IT took 34 years of hard work for Errigal Ciaran to get to an All-Ireland final and 30 minutes for them to lose it in a first half they’ll have nightmares about.
As men in blue and yellow fumbled balls and missed tackles, Cuala ran through them and made hay in the January sun and led by 13 points at the break.
Errigal rallied brilliantly in the second half but they’d left themselves too much to do and, although they closed the gap on the Dubliners to three points with three minutes left, they just couldn’t quite pull victory out of the jaws of defeat.
“I’m probably still in shock at what happened in the first half,” said Errigal manager Enda McGinley afterwards.
“We were miles off it in the first half and came in (at half-time) with obviously the game gone, it was gone even three-quarters of the way through the first half.
“So it’s an exceptionally difficult place to be, the boys are just devastated.”
It was 3-9 to 0-5 to Cuala at the break and Errigal – by then minus skipper Darragh Canavan who was forced off with suspected concussion - were staring down the barrel not just of defeat, but of complete humiliation on the biggest day in the club’s history.
Back in the changing rooms, they regrouped and found the energy to mount a thrilling fightback that caught fire after a brilliant goal from Peter Harte.
“There was an acceptance that it was a disaster for the first half, that the team froze but there was a reality check that Cuala are good but they’re not that much better than us and we’re not that bad,” said McGinley.
“So whatever was going on in the first half it was not because we were playing against a team that was 10 levels too much for us.
“That meant it was on us to settle ourselves and just go. It’s been a long year, they’ve played some fantastic football, got themselves out of tight corners, repeatedly showing huge character, repeatedly showing good quality.
“This was the last 30 minutes of the year and after all they’ve been through, they owed it to themselves to give the final 30 minutes. If you’re going to die, you die with your boots on and they’ve done that.
“The boys went at it and made a game of it to their absolute eternal credit. I’ll absolutely tell them to walk away with their heads held high.
“Cuala had built that wall in the first half, it was unlikely we were going to topple it completely but you just wanted to brick by brick try and start knocking it down and see where it took you.
“Games are strange. if a team has a big lead and you get it down to six or five… Suddenly the pressure and that changes and you end up giving yourself a bit of a chance and we almost did but we came up short.”
Nothing went right for Errigal in a first half that included everything that McGinley would have dreaded in the build-up to the game. And his club’s issues were compounded critically by the loss of captain and talismanic forward Darragh Canavan who was concussed in a collision with marker Danny Conroy.
Darragh and brother Ruairi were both taken to hospital with suspected concussion after the game.
“Both of the boys aren’t great, unfortunately,” said McGinley.
“They’re both going to hospital. Darragh took a knee unfortunately, I think it was to the head, it happened close enough to me.
“So when I went out to him I knew it was probably serious enough and you just can’t take risks with that.
“Ruairi was the first player I went to after the match and he was well out of it. I’m not sure where his hit came but unfortunately, he’s well dazed and that as well. Please God they’ll come round, I’m sure they will.
“The boys that were on the pitch did their level best to make a shape of it in the second half.”,
