By Niall Gartland

THE hurlers from Sleacht Néill claimed a remarkable 12th consecutive Derry Senior Championship title last weekend with a comfortable win over Banagher, and ace forward Cormac O’Doherty says they were determined not to let complacency scupper their chances.

It would’ve been a major shock had Sleacht Néill relinquished their crown, but they couldn’t look beyond the fields of Derry and to a crack at Ulster until the Fr Collins Cup was safely in their possession for another year.

Now 28 years old, O’Doherty, who top-scored with nine points, has been involved with each and every one of their successes since their winning streak began back in 2013.

Their latest triumph has brought them second on the overall leaderboard at 18 titles apiece with Lavey, with Kevin Lynch’s out in front with 23 titles to their name.

They haven’t always been a hurling force in the county so it’s something O’Doherty certainly doesn’t take for granted.

“For a few years, we were winning in football, hurling and camogie and that’s not the case at the moment so there’s probably been a new appreciation of what championships mean to the club. There’s always the worry of complacency and people from the outside looking in might think how do they keep the hunger.

“Something we talk about in the group is that the trophy means a lot to a lot of people in our club, who maybe fought for a long time and maybe didn’t win anything or just won one title. There’s enough leaders in our team to keep everybody grounded.”

Sleacht Néill will be hell bent on avenging last year’s Ulster Senior Championship final defeat to Cushendall when they lock swords in next month’s semi-final clash.

The Derry kingpins won historic back-to-back provincial titles in 2020 and 2021 but they’ve come out second best in the last two deciders against Antrim’s Dunloy and Cushendall.

To be the best you have to beat the best and O’Doherty is relishing another crack at the Ruairi Ógs, and at least this year they don’t face an interminable wait between Derry and Ulster.

O’Doherty said: “I can’t quite mind but it was nine or 10 weeks between the county final and Ulster final, we didn’t have a semi-final last year.

“It definitely was a long wait and the change in structure within Derry has hopefully helped, we’ll know in a few weeks’ time but in theory it should benefit us.”

On their provincial quest, he added: “We’ve been fighting on that front for a long time now and have a couple of Ulster titles. The last couple of years have been disappointing, we lost to Dunloy and Cushendall and that’s the standard we want to get to.

“We were beaten by the better teams and that’s the level we need to get to over the next couple of weeks.

“I think the level across Ulster is improving. Dunloy got to an All-Ireland final and ran Ballyhale Shamrocks very close. Last year Cushendall were so unlucky not to get over the line against O’Loughlin Gaels. Those teams have definitely improved and it’s up to us to close that gap.”