WHEN the Newbridge players left Owenbeg 12 months ago, Danny Mulholland already knew.
Thirty-five by then, 17-odd years in the bank wearing the green of Newbridge, the time had finally come. It wasn’t supposed to end this way, but that’s why fairytales are written about make-believe worlds and not about what happens on the football field.
Backed up with appointments at the Mid Ulster back care and physiotherapy clinic, and two youngsters at home placing growing demands on daddy, life had changed; the game no longer at the centre of his world the way it once was.
Yet there was no misty-eyed sentiment near his head that night; no woe is me. All that remained was crushing, gut-wrenching disappointment.
Because Newbridge, after the best years of Mulholland’s brilliant playing career had been spent yo-yoing between senior and intermediate football, were back in a Derry SFC semi-final.
This was where years of diligent work and player development had delivered them.
An experienced Magherafelt, though, had a bit too much moxy; a bit too-much know-how. With Damian Barton - the last Newbridge captain to hoist aloft the John McLaughlin Cup in 1989 – at the helm, Magherafelt grabbed control and refused their opponents any sliver of light.
By the time Mulholland came on for Shane McGrogan with 15 minutes left, the game was long gone. Newbridge lost 0-12 to 0-2, air flying out of the balloon in all directions.
Frustration doesn’t even begin to cover it.
“The manner of the defeat was the big issue; we just didn’t show up,” he sighs.
“We were poor that night. The occasion, I think, got to a lot of the players. Magherafelt built up a head of steam and we just couldn’t claw it back…
“The thing is much bigger than me; I wasn’t thinking that way at all. It wasn’t anything I had to deliberate too long about, because it was just getting more difficult for me, physically… with the demands of playing for the seniors, you need to be training two or three times a week, in the gym two or three times a week.
“Two kids, running the clinic in the town… everything’s just go, so it is very difficult to do that, especially at my age.”
He has played one game for the reserves, a handful for the thirds, as football was placed on the backburner.
Everything else that comes with it, though, remains intoxicating, and impossible to escape.
In Mulholland’s absence, and even without the immense presence of injured captain Paudie McGrogan, this Newbridge group has continued to grow and flourish.
A fortnight ago they showed that - going back to Owenbeg and righting the wrong of last year’s semi-final sickener, Shane McGrogan’s last-gasp fisted goal edging an ugly arm wrestle with Magherafelt to send Newbridge into a first Derry decider since 1991 – with All-Ireland champions Glen awaiting at Celtic Park on Sunday.
Broadcast live on RTE, and coming right in the window of time when the proposed ‘rule enhancements’ were about to be given a test run, that game inadvertently found itself held up as an example of all that was wrong with Gaelic football.
In that moment, though, parish pride - allied to 12 months of hurt and years of yearning - mattered more than anything the court of public opinion could throw their way.
“It doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive.
“We didn’t care, by hook or by crook, how we won the game, but you can also say that it wasn’t a good game to watch – now, that doesn’t matter to us. It really doesn’t.
“The big thing going into the game was to make the performance better and keep the game tighter. We’ll always be massive underdogs against the likes of Magherafelt, just through population, numbers, so you want to be able to compete.
“I still think there were times in that game where we made individual mistakes that saw us miss out on creating opportunities. I don’t think it was just the style of the football, from both teams.
“Both looked a bit nervous, misplaced fist passes, bad hand-toes… that’s nothing to do with the tactics, that was just the nature of the game and what was at stake. Because it’s all about winning now.”
It was a strange sort of experience for Mulholland too.
Still part of the set-up, even though his boots have been hung up, official duties were momentarily forgotten in the madness when the long whistle eventually signalled semi-final success.
“All I know is my physio’s bag was about 50 metres away from me by then…”
Yet, watching from a different vantage point, Mulholland can see the difference a year has made.
“Definitely last year helped with this year. There’s a lot more maturity among the group and, no matter what the result is at the weekend, the guys will get better for this experience.
“It’s no different from any other changing room I’ve been in in the past, at whatever level. If guys have been through it before, they’re calm, relaxed, you can see some of the younger guys a bit more uptight and nervous about the game.
“But there wasn’t any of that this time.”
And, despite the David versus Goliath context in which Sunday’s final is being placed, nothing could dampen the mood around Newbridge as the days and hours tick down.
Mulholland, more than most, knows both sides of the coin well.
His father John belongs to the immortal class of ‘89, when Liam Devlin’s brace of goals helped sink Castledawson, and was there again two years later when the Sean O’Leary’s made their last appearance in a senior county final.
Yet, although the significance of those days seems to grow with every year that passes, Mulholland has never felt them a millstone around the necks of different generations coming through.
“Aye, unfortunately I’ve watched both those games,” he laughs.
“Dad tells me they’re both classics – they’re anything but classics! But, naw, I never saw it as anything around my neck as a player, definitely not.
“The truth is when I was playing, in my better years, Newbridge were always up and down, so no matter how good we could’ve been, we wouldn’t have been good enough to beat a Ballinderry or a Slaughtneil. That was our level.
“I’ve maybe been relegated and promoted six times as a footballer, whereas now we’re at a stage where we haven’t been relegated in four or five years, and it probably won’t happen for another four or five, hopefully far more, so you have that degree of consistency to build on.
“Newbridge, and its history, has always been about competing - being up there in the senior championship. I won two intermediate championships as a player, and they’ve been celebrated, everybody gives you your pat on the back, but you know it’s still not a senior championship.
“It’s not that anybody’s looking down at you, or being patronising, it’s just still not the big one. And you can see even among that group - dad and the friends he has - those guys are genuinely excited as well.
“It has given them the chance to relive it, and the same for people in the community who were about at that time.”
To end that 35-year famine, however, Newbridge must overcome the biggest obstacle, not just in Derry, but in Ireland. Mulholland saw the start of the Glen evolution from close quarters.
“Enda Gormley was my Derry U21 manager, Seamus Doyle was my Derry minor manager, so I did physio for the group for a few years…”
He knows, like everybody knows, that challenges don’t come any more stiff. Glen’s semi-final clash with neighbours Slaughtneil was viewed by most as the de facto decider – whoever came out of the other side long written off as little more than fodder for grander ambitions.
Being in this position is nothing new for Newbridge, or for Danny Mulholland. After a hectic few weeks at work, he has booked off Monday and Tuesday – “either celebrating or commiserating” – and will be doing his best not to kick every ball as the club’s day of days unfolds.
“There’s no doubt, you do miss being part of it.
“But, like, I’ve had a smile on my face for the past week and a half – the club has been buzzing, it’s a brilliant feeling. So in terms of regrets or anything, God no, there’s nothing like that.
“You get as much joy out of seeing the other guys happy and seeing them celebrate after the last game too. I always use Glen as the example for any team on the way up – they lost a couple of semis, a couple of quarters, before they got over the line.
“Teams need that wee bit of a learning curve sometimes, and we’ve seen it from last year to this. But there’s no doubt Glen are a different animal – they’re unique in that they’re very hard to mark, because everybody needs to be watched.
“Their corner-back, Cathal Mulholland, could score 1-1 against you. ‘Spike’ [Michael Warnock] could score three points. Tiarnan Flanagan, Ryan Dougan, Conor Carville… and that’s me just talking about their defenders.
“That’s why they’re All-Ireland champions – because all these other teams have struggled to cope with that too. But, for our boys, it’s a chance to try and make hay when the sun shines… I think the group is ready for that.”
