2024 Ulster Club SFC final: Errigal Ciaran (Tyrone) 1-8 Kilcoo (Down) 0-10
TWENTY-TWO years may have elapsed since Errigal Ciaran were last crowned Ulster champions, but for some players, this triumph capped an even longer journey.
At 34, Peter Harte wasn’t even the oldest on a team that included 37-year-olds Aidan McCrory and Ciaran McGinley, but winning was definitely worth the wait.
Tyrone captain this year and an All-Ireland winner in 2021, he feels this victory might be his best yet:
“This might trump everything. I said to ‘Rio’ [Ciaran Quinn] there, we’ve been playing football 27, 28 years together, since we were six years old, and to win with those boys is unbelievably special.
“It’s wild hard to compute in your head. A sea of Errigal people who have been with us since we were six years old, it’s just unreal and so special.”
The incredible nature of this triumph was enhanced by Errigal’s star forwards, his brothers-in-law Darragh and Ruairi Canavan, only scoring one point between them, but in a strange way that didn’t surprise Harte:
“I know, but it’s been a funny year. Some other games they haven’t kicked as much as we would have hoped for as a team.
“Everybody just keeps finding wee ways to get a score and eke out wins. Eleven points (1-8) won it today - that’s just Ulster club football typified.”
Their opponents Kilcoo pushing Errigal all the way, even after losing joint-captain and centre half-back Daryl Branagan to a straight red card midway through the second half was not unexpected either:
“We knew it would be nothing less against Kilcoo, we had to be better than we’ve been so far. You know they’ll take you to the wire. They went down to 14 men and it didn’t even affect them, they just kept coming, kept coming. Thank God big ‘Ogie’ swung that over at the end.”
The fact that the winning point came from the man he mentioned, Peter Og McCartan, did raise eyebrows though, Harte acknowledged with a burst of laughter:
“If we’d been able to pick one man to take that shot it wouldn’t have been ‘Ogie’ – but he did it.
“He stepped up in the big moments and he’s been doing it all year. God, now, it was some score to win it.”
With the Canavan brothers closely shackled, Errigal needed other heroes, and one of those was the aforementioned Ciaran Quinn, who matched Harte’s own tally of a point from play in the second half:
“He’s a Rolls-Royce. He’s just been doing that for years and years. He’s one of the unsung heroes of our team for a decade. You’d never hear from him, he’s just a quiet legend.
“Everyone just put their shoulder to the wheel, worked as hard as we can, it was that sort of game.
“It might change next year [with the new rules], but you’re just trying to get forward and score, get back and defend, help the team out.
“Thank God we just about did enough today – we’ll take it.”
At the other end of the age scale was 21-year-old Ruairi Canavan, who also cast his mind back to his early days playing – and watching – football:
“You grow up going to watch senior training when you’re six or seven and some of the boys from then are still playing.
“You’re kicking about and hoping that someday you’ll be fit to play alongside those boys – ah, just to do it is so special.”
Although he’s rapidly become one of the big names for his club, and with Tyrone, Ruairi insisted he was delighted for that older generation:
“We grew up watching videos of Ulster finals and we could only dream of days like this.
“To finally get here… I know some of us boys are only in the squad recently, but some of our boys have taken a lot of flak in the past few years, and for them, it’s so, so special.
“For us young boys, those men are inspirational. They drive the standards. If we have half the career that those boys have had for club and county we’ll be doing all right.”
Although he and his brother Darragh always attract attention, as forwards and sons of the legendary attacker Peter, he pointed out that this was a win built from the back:
“It wasn’t a forward unit win, it was the defence, our boys at the back, and when you see Peter Og McCartan coming up and kicking two points you know you’re going to win any game!
“It was maybe a bit of a smash-and-grab at the end. Especially with them being a man down, Kilcoo were excellent the way they held the ball. They definitely made us work for it, the legs were going at the end.”
They’ll have to return to training soon enough, though, to prepare for the All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry opposition, but that’s a prospect Ruairi relishes:
“Dr Croke’s, we know the pedigree they have in Munster and a couple of All-Ireland clubs as well. We’ll enjoy this week then we’ll get back to work – it’ll be a good Christmas.”