YOU try to keep a bit of perspective at times like these. Try not to run with the crowd too much. Try not to get caught up in the hype. Nothing that appeared so utterly, monumentally amazing can ever really be as good as it seemed, can it?
That’s right - take a breath. Reflect. Let the wave wash over, then think again. Find enlightenment.
Or sod that altogether, and reach for that big bag of cliches behind the sofa; the one reserved for occasions just like these.
Because what unfolded over the course of 80-plus minutes at the Athletic Grounds on Saturday night was nothing short of exceptional, in terms of drama, in terms of skill, and guts, and heart, and just about every other goddamn superlative you want to throw at it.
This, as Cushendall boss Brian Delargy observed afterwards, seconds after the loss of their Ulster crown, was living. Pure and simple. Time passed in the blink of an eye, referee Peter Owens playing his part too as the thrills and spills were enough to warm even the coldest heart.
That it was played out before a national audience, broadcast live on RTE, sought only to add to the warm glow that radiated from so many on their way out onto Dalton Road once the dust had finally settled.
Slaughtneil served up a timely reminder of everything they are, and everything they have been. Perhaps defeats to Dunloy, and then Cushendall in last year’s provincial decider, lulled the public at large into a false sense of security. That maybe their edge had softened. That their time as a major force outside of Derry was nearing an end.
Think again.
Having been second best 12 months ago, they ripped into Cushendall from the first ball, setting a pace that seemed unsustainable until, four goals and 61 points later, with barely a spare second breathe in between, Paul McCormack’s men emerged to set up an Ulster final clash with Portaferry back at the Athletic Grounds on December 1.
A former Armagh dual player, part of the 2002 All-Ireland winning panel, pulling off a win of this magnitude so close to home must have been special. And the Keady man had to earn his corn.
Because Slaughtneil had this game won on so many occasions. Or so it felt. Having set the terms of engagement, they moved into a 0-7 to 0-1 lead with just eight minutes on the clock. The towering Jack Cassidy was running the show, lashing over score after score with ease. Brendan Rogers and Shea Cassidy got their eye in early.
Cushendall looked sluggish, and shell-shocked. Slaughtneil were first to everything. But then the Ruairi Ogs showed how they got here; not just this year, but last, when it was they who conquered all to lift the Four Seasons Cup.
Neil McManus, as if it even needs to be said at this stage, was central to their renewal as the first half wore on. How many times has the Cushendall colossus been eulogised during a club and county career that feels as though it has lasted forever? And, even at 36, how many more times are to come?
He finished this game with 3-9 – but it was the where, and the when, of so many of those scores that saw his contribution teeter across the line of ridiculous at times.
With the rest of the forward line feeding off scraps during those early exchanges, he dragged them up by their boots and brought Brian Delargy’s men into something like touching distance when Slaughtneil were shooting the lights out.
The former Antrim star - who watching Saffron boss Davy Fitzgerald must wish would do a Michael Murphy-esque volte-face - was hovering in the danger zone when Oisin O’Doherty spilled the sliothar into his path 22 minutes in, McManus making no mistake as the gap was closed to three. God, Cushendall needed that.
Slaughtneil, however, were not going to let momentum march away, with Eamon Cassidy lashing to the net four minutes later after a marauding run from Meehaul McGrath. We were in a slugfest now, the kind from which both have made their name.
Trailing by four at the break, Cushendall came flying out of the traps when Fred McCurry fired over just seven seconds in. Eoghan Campbell bagged the kind of score that is almost worth double, beating two opponents in a footrace, holding them off and finishing with aplomb.
Then McManus tilted the switch further – this time loitering at the back stick to grasp Scott Walsh’s effort at the posts, before swivelling and shooting low past O’Doherty in one movement. Like Sean Cavanagh’s dummy, there are some movements that defy the test of time.
It was Cushendall’s now. This was their chance to kick on, to seize the moment – but Slaughtneil were having none of it.
Four scores in four minutes, from Conor Coyle, McGrath, the brilliant Rogers and a free from captain Cormac O’Doherty moved them into what looked, at that stage, an unassailable four point lead with four to go.
All they had to do was hold their nerve; hold Cushendall – and McManus – at bay.
But, just as against Portaferry last year, the champions showed why they are the cat with nine lives. A McManus 65 left a goal in it in added time. Déjà vu reverberated around the Athletic Grounds.
Portaferry were crestfallen when, with the last puck of normal time, McManus sent a 20 metre free through a clatter of bodies and into the net.
On Saturday, he lofted a 65 into the square. When it came out to Marty Burke, McManus roared from the other side of the field, arms aloft.
McAllister obliged and, from 40 metres, McManus unleashed a ferocious shot to nothing that ricocheted and caught bodies before rippling the Slaughtneil net. If you don’t ask, you don’t get and, for the second year in-a-row, Cushendall had made their own luck.
They blitzed Portaferry in extra-time last year. After suffering such a hammer blow, how could any team lift itself off the floor? Slaughtneil did, and in some style – because they knew this day would come.
Shane McGuigan spoke afterwards about the running sessions the panel had done on the back pitches of St Pat’s, Maghera earlier in the year. About the conversations that took place, detailing how extra-time awaited at some point and how, when it came, they would be ready.
When the players came in at the end of full-time, heads bowed, Rogers told them they had one minute to feel sorry for themselves, and then it was over. Back on the horse. Back in the game.
“I said to them ‘lads, this is not a surprise to us’,” said McCormack.
“It was going to happen at some point, today’s the day – we will see it out. The bodies were fine, it’s all between the ears.
“They just reached down inside and found that extra level that they have been to, not just this year, but the last 10, 12 years. They know how to get out of tight spots.”
Those words were heeded to the letter.
Ruairi Ó Mianáin showed nerves of steel to send over two superb scores from the sideline. Rogers sprung to life once more. Cushendall tried to put their finger in the dyke again but there could be no stopping Slaughtneil now.
Substitute Gerald Bradley, O’Doherty, Coyle again, Rogers – each score drew a larger roar from the south Derry contingent in the stand. No way would they let this slip again, and they didn’t. It is Portaferry up next.
McManus and Rogers took a few moments to themselves in the aftermath, long after the high fives, back pats and media duties were done. Even for men of that calibre, this was something else.
This was living.
Slaughtneil: O O’Doherty; F McEldowney (0-1), P McNeill, C McAllister (0-1); R Ó Mianáin (0-3), C Coyle (0-02), Shane McGuigan; J Cassidy (0-6), M McGrath (0-1); M McGuigan (0-3), Sé McGuigan (0-2), C O’Doherty (0-6, 0-2 frees); E Cassidy (1-1), B Rogers (0-07), Shéa Cassidy (0-2). Subs: G Bradley (0-1) for Sé McGuigan (52), Sean Cassidy for McAllister (70), Cathal McKaigue for M McGuigan (74)
Yellow card: G Bradley (80)
Cushendall: C McAlister; L Gillan, P Burke (0-1), M Burke; S Walsh (0-1), E Campbell (0-2), R McCollam (0-1); F McCurry (0-2), R McCambridge (0-1); R McAteer (0-2), N McManus (3-9, 0-2 65s, 0-2 frees), F McCambridge (0-3); E McQuillan (0-01), S McAfee (0-1), J McLaughlin (0-1). Subs: P McGill for McAfee (44), C McAuley for McAteer (48), Alex Delargy for J McLaughlin (53), D Delargy for E McQuillan (60), Christy McNaughton for F McCurry (60+2), Andrew Delargy for C McNaughton (60 – extra-time), J McLaughlin for McGill (67), R McAteer for Walsh (68), C McNaughton for Gillan (74)
Yellow cards: M Burke (55), Alex Delargy (73)
Referee: P Owens (Down)
