THE Portaferry players knew Cushendall had beaten Dunloy within seconds of leaving the field at Pairc Esler as, in the midst of celebrating clinching a remarkable hat-trick of Down titles, a little part of their minds strayed towards Ballycastle.
Given how it ended up in the Ulster semi-final last year, that is only natural.
Portaferry were swatted aside by Slaughtneil at the same stage in 2022 but, 12 months on, showed what strides had been made when more than matching the Ruairi Ogs for 70-plus minutes – leading by five and with one foot in the final as the seconds ticked down.
But they learned a valuable lesson about makes champions that day too; Cushendall have been on the road for so long that scrapping and fighting for every inch comes without second thought.
It got them out of jail at the Athletic Grounds, Neil McManus’s last-gasp goal sending the game to extra-time where momentum helped see Brian Delargy’s men through, leaving Portaferry to spend the winter wondering what might have been.
Cushendall will have to beat whoever comes out of the delayed Derry final, either Banagher or Slaughtneil, to earn their spot in the provincial final, where Portaferry await.
“It’s nice for that group to say they did three in-a-row, but we left something out on the pitch last year at the Athletic Grounds against Cushendall,” said manager Gerard McGrattan.
“We showed we can compete at that level… it’s always a challenge for Down teams to come out and compete at Ulster level, and last year we showed we could. So we’re hungry.
“It’s all about building a squad and building a mentality to say ‘we can compete’. Because we do it every week at Antrim league level, then when it comes to Ulster championship… obviously Slaughtneil were very strong for a number of years, Dunloy and then Cushendall, but the players we have are as good as any players in Ulster.
“That’s what we have to believe. Now, you can be put back in your box very quickly if you don’t compete the next day, so that’s what we’re going to have to do.
“We’re going for an Ulster title… there’s a lot of heart and a lot of ambition to win that.”
And the six-week gap, he hopes, will be more help than hindrance by the time Portaferry next cross the white line.
“A six week wait, or six weeks to prepare? It depends how you look at it.
“It’s another six weeks to keep this group of players together – I know it’s a long season for county players who’ve been going all year… a lot of these boys haven’t had a break.
“But we will regroup, get a structure of how we’re going to train and focus for the Ulster final.”
As for Sunday’s Down final, McGrattan felt his side had shown their experience by nipping a potential Ballygalget comeback in the bud to see out the job in style – with his 20-year-old son Tom the star turn, finishing up with 1-12.
“Ballygalget have rebuilt their squad, brought a lot of young players into their team and they have been coming through the last few years.
“You can see they have a different group of players now pushing, and competing. Fair play to them, they turned us over at home [in the round robin], and deservedly so – they were the better team, hungrier.
“We had to go again and see what things we could do better, what we could work on at training… we knew the first 15 minutes today was always going to be a battle, but if we could weather the storm we could get into our running game, start breaking the lines, which we did do.
“After they got it back to five, the guys dug deep, tagged over scores to keep that nine or 10 point gap. At that point the game is sort of under control, and the defence held strong.”
