By Niall Gartland

IT’S fair to say that Sean McCullagh had to wait a long time for this.

The 38-year-old began his Banagher career in some style, winning a Derry Senior Hurling Championship title in his first full season back in 2005.

But then followed years and years of bitter disappointment. Six Derry final defeats would be enough to put anyone off, but McCullagh never wavered and played his part in last Sunday’s Ulster Intermediate Hurling triumph over Lisbellaw, scoring two points and setting up a goal on an unforgettable day for the club.

While they delivered a fairly mixed first-half performance against the strong Fermanagh side, they were excellent after the break and claimed a deserved 2-11 to 0-12 victory.

It was their first ever triumph at provincial level, and while it was particularly special for an old warhorse like McCullagh, he explains that there’s more to his elongated career than the prospect of snapping up titles.

“We won the senior championship 17 years ago, we’d played in six finals since and lost the six of them.

“There were a lot of hard luck stories, but we weren’t far away, we just never got over the line.

“Hopefully we can build on this. I’m enjoying it, it’s nice for my weans, for them to see me play for my club. I’m also feeling pretty fit, I’ve never really had any serious injuries at all throughout my career. If I stop now I think that would be it, so I’ll keep on going as long as I can.”

Banagher have played at a high level for some time, but they’ve obviously done especially well this season. McCullagh explains why that’s been the case for the dual club.

“We’ve been building this last couple of years, we haven’t been far away.

“We probably played more hurling together than we’ve ever done, coming through Intermediate and into Ulster and no football to worry about. Personally I played a bit of football at the start of last season for a couple of months and decided I couldn’t do both. I’d rather give my all to one code than half to two.”

And while McCullagh is happy to throw his lot in with hurling at the moment, he says that the more youngsters in the club playing both sports, the better.

“80 per cent of the hurling team are dual players, and I’d say 95 per cent of the younger boys play both. I know it’s a lot of time and effort, and that we’re only a small club, but it’s important to us and hopefully our success encourages a few more young lads to take up hurling.”