GREGORY O’Kane is not exactly bathing in the luxury of having two uninterrupted weeks with the Dunloy hurlers – but he is thankful nonetheless to have some much-needed space to prepare for a county semi-final with Loughgiel Shamrocks.
Now in his 10th year as Dunloy senior hurling boss, O’Kane was content with how his side negotiated Sunday’s quarter-final win over Ballycastle.
Still hurting from their football championship defeat to St Brigid’s seven days earlier, Dunloy relied heavily on their dual players to overcome McQuillans by six points in Loughgiel at the weekend.
Keelan Molloy, Seaan Elliott, Nigel Elliott, Eoin O’Neill and Aodhan McGarry all shone in a hard-fought quarter-final win.
“These boys want to play championship hurling,” said O’Kane, who is chasing his sixth Volunteer Cup as manager.
“They were beaten in the football championship by St Brigid’s last week so that gives us two weeks going into the hurling semi-final which is something we haven’t had this year.
“I think that’s seven or eight weeks on the bounce. We need to sharpen up on a few things but other than that we’ll be ready for two weeks’ time.”
Loughgiel Shamrocks ambushed the-then defending champions in last year’s semi-final clash. Dunloy have around a dozen players who play both hurling and football and last season the week-on-week schedule played a role in them falling to the Shamrocks.
A week earlier, the Cuchullains had reached their first senior football final in 82 years before Loughgiel ran their hurlers off the field the following weekend in Ballycastle.
“It was probably hunger on the day cost us,” O’Kane.
“We didn’t have the bite for the ball in that semi-final. But, look, 2023 is dead and gone. We weren’t good enough and that’s the bottom line – all we want to be is good enough in 2024.
“And what more would you want – Loughgiel in a county semi-final. But these games are always the same. The best team on the day wins the game and that’s where you want to be.”
Keelan Molloy and Seaan Elliott suffered minor knocks in the closing stages of Sunday’s quarter-final win over Ballycastle and should be “grand” for the Loughgiel tie in less than two weeks’ time.
O’Kane reflected on last year’s semi-final defeat and decided to continue as Cuchullains manager in 2024.
They won an Ulster title in 2022 and reached the All-Ireland decider against Ballyhale Shamrocks.
“These boys are a joy to work with and we’re honest with each other,” he said.
“They challenge me and I challenge them and that’s what we want. You just want to get the maximum out of this group, get the most out of ourselves and see where it takes us.”
Ballycastle deserved a huge amount of credit for the way in which they approached last Sunday’s intriguing quarter-final.
Despite trailing by six points at the break, the McQuillans made it a one-point game in the 52nd minute and were also nursing the disappointment of a penalty miss seven minutes earlier.
But Dunloy showed their class when they needed to and ran out six-point winners.
“Fair play to Ballycastle. They have great championship tradition and by God they brought it to that game and they hurled in spades,” O’Kane said.
“It was a good performance by us, a few things to tidy up on, but it’s all about winning and getting through to the semi-final. That’s all we’ve done. We’ve earned the right to get to the last four.”
Asked what he liked about his side’s performance, O’Kane said: “It’s our options. We’re dangerous from everywhere. We used the ball smartly. We freed up our spare man which was good. Now, we left a few scores behind but that’s something to work on this week.”
