IF there is a lesson to learn from Sleacht Néill’s 2020 season, it is that complacency is not an issue for the Robert Emmet’s.

At the start of 2020, they were hurt after losing to Ballyhale in the All-Ireland semi-final. They went into the championship after a run of seven successful titles, and were faced with a year when everyone was in lockdown, and preparations were hampered, yet the hurlers under Mickey McShane worked as hard as ever before to deliver success.

Alex Campbell is assistant to manager Mickey McShane. He said: “I know that Sleacht Néill have won eight championships in-a-row but I was chatting to Chrissy McKaigue and he said something that resonated with me. He said, these things are never easy won. People will look at scorelines and deficits but no one hands them to you. Unless you do your due diligence you are not going to win them. That is what is remarkable about this group.”

Last year’s final, Sleacht Neill beat Kevin Lynch’s 1-23 to 2-12, a final margin of eight points. For Campbell, that game was evidence of what McKaigue was talking about.

“People could look at the score in the paper and say that Sleacht Néill won that handy. That was an absolute battle. We played against a ferocious wind in the first half. I think that was one of the best first halves we played. We denied them so many scoring opportunities. Even with the wind in the second half we had to be accurate. I know that Dungiven worked hard

last year. They had Shane Elliott in helping Geoffrey (McGonagle), we were really wary of them.

“The year before Banagher played really well and only for Brendan Rogers got that late goal we might not have won. That goal took the sting out of it.

“So what I am saying is that the scoreline doesn’t always tell the tale.”

So with that in mind, we could read Sleacht Néill’s approach to this season as one where they knew what their opponents were going to bring.

Their approach to the lockdown, and having to train in isolation was indicative of their strength of will.

Covid was a challenge for every club. The belief at the start of lockdown was, those teams that best handled the lockdown situation would triumph. That was certainly the case for Sleacht Néill. Campbell said that getting a plan for training was difficult at the start.

“I did one training session with them in Magherafelt and then the following week it was all shut down. Then we had to set up running programmes. You have to give the guys credit for the work they did. We were able to track them on GPS.

“We made it competitive and fun. We did wall ball challenges as well, striking off the wall and catching it. The management got involved as well, though there was a bit of cheating going on. It was great craic and we sent the videos around. But when we got back to the training ground they were really fit and really lean.

“Paul Bradley in the football was driving the same programme. So they came back in remarkable shape.”Cormac O’Doherty said that the defeat to Ballyhale did have an effect on how the team prepared for the 2020 campaign.

“It was a tough one to take. We had put a lot of work in from the Dunloy Ulster final. The driving force was that we had got to that level and we didn’t want to forget about that. That was a good driver of player responsibility during those months. If there was a chance to get back there we wanted to be ready.”

Campbell said that management can’t always be sure that the work set out will be done, when players are left to their own devices.

“You can be concerned about whether they will go to the pitch in their twos and threes and do the work. Will they do the tough running? But they did it. There was no hiding.”

O’Doherty was Sleacht Néill captain this season. He found that the shut down in training was a challenge.

“I think it was a challenge for everyone. What we said was that if there was going to be a championship we would be ready for it. It was good that players took responsibility to keep themselves right. They know what it takes to win. We didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Thankfully when it did come round to championship we weren’t playing catch up.”

They played a friendly against St Brigid’s from Dublin at Dowdallshall. That experience got the team together and improved the mood. They won that game and that got them started on their preparations for the group stages of the championships.

Campbell said: “There was a sense of being grateful for training together and playing together. That sounds corny, but it’s true. There was a good buzz about training.”

The approach to how they played the game in 2020 was slightly different to previous years.

They had tweaked the approach in 2019 to look at positioning of players and where they would build tactics.

Campbell said: “We tried to instill in the players that hurling has changed and possession is huge, and it doesn’t have to be an instinctive releases of the ball. We try to look for men and keep it short at times. I think that people were surprised with what we have done. At times we play with a sweeper, but it is not a sweeper – it is really just a player dropping back.

“I would be a big believer in trying to deny the opposition scores. If you are defending well then you give yourself a real chance to win.”

When Campbell went to the club a few years ago his priority was to work on basics. He wanted the team to get the simple things right, like lifts, and striking.

“I am always pleased when we are complimented about our touch, and our striking, and our ability to find men. That’s what we have worked on and it is nothing very complicated.”

When the round robin games arrived the Sleacht Néill boys were well prepared. But for Campbell, it seemed that the standard of opposition had improved.

“I was impressed with Lavey. I thought they were very competitive and well organised. We had to work hard for everything that we got out of that game.”

Campbell said that the Swatragh semi-final was a good performance from Sleacht Néill and they executed their game-plan of working the ball shorter, as well as varying it to longer ball.

“We blitzed Swatragh. Cormac O’Doherty played deep but he floated all around, and that opened up their defence. We had a whole range of scorers that day. We had a couple of nice goals. Se McGuigan got a great goal. Brendan Rogers got a typical Brendan Rogers goal when he charged through.”

In the final, they faced Lynch’s yet again. This was the team that they had beat last year in that battle that Campbell described.

“Preparations for the final were very good. We were in good shape so it was all about skills. We did a lot of shooting drills and tried to get long balls into the full-forward line. We tried to work on getting them to work instinctively. So ‘if so and so has this ball, it is going into this guy’.

“They had a diligent approach to the final. Everyone was prepared for the battle.”

They met up before the game in the Everglades Hotel. But there was an issue. Jerome McGuigan was injured. He had carried the issue for a few weeks, yet it wasn’t right.

Campbell said: “Myself and Michael McShane had to take a fella Se Cassidy, Brian Cassidy’s younger brother, aside and say you are starting today. Se is only out of minor. He had made a few appearances as a sub, but this was his first start and it was in the senior final.

“He never blinked an eye. We went in and we announced to the whole team. Players maybe listen out for their own name, but it didn’t really register with them.

“I had asked Se before the game if he was ready for it. I looked him in the eye and I just knew he was. He wanted the ball, he is a real talent, and fingers crossed they get good years out of him.

“You know what, he was integral in the first half. He played in the full-forward line. We were dug in in our own half. He was a great release. He won a couple of early possessions, he went through and got a terrific point when we were trailing and he won a free that got us to five four.”

Cormac O’Doherty backed that point up.

“That shows the calibre of the player that he is, that he was able to come in and do that. We maybe weren’t expecting that from him in his first start. He really stood up and was counted. That was a real positive for us. We have players who are coming and pushing us on.”

Yet O’Doherty’s display this year was very impressive as well. He was the free-taker but also such a crucial play-maker.

Campbell said: “Cormac O’Doherty had taken over the role of captain this year after years of Chrissy being captain. That’s big shoes to step into. I thought Cormac played so well this year. He was the play-maker, an intelligent player who was pulling the strings, pinging the balls into the forward line.”

O’Doherty found out before the group stages that he was going to be the captain of the team.

“They wanted a change in captain. Chrissy has been a massive captain in the last four or five years.

“He felt it was time to pass responsibility over. It was different because I didn’t have a lot of league games to get used to it. But it was an honour to get to captain the team and win. It’s a group of leaders though. There is one captain but it is a group full of leaders.”

He had played for enough years to to know how to approach it.

“I’ve been around for long enough to know what players respond to. There is nobody that won’t stand up and be counted. Every good team and every successful team has a core of leaders. We were no different.”

What pleased Campbell most was how they approached the final.

“The players went out, they played into the wind, and they had the ability to be nice and organised.

“We dropped a few men back and Dungiven pushed up on us. That left space at the other end. But that was flipped round in the second half. We didn’t try to go gung-ho and try and finish them off. We just went point after point. It was one of those games where we didn’t get goals but we racked up the points.”

Cormac O’Doherty’s memory of the final focuses on how Sleacht Néill dealt with the period just before the break when things were difficult for them.

“There was a strong breeze and I think they were possibly five or six up. We were playing against a strong breeze and they were getting the better of us. We dug in just before half time and we got it back level. The gale force was hard to deal with but once we got it level at half time we put ourselves in a good position.”

Campbell spoke of Sleacht Néill’s winning attitude as a reason why the club were properly prepared for the championship. For O’Doherty, the mental strength of the team got them through that tough period against Kevin Lynch’s.

“The know-how of being there and doing it helps. We have been in plenty of bad positions in the last eight years. We knew that the work was done. It was probably the running that we had done on our own in the previous eight weeks that stood to us. Whenever you know you have done the work, that memory is there on the game day.”

O’Doherty said that winning gets harder every year.

“The standard has improved. There is a far better overall talent in the county. You can see that in some of the games. Our game against Lavey was tight. You have to perform in all your games not just one or two. That is good for every club and for the county.”