Dunloy are dreaming big ahead of their trip to Croke Park this Sunday, but thoughts of home comforts are never far away.
They face a heavily fancied St Thomas’s side in an All-Ireland club senior hurling championship semi-final on Sunday, with the Antrim champions hoping to advance to the decider for the first time since 2004.
But while playing at Croke Park remains an ambition for so many players around the country, in Antrim the lure of one day being able to play at Casement Park continues to have a hold.
The west Belfast venue last hosted a game in 2013. Due to issues around planning, the redevelopment of the stadium has been at a standstill ever since, and while that stage of the process now appears to be over, the next challenge is financing the project.
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The yet-to-be-built Casement Park has been included in the joint Irish and British bid to host Euro 2028, so there is finally genuine hope of progress. And Paul Shiels hopes the gates will swing open again to GAA matches well before 2028.
There was always a great atmosphere and great buzz around Casement Park
“We’ve had more players play in Croke Park than in Casement Park, which is very disappointing,” says the Dunloy captain. “We grew up watching the great Dunloy teams of the 1990s and early 2000s winning championships and Ulster titles in Casement Park. We are going to possibly have a full generation of players who might not experience that.
“So it would be great to see it get built, sooner rather than later. It’s a great venue, always was. There was always a great atmosphere and great buzz around it.”
Antrim have upgraded Corrigan Park in recent years, and that will remain the base for the county teams until Casement is completed. However, the immediate future for Dunloy is Sunday’s journey to Dublin.
“Quite a few of our players have experience with Antrim playing in Croke Park, so I think there are only four or five maybe who haven’t played there,” adds Shiels.
“We have plenty of experience there so I don’t think the venue really will bother us. We are obviously coming up against a very experienced side, that’s a bigger challenge than playing in Croke Park.”
Their Galway opponents are still smarting from last January’s injury-time defeat to Ballyhale Shamrocks at this stage of the competition, so they are determined to make amends. But Dunloy have shown some decent form this season, and beat Slaughtneil to win the Ulster title for the first time since 2009.
“We’ve watched their games, not only this year, but obviously they’ve been in the All-Ireland series for a number of years. They have won five Galway titles in a row,” says Shiels.
“They have a lot of quality players, obviously a few boys with intercounty All-Ireland medals in their back pocket as well, so we are well aware of the task at hand. Look, we are glad to be there. It’s a nice problem to have.”
As a club player, you want to be competing in the All-Ireland
Dunloy have never won the club title, but the Antrim side lost finals in 1995, 1996, 2003 and 2004. Loughgiel Shamrocks, in 1983 and 2012, are the only Ulster outfit to have won the All-Ireland club senior hurling championship.
“For that group of Dunloy players in those finals, I’m sure it was very disappointing. As a club player you want to be competing in the All-Ireland,” says Shiels.
“We’re trying to create our own wee bit of history, and we just want to do the best we can with the group of players we have. We have a good group of players here who have come through the underage. It’s hard to gauge how successful they could be, but we always felt that we had a good group.
“Thankfully, we’ve been able to win Antrim championships and we’ve now won Ulster. Then, obviously, the next progression of that team is to dip their toe into the All-Ireland series and see how they can compete and how they can stand up to the teams from the south.”
It’s time to find out.
St Thomas’ will face Dunloy in the AIB All-Ireland club SHC semi-final at Croke Park this Sunday, 1.30pm (Live on TG4)
