FOR any of the three Ards clubs, six years without the Jeremiah McVeagh Cup is fast approaching drought territory. Not even getting to a final in that time? Almost unthinkable.
But that is the space Ballygalget have occupied, watching on as rivals Portaferry and Ballycran boarded the boat to Strangford for Down hurling’s showpiece at Pairc Esler or, worse still, fought it out for the crown at Mitchel Park.
At long last, though, they are back – taking on Gerard McGrattan’s defending champions on Sunday, the temporary suspension of ferry services across the lough unlikely to stop a green wave flooding into Newry.
“It’s a long time,” says Ben Toner, current Ballygalget manager and the last captain to lift the cup in 2017.
“A six-year-old wouldn’t remember much about that day - now they’re 12, they understand things a bit better. Even at matches you see a wee group standing in around the dugout.
“I was at a committee meeting the other night and everybody’s just buzzing. I don’t do social media or anything like that, I just go farming then training, and I wasn’t really aware of it until then.
“I went away thinking ‘I’ll have to take my head out of the sand - try and enjoy it a wee bit…’”
But how did it come to this? Previous generations had enjoyed a regular serving of success as Ballygalget fought on all fronts. It was expected.
After all, by 1992 Ballygalget had only accumulated 10 county titles in its 89-year history, then between ‘97 and 2017 they won 11, with two Ulsters thrown in for good measure. That’s why the recent drop-off was such a shock to the system.
Yet there were mitigating factors. The likes of Gareth ‘Magic’ Johnson was coming towards the end and, from the last championship-winning team, a host of players were lost to either emigration or injury.
Caolan Bailie, Declan McManus and Brook Byers, all county players, got on a plane to Australia and never came back. Defensive stalwart John McManus also went out for a time but returned inside a year, though another county player, Jordan Doran, has since headed Down Under. Eoin Coulter went to university in Galway, and is currently in New York.
Injury has ruled Cormac Coulter, man of the match in the 2017 decider, out of the current campaign. And then there is the talismanic Danny Toner, who was sidelined for two-and-a-half years after suffering back-to-back cruciate ligament injuries.
Ready-made replacements for men of that calibre do not grow on trees and, when the Down championship changed from straight knockout to round-robin, the increased number of games exposed the thinness of Ballygalget’s panel.
“No-one really saw it coming,” says 33-year-old Toner, who has the experience of Gerard and Paddy Monan, as well as Graham Clarke, to call upon in his management team.
“We maybe thought they’d go away for a year then come back, and really they were the next generation of leaders to step up, so you were throwing young lads in who were getting a big job handed to them in championship. You weren’t able to ease them into it, because we nearly skipped out a generation.
“Even when I was a kid, Ballygalget’s always been in finals, winning finals, and then maybe we got complacent. Next thing you’re six years without even getting to a final, and it’s tough.
“But now we’re getting a wee lift from the minors this year, they’ve really stepped up. The group has matured, and those players have matured.”
Relegation from Division One of the Antrim league was a baptism of fire for Toner but, without players on duty with Down and the All-Ireland B-winning county U20s, others were given their chance.
Eighteen-year-olds Shea Pucci and Ben Taggart have bolstered the starting 15, while a host of their contemporaries are pushing hard for places; those difficult months during spring and summer proving a blessing in disguise.
Also, the injuries that blighted previous campaigns have, mercifully, stayed away as Ballygalget blazed through the round-robin undefeated – beating Ballycran first day out, then completing a clean sweep with victory over Portaferry.
The biggest test of all lies ahead when that pair meet again on Sunday. But, having negotiated a tough semi-final against Liatroim, these are days to be savoured after so long spent in the wilderness.
“Winning’s key, and if you get a win under your belt, confidence drives on, training drives on – you don’t have to say too much then.
“The message is received easier when you start winning games. Now we’re here and we’re enjoying it… we wouldn’t have cared if we had to travel to the end of Ireland to get to a final.”
