IT took not one game, but two to shock Dunloy into life in the 2020 Antrim Championship.

The Cuchullains were  defending their 2019 title last year, a title they had won back from Cushendall who they beat in the final.

Coronavirus had put the season on hold of course, but when the Cuchullains heard that they would be able to defend their title they were delighted.

Yet they went out into the round-robins and drew their first game against Ballycastle thanks to a late Keelan Molloy point, and their second game against Rossa. They probably should have lost that second game. The Belfast side had led going into the final stages but Dunloy reeled off 1-1 in the final seconds to get the draw.

That was the turning point. They beat St John’s in round three, beat Rossa in the semi-final in another thriller and then pitched up against Loughgiel  in the final. They won outright and delivered a third title in four years, and laid down a marker as a young team that want to dominate this championship.

That they were able to get over those first two games shows the character of this team.

Keelan Molloy said: “We weren’t ready for those first two games. They shocked us. The Ballycastle game didn’t feel like a championship match. But we underestimated them. Our attitude wasn’t right. Everyone said the same. We had to address that. Anyone can pin you in the championship. I think we were a bit too cocky.

“But those two games helped us win the title. If we had cruised through them we could have slipped up down the line.”

Molloy said that the management were ‘disappointed’ with how they had performed. Gregory O’Kane is the Dunloy manager and he told his players that they had underestimated Ballycastle.

The Dunloy hurler Nicky  McKeague agreed with that assessment. “We did underestimate them a bit. And if you do that they will take advantage. They have the players to do that.”

O’Kane made it clear what he expected of them in the next match  against Rossa, but things didn’t go to plan yet again. Dunloy played a Rossa team who were hungry for a victory. They went at Cuchullains from the off. As the final whistle approached they were down by four. But they reeled off 1-1 to get the draw.

Molloy said: “I could argue that we were too hyped for the second game. The first game we underestimated it but in the second game we were too up for it. You are better going into a game relaxed. Motivation is good, but sometimes you can get too much of it.

“It was good that we got that late goal and a point. It showed character.”

For Molloy, the break in the season was a big challenge, and it perhaps led to them not getting the start they had hoped for in the championship. He reckons that a lot of players found it difficult to get started after the break for the coronavirus restrictions.

Molloy said: “Players had a lot of time out. When the dates came out people had to change back. Players were sitting for a month or two doing nothing and then the next thing you know they are getting the news that a championship was starting. They had to go and get back fit again. I’d say there were ones who were at home and no expecting to be playing at all.”

Molloy remained sharp because he was playing with the county, and he had to prepare for a league final.

Similarly  McKeague was also on Antrim duty, but he agreed that the abnormal season played a part in Dunloy’s early under-performances.

“Going into the championship in other years you would usually have a few league games under your belt to work things out. We didn’t have that,” McKeague said.

“Usually it takes two or three games before you work out what your strongest 15 is. We were just glad to get championship. It was surprising that it went ahead but we were happy.”

For Molloy, having the confirmation that club championship back was a great boost. But they couldn’t get together as a full squad because Covid-19 restrictions demanded that they work in small groups.

“The management were great when we got back together. They had the guidelines. They were under pressure and had to stick to guidelines. But they did very well.”

After the Rossa game, the Dunloy team really had to take stock, and work out why they had to battle for two draws in their first two games.

Molloy said: “We had to get our head screwed on after those first few games or it was going to be a short championship. If we got beat in those two games then it would be a short championship for us.”

McKeague agreed that those two matches were very important to Dunloy’s season.

“They kick-started us. We had to scrape four points in the final minutes against Rossa and that gave us momentum going into the final group game against St John’s. It felt like knockout  hurling from then on. It is hard to pinpoint what happened in the first two games. We were just a bit flat. It was perhaps that we just hadn’t had a league.”

Their third match was against St John’s, a west Belfast team who have enjoyed underage success in the past decade, and who have a lot of quality hurlers and who would have been eager to cause an upset after they saw Rossa throw away a chance to beat the champions.

Molloy said: “That was our best performance. We approached that game that if we were beat, we were out. We regarded it as a knockout match. I think we play our best hurling in knockout situation. We played well that day.”

Their attitude in this match is a good illustration of how good teams win. Molloy said that they did not look too much at how St John’s were playing. The Dunloy lads’ focus was on what things they weren’t executing, and how they could address that.

Molloy said: “We respected St John’s. They are a good team. But we couldn’t think about anyone else. In the first two games we weren’t executing our game-plan. But in that third game we did. We played to our strengths. Against Ballycastle and Rossa we were slow. Against St John’s we used our pace. We got the ball in fast. That’s our strength.”

McKeague agreed that the St John’s game as a turning point.

“We had to win it so there was more of a championship feeling about it. We had to put full effort into it. We reacted well to it being all or nothing.

“That gave us belief going in to the semi-final.”

When the game was won, Molloy’s mood was not one of delight.

“It was relief more than anything. We knew that we could play that way and we did.”

Next up was a game against Rossa.

McKeague said: “We prepared well. I though we started well against Rossa. Then ‘Shorty’ (Paul Shiels) went off early in that game.”

That was the big talking point from that game: Shiels coming off injured early in the match. When Molloy saw that happen he was worried.

“Paul is the best hurler in Ulster. He covers so much ground, he scores, he defends. There’s no one who can do what he can. He was a massive lost. But we stood up after that.

“I saw him go off and I thought he was just getting treatment. I thought about what it meant, but you just have to keep on going.”

Molloy thought that he had a good first half, but couldn’t get into the game after that. Dunloy had led by five points but then Michael Armstrong’s goal left two between them at half time.

McKeague said: “It was nip and tuck from there on. To be fair we knew what to expect from Rossa from when we played them in the group. We expected a tough challenge. They are getting stronger. They have had good minor teams and  u-21 teams. They have the players to kick on.”

However, Dunloy would battle their way to win with a few late points, the key one came from Chrissy McMahon.

Molloy said: “I think the management were happy with the character we showed. We went down by a few points at the end. We scored three points on the trot to win by a point. I don’t think our team ever knows when they are beat. That was three championship matches when our backs were against the wall. But we still came away with something.”

The final was against Loughgiel, Dunloy’s rivals. There was perhaps a temptation for Dunloy to focus on using the motivation of a rivalry to help them win. Yet as Molloy explains, their club’s success last season and in recent years comes down to how they think about themselves.

Molloy said: “We knew what the opposition would bring. But we focused on ourselves. You can’t beat the opposition if your game-plan is not right. We know what they are like. They put us out a few years ago. We put them out last year. We knew what they were going to bring, they know us.”

Familiarity breeds contempt is the well-worn phrase, but Molloy said that the rivalry has been a pleasure.

“It’s hard not to enjoy those games. Both villages are buzzing. Them in the final is the best situation we could have had. They are our rivals. No one in Dunloy wants to be beat by Loughgiel, and no one in Loughgiel wants to beat by Dunloy. You get extra motivation and it feels better when you win.”

So their preparation for the season was quick, as there was a short turn around between the semi-final and final. They didn’t change preparations. Molloy said he didn’t change his approach because things had been going well.

McKeague said: “There was nothing strenuous done because it was so close to the semi-final. We knew what was coming from Loughgiel. They are a quality side. It was a low-key build up. We couldn’t treat Loughgiel any differently. You just have to treat the game as normal and hurl away.”

They went into the game confident and one of Molloy’s memories of the match was the weather, and the wind that they had to play into in the first half.

“We thought that if we could stay within a couple of points of them in the first half then we could push on in the second half. And that’s what happened.”

Loughgiel didn’t set up according to their numbers, though that wasn’t a major surprise.

Molloy said: “We knew they would do a man-marking job on us. They weren’t playing according to the numbers on their jerseys. But we sort of expected that.”

It was 0-5 to 0-4 at the first water-break thanks to Liam Watson’s score from the side. By half time the game was all square. Molloy had had a hand in Dunloy’s goal. He took a pass from Seaan Elliott, fired on goal, and the save fell to Eoin O’Neill who buried it.

“I was happy with my performance. But everyone needs to perform to win a championship and that’s what happened.”

So at 1-7 to 0-10 at half time, Dunloy had reason to be confident.

Molloy said: “We said to ourselves to just keep doing what we were doing and we had the game in the bag.”

McKeague said: “We knew that we had to keep it tight and then we would see where that took us.

“The goal gave us a boost. It settled us as well and we were able to kick on in the second half. That 10-minute spell after half time was the winning of the game.”

In the second half, Kevin Molloy’s goal and a point from Conal Cunning left the score at 2-18 to 0-13. At that stage the game looked to be over. Loughgiel went goal hunting and got one from Benny McCarry. But it was too little, too late.

Molloy said: “If we hadn’t have built up that lead we might have been in trouble. There was no time for them to pull it back.”

McKeague agreed: “Keeping it tight in the first half was important. We were far enough ahead that it meant that we had that spring board.

“It was a special win. They are all important. That was the first time that we had done back to back in nearly 15-20 years (Dunloy won four in-a-row between 2000-2003). It was a good while since we had won two in-a-row. It was nice to win it.”

For Molloy the win was an important gift to the people of Dunloy.

“It was a special win,” Molloy said.

“There were only 200 fans there. A different year. But it felt as good as every other year if not better. We worked hard for six weeks and the rewards paid off.

“For Dunloy fans, to maybe not think they are going to get there, it was great. Dunloy is all about hurling, and Gaelic and camogie. It was good to give something back to the club.”

That title was Molloy’s third. He thinks there’s plenty more to come from the team.

“It’s a very young team. We were good right through the underage. We won four minor coming up, three u-21s. So there was a lot of talk and a lot of pressure. But I don’t think we have reached our full potential. We have four or five older boys and there is a big gap to the younger group. I am one of the older ones but there is a lot of younger ones below me who haven’t reached their potential.

“They have to keep working because senior is different than minor. Everyone has to keep trying to improve. You have to stick at it.

“We do work hard. People don’t think that, but we do. Seaan Eliott is young but he has the mentality of a 25-year-old.

“People think that boys like Seaan and ‘Coby’ (Conal Cunning) are all about talent, but them boys are in the gym all the time or working on wall ball. People don’t realise what they do. Their mentality is class.”