HENRY SHEFFLIN PATROLLING on the sideline, TJ Reid spearheading a multi-talented team on the pitch and the Kilkenny supporters from the most successful hurling club in the country in the stands.
For an early January game in Newry, there will be a striking amount of star attractions in Páirc Esler on Sunday afternoon.
Chrissy McKaigue is training his focus on how he and his Slaughtneil team-mates can go about taming the Ballyhale beast.
But he can stand back to appreciate how much of a marquee occasion this is for hurling in their part of the country to have such famed figures involved.
“It’s a great idea to have it in Newry from an Ulster hurling perspective. because there will be a bigger crowd going to it to see the likes of Henry Shefflin and TJ Reid, Adrian Mullen, the Fennellys.
“The forward line, the club – they’re the most decorated club hurling team of all. This is our third campaign [reaching the All-Ireland semi-final] and previously we played Cuala and Na Piarsaigh, not exactly small fish. We don’t get easy draws, do we?
“As good as Ballyhale are – people will argue that they are better than Cuala and Na Piarsaigh – it doesn’t really matter, everyone can be in agreement that those three teams are at the top end of club hurling. We’ve had the experience of playing Cuala and Na Piarsaigh.
“From where we came from as a club – a hurling club in Derry which wasn’t even the best hurling club in Derry for a long, long number of decades – to rise to this level has been some achievement and wasn’t talked about as much.
“Ballyhale, we all know the task at hand. Sometimes, you’re better just thinking about ourselves and what we can control. Certainly, from our own perspective, we can put our hands on our hearts and say that we’re doing a lot of things right and that we’ve improved astronomically over the last six or seven years.”
Slaughtneil’s improvement has materialised in spite of the familiar challenges they encounter. Their geographical location imposes an instant constraint in terms of hurling development.
“You have to go travelling, number one, and then, trying to plan that travel with being a dual club, trying to do that while having a large number of players who play hurling and football for Derry [is hard]. You can get an indication of how difficult that would be.
“There are really strong clubs in north Antrim but we tend not to play them too much because they, us and other strong clubs in Derry have an eye on meeting down the line. You don’t want to be showing your hand. The closest you’re going to get for a really top game is a Dublin club, that kind of distance, on a bus or whatever is three hours.
“It has its challenges. In many ways, if it wasn’t for Ulster club hurling at the minute, Ulster hurling would be extinct. You see that with the turnouts in the Ulster club hurling final – it’s the biggest crowd by far. You know, with the second and third tier competitions at inter-county level – everyone has their opinions on it but one fact, there aren’t too many going to watch it.
“Maybe that’s an indication of the interest and prestige associated with those competitions. There certainly is more of a pull with Ulster club hurling. As a hurler in Ulster, we’re acutely aware that we protect that.
“We’re hugely passionate about hurling with our club and we do everything to promote it. We try to be the best that we can be.
“We played Wexford. We’ve played the Antrim hurlers too. We’ll probably play another challenge game against a university side or another county side – we’ll just see how it goes with time.
“In the years gone past, we played the Tipperary hurlers, played the Carlow hurlers, Carlow IT. We’ve always played top quality games.
“It’s difficult but the good thing is that a lot of the teams at this stage of the year are always very accommodating to Slaughtneil. We have the name, we’re the club that we are and we’re always a lucrative friendly.”
This is Slaughtneil’s sixth AIB All-Ireland senior club semi-final in six seasons, split evenly between the two codes.
Their previous pair of hurling ties came in campaigns where they were juggling football commitments as well, having just hurling to concentrate on now is a natural benefit.
“It’s certainly helped,” says McKaigue.
“I suppose you can focus on your craft a bit better. For a hurling club from Derry and Ulster, you’re not privy to the same intensity or same number of high quality games as you would be if you were from different parts of Ireland.
“We’d go away and focus on the deficiencies in our game and tried to close the gap that is present between ourselves and the likes of Ballyhale, the so-called stronger, traditional areas of hurling. That’s the most refreshing thing, and not having any distractions.
“We’re aware that we have a huge amount of work to do to close the gap with Ballyhale. At least we’ve been given the chance this time to do it. If you’re being really selfish, you’d like to be contending in the football too but it’s difficult to fight on both fronts. We’re just happy that we have hurling at the moment.
“To retain our Derry title, make history and become the first team to win seven in a row, to win our third Ulster hurling title in four years, and to still be the only Derry team to win the Ulster club hurling title – we’re getting a lot of things right.
“Our biggest challenge is to close the gap at national level. That’s the biggest challenge of them all.”
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