to download a complete issue of Gaelic Life - News Design Associates

10 FEATURE
August 3, 2007 | Gaelic Life
HUNGRY FOR SUCCESS...Kevin McCloy (fourth from right) and Enda Muldoon (far right) have enjoyed some extended runs in the Championship but Derry have not lifted summer silverware in nearly a decade
Oak Leaf stalwarts seek
Enda Muldoon and Kevin McCloy
are tired of finishing lengthy
campaigns empty handed
BY CHRIS MCCANN
c.mccann@gaeliclife.com
Few teams are more experienced
at exploiting the avenues
of opportunity afforded
by the qualifier system
than Derry. Twice, in 2001 and
2004, the Oak Leafers have recovered
from provincial pastings to
make it to the semi-final stage of
the All-Ireland Championship in
what were viewed as reasonably
progressive seasons.
But two veterans of those runs
to the last four, Kevin McCloy
and Enda Muldoon, say that
making it to latter stages is no
longer enough to qualify as a
successful summer.
Certainly Muldoon believes
that success can only be measured
in terms of medals and the
Ballinderry man hasn’t collected
one of those with the county
since a National League triumph
over Laois some seven years ago.
“It’s comin’ near the time
when I need to be winning something,
it’s getting late on in my
career anyway and probably for
a lock of other boys too,” he said.
“Johnny McBride was right
last week when he said that getting
to semi-finals is nothing to
be overly proud of. He gave great
service to his county for over a
decade and got very little out of
It’s comin’
near the
time when I
need to be
winning
something,
it’s getting
late on in
my career
anyway and
probably
for a lock of
other boys
too
it winning wise.”
Muldoon’s stance is one which
defensive lynch-pin McCloy is
very much in agreement with.
“Nobody remembers semi-finals.
When you get to this stage
you want to go all the way. People
say Derry’s the best back
door team there is but we’ve only
ever got to the semi-finals and
the last time was three years
ago,” he said.
“Everybody enjoys playing at
Croke Park but we have to keep
the boys’ feet on the ground, it’s
just another pitch at the end of
the day and we’re looking further
than just getting to Croke
Park. We need to step up but at
the minute but we can’t be looking
beyond the quarter-final.”
Derry will be very much the
underdogs as they go into that
quarter-final against a Dublin
side that has just collected its
third consecutive Leinster title
but Muldoon believes it would be
pointless for the Oak Leaf men to
even line out for that game did
they not harbour lofty ambitions.
“I can’t see why we shouldn’t
have that belief. At the start of
the year everybody was tipping
Armagh and Mayo to go close to
winning the All-Ireland and
we’ve beaten them. I’m not saying
we’re in with a deadly chance
of winning it but obviously we’ve
given ourselves a bit of hope. You
can get on a roll, playing week in
week out, like we have, and you
never know where it can take
you,” he said.
That Derry are still even in the
hunt for Championship honours
at this stage of proceedings is remarkable
enough in itself given
that they looked abject in defeat
to Monaghan when they bowed
out of the Ulster Championship.
Certainly there wasn’t much
belief in the county after that
game with only around 500 Oak
Leaf fans travelling to the first
qualifier game against Armagh.
“I know the supporters had
every right to jeer us after the
Monaghan game and if I was a
supporter I probably wouldn’t
have travelled to the Armagh
game either. With a couple of
wins the momentum has picked
up and we’d great support there
against Laois at key times in the
game they really got behind us
and hopefully we’ll pick up a few
more for the next day in Croker,”
noted McCloy.
Although he feels some of the
criticism after the Monaghan
game was overly harsh, Muldoon
admits that the way the team
was crucified in the media stung
their pride and that they knew
they had to respond.
“I suppose after that Monaghan
game people were saying
things about us on tv and writing
things about us in the paper and
you can be a bit hurt by it. A few
went over the top but it’s hard to