have. Now that we’ve got back in a semi-final, we are hoping this will become a more frequent occurrence again.”

The northern teams, I feel sometimes they don’t really get the respect they deserve

—  Shane Elliott

He hasn’t chatted hurling with Ryan over the last few days because in the week of a match such chatter is off-limits. Ryan is also the current Antrim goalkeeper, so there’s not much his dad, who represented the Saffrons as well, can tell him that he doesn’t already know.

And it’s not like Shane tried to encourage his son to become a goalkeeper, more that from a young age it was the position Ryan decided was for him.

“He played a wee bit out the field but he just gravitated towards goals, he wanted to be there. He wasn’t pushed, it’s where he wanted to be.”

The prematch narrative indicates Ryan will be busy at Croke Park on Sunday. Few are predicting a Dunloy victory, with their star-studded Galway opponents tipped to get the job done with minimal fuss.

But this is no weekend away for Dunloy. And it’s no mission impossible, either. In 1995, at this stage of the competition, they beat Athenry. In 1996 they accounted for Glenmore. Mount Sion were put to the sword in 2003 and Dunloy beat Portumna in 2004.

“To be perfect honest with you, if we were playing Ballygunner or Ballyhale it wouldn’t be mission impossible either,” says Shane.

“You have to go in with that mindset. The northern teams, I feel sometimes they don’t really get the respect they deserve in terms of what their performances have been like in semi-finals in recent years.”

“St Thomas’ are formidable and they probably should have been in the last All-Ireland final. They have some very seasoned campaigners, but it helps us in terms of motivation that nobody is expecting us to overrun them.

“Nobody expected us to overturn Portumna or Athenry or Glenmore or Mount Sion either.”

Keepers of the faith, forever.