Ryan Elliott is sitting comfortably and musing about being the last man standing. Knowing well the full-frontal assault coming at him in Croke Park on Sunday, in the body and form of Ballyhale Shamrocks, there will be no escaping the attention on his position as Dunloy Cuchullains goalkeeper.
He has no fear of the obvious. Ballyhale scored 10 goals in their last four-match march through to Sunday’s AIB All-Ireland club hurling final, the five-in-row Kilkenny champions eager and intent to amend for last year’s final loss, beaten at the death by Ballygunner.
If it wasn’t for that they’d be going for four-in-a-row All-Irelands.
So Elliott doesn’t need any reminder: TJ Reid, Colin Fennelly, Eoin Cody, Adrian Mullen, and that’s just for starters. Dunloy, as in their semi-final win over St Thomas’ a week before Christmas, are rank outsiders and outright underdogs, only that doesn’t unnecessarily daunt him in any way.
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“It’s a massive challenge, but we’ll relish it,” he says. “I don’t know how many All Stars they have, but they are the standard bearers of club hurling, an unbelievable team. Every club hurler’s dream is to play in an All-Ireland final, we’re in that lucky position now, looking forward to Sunday, and what will be will be.
“It’s one of those things, you can’t focus on one man, like if you’re fully focused on TJ, someone else will pop up and do the damage. We’re no different, will do our match-ups, like they’ll do their match-ups on us, and hopefully that all goes to plan.”
Serial finalists
Elliott is speaking from considerable experience and not just his own: the family have long and close ties with the north Antrim village, several members of which were involved in the previous four All-Ireland club finals which Dunloy played in and lost — including his father Shane, also the team goalkeeper.
In 1995, Dunloy first lost out to Birr, after a replay, then the following year to Sixmilebridge of Clare. His father was between the posts when Dunloy lost the 2003 final, again to Birr, and again the year later when they lost to Newtownshandrum from Cork. His uncle Nigel, father of current forwards Nigel and Sean, played in all those previous finals, as did his other uncles Alistair and Jarlath Elliott.
There’s an air of fearlessness about Elliott, co-captain with Paul Shiels, which is justified: he kept a clean sheet against St Thomas’s and also the Ulster final win over Slaughtneil, the Derry champions and All-Ireland winners twice in the past.
Past experiences are there to be called on too, although never pressed, not even from his father.
“To be fair to him, he leaves me be, to be myself. Maybe from his past experiences, he kind of knows the craic, maybe he didn’t want boys in his ear. But he’s always good if anyone asks him for a bit of help.
“He knows the pressures, and all that comes with the game. The older players from before too, They’ll talk anyway, tell you what they think, but not in a bad way. They might see themselves as a group, they could have maybe won one, but it wasn’t to be, and they’re still heroes about our club, no matter what. They won their first Antrim title in 1990, and what they’ve done since then has been unreal.”
Indeed since that breakthrough win in 1990, that team co-managed by his grandfather, Dunloy have won 17 Antrim titles, including five of the last six. Getting past Slaughtneil in December has raised confidence considerably.
“Aye, and they like to remind you that they have two of them, but we’re a different team after that. We were the underdogs going into the Ulster final, although we didn’t see it that way, felt we were good enough to win, Sunday is a different day again, but we don’t read into what the bookies say, or the media.
“We’re obviously up against it in the final, six or seven Kilkenny [county] players, All Stars and All-Irelands, but again that’s the challenge we’re looking forward to.”
Startling conviction
Getting into the final hinged in part on the split second Keelan Molloy took a short pass from Nigel Elliott, midway through the second half: the last thing that appeared on was a goal, only Molloy reckoned otherwise, racing straight ahead with startling conviction before unleashing his unstoppable shot. That gave the Antrim men absolute belief they could now win.
Another move like that and Ballyhale goalkeeper Dean Mason will be the one getting the attention: “He (Keelan Molloy) is one of the best hurlers in Ireland, without a shadow of doubt, and he can do that on any day, and I’m glad he’s on our team.
“But to get over Sleightneil, that was massive, they’re a phenomenal team, and the confidence we got from that, the shackles were off.”
Elliott and his relations have ample experience playing in Croke Park with Antrim, namely in the successful Joe McDonagh Cup finals in 2020 and 2022, so the venue doesn’t daunt him either.
Ballyhale, however, are formidable opposition: in winning their county title over James Stephens, the club remain unbeaten in knock-out hurling in Kilkenny now since October 2017, and are in a position to win All-Ireland number nine on Sunday.
Given all that and from where Dunloy come from, a victory, as unlikely as it might appear, would be one for all of Antrim hurling and hurling underdogs everywhere.
