EDDIE McCloskey won’t have to travel to far to reach the venue of Saturday’s Ulster Intermediate Hurling final. The Carey Faughs boss is back in his old stomping ground of Loughgiel, his own club.
The former Antrim hurler played for the Shamrocks during their glory days of the early noughties when they dominated the Ulster Championship at senior level and captured the All-Ireland title in 2012.
Now, he’s leading Carey Faughs on a familiar journey and this weekend, their hoping to snatch an Ulster title away from Swatragh and claim their first provincial title in 20 years. “It’s familiar territory,” said McCloskey on returning to Loughgiel.
“To be honest, to be involved in an Ulster Final is brilliant no matter where you’re playing it, but I suppose it’s an added bonus to be at home and my own ground and all the rest of it.
“That doesn’t have any bearing on the game at all whatsoever. It’s going to be, as far as Swatragh will see it, it’s a pitch with the same dimensions as any other pitch and our boys will be the same. It’s nice, but it’s not going to have a big bearing on the game.”
Carey Faughs have had to reach the decider the hard way, but digging in and coming out on top is what they’re all about. They needed a penalty shootout to defeat Carrickmore in the first round, while Conor McBride’s last goal saw them sneak past Castleblayney in the semi.
“Even before the Ulster campaign, every game we’ve played nearly this year has been tight,” he added. The Clooney Gaels game in the semi-final of Antrim, it went to extra time, and we could have been out only for a last-ditch goal by Caolan McCaughan to get extra time.
“I think that’s one of the mantras we have as a team, we’ll die in our boots, and we’ll play to the final whistle. It’s never over and we’re never beaten until we are beaten. It’s one of the characteristics of our team and it’s a great characteristic to have.”
It’s a quick turnaround for the Antrim champs, who only qualified for the decider last Sunday afternoon. Six days isn’t ideal preparation, but recovery has taken up a large portion of their time in recent weeks.
“In fairness, probably throughout the Antrim campaign right up to now, recovery has been the main aspect of training after the games, they’ve been heavy hitting. That game against Castleblayney on Sunday was probably worth three training sessions in itself.
“The work’s been done since January, we’re happy with that so at the minute, it’s just about tweaking things and tactically preparing for the next game at hand, which is Swatragh. Thankfully, we can do the game with no knocks, no major knocks, no injuries.”
On the opposition, McCloskey expects “a big challenge” this weekend. “If you’d asked me six months ago or at the start of the year, I would have thought that Swatragh is one of the big teams in Derry. They’ve a tradition of playing Senior hurling rather than Intermediate.
“They’re a big team, traditionally, they’re a senior team. If you look at it, they’re the last senior team in Derry to win the championship other than Sleacht Néill so it’s going to be a massive task.
“I’m sure they’ll have full focus on themselves, probably, as we do. It’s a big challenge, but we’re going to be up for it, we’re going to be ready for it. We’re really looking forward to the challenge they present as we do any team.”