NOTHING COULD SPOIL Ballinderry’s special day.

So much blood, sweat and tears went in to winning the club’s first All-Ireland title, it didn’t really matter that the final act of their fairytale played out in Semple Stadium rather than Croke Park.

The redevelopment works at Headquarters were out of their hands but 11 years later, they are masters of their fate. Beat St Vincent’s on Saturday and the Ulster champions will go toe-to-toe with either Dr Crokes or Castelbar Mitchels.

And this time, the team bus will be heading down Jones’s Road.

“Winning in Thurles was something special too because it was different,” Kevin McGuckin, one of the soldiers that day, remembers. “It was amazing.

“The whole of Ballinderry was down in Thurles but it wasn’t Croke Park. It’s a huge thing.

Some of the club players have been fortunate to play for the county in Croke Park but it would be totally different going out in the blue and white of your club and having your family and the whole of your community sitting in the Hogan or the Cusack watching you. That’s dream stuff, that’s crazy stuff.

“That’s a massive motivation for us to get over the semi-final. That’s part of the prize. To get the Ballinderry team bus into Croke Park would be something else.”

For McGuckin the 2002 win against Nemo Rangers was a belated birthday present, coming a couple of weeks after he turned 21. Now he and some of the other fresh faces from that historic day — goalkeeper Michael Conlon, Enda Muldoon and Conleith Gilligan — are sipping in the last-chance saloon.

But if it seems like the script is set for them to leave on a high, it very nearly took an unexpected twist when McGuckin was sent off — the second red card of his club or county career, he says — in the Ulster semi-final against Kilcoo.

His team-mates hung on to win in his absence and before the Ulster final against Glenswilly of Donegal, the suspension was overturned on appeal.

“The biggest relief was that we did well to battle out that result against Kilcoo. We were down to 13 men and obviously if we’d been beaten in that one, I would have been kicking myself for days to come.

“The main thing was that we got over the line and after that then got the suspension sorted out and I got to play in an Ulster final and the London game.

It was a bit of a worry. It leaves you in a dark place for a while. I was probably hard enough to live with for a week or so while we got it all sorted out, but we got it sorted and it all went well.

Within the county Ballinderry have been the dominant force in recent years, completing a three-in-a-row this season to take their Derry total to seven since the turn of the century.

But that success hasn’t been reflected at provincial level, mainly because of the cruel fate that pitted them against the Crossmaglen powerhouse.

They had some close encounters — Cross won the 2005 Ulster Championship 0-5 to 0-2 in what McGuckin remembers as “real brutal” conditions.

“You were probably saying ‘are we never going to cross the line again,’ ‘are we never going to do it,’ but personally I’d be a fairly confident, positive fella.

“I know that the talent we have there in Ballinderry. With a good mix of the older lads of my age group and the couple of younger guys, we’ve a good mix there.”

Ballinderry skipper Adrian McGuckin celebrates in 2002 (INPHO/Patrick Bolger)

Beating Glenswilly and taking provincial honours for just the third time was a massive step.

“We always felt we were good enough with the football talent to do it but it was pulling it all together and getting the mentality right to get everybody to realise the hard work it takes to get to this level.

“Hopefully, now we’re in a good place. Everyone’s pulling hard and pulling tight together.”

One thing that definitely played in their favour was the spate of inter-county retirements. McGuckin, along with Muldoon and Gilligan, seem to be reaping the rewards of calling time on their time with Derry.

“Inter-county level at the minute, the commitment is something else. It’s seven days a week. It’s almost professional and I know at my age – I’ll be 33 at the end of the month – my body couldn’t take seven days a week.

“The good thing with the club is when you do a tough session you’ve the next day to recover. That has helped me personally so it’s bound to have helped Conleith, Enda and all of the lads.

It is part of your decision especially if you’re from a bigger club pushing for success. Whenever I stepped away from the county I was thinking that I’d try and give the club three, four or five years, whatever you can while you can still play football.

“It has to have helped us but I have to say Brian McIver, the county manager, obviously has a connection with Ballinderry as well and he’s been more than helpful. There’s been no pressure on the county lads at all.”

McGuckin with St Vincent’s Éamon Fennell (INPHO/Cathal Noonan)

Vincent’s set an ominous tone in their ding-dong Leinster final against Portlaoise but in Newry on Saturday, McGuckin expects Ballinderry to rise to the challenge.

“You saw their final against Portlaoise. I was lying watching it, not really thinking further ahead and it was a brilliant game, a brilliant spectacle.

“Obviously the way Dublin county football has been [at a] professional level, I thought Vincent’s were very similar to that. They were all big guys, looked physically in good shape and all mobile, a top team.

But when you’re in the top four it’s always going to be a top team. You’re not going to be playing a second-rate team.

“It’s a massive challenge but it’s a good challenge too. I think it will only motivate the lads to be on the same pitch as Diarmuid Connolly, Mossy Quinn and these top players, household names.

“It’s something we’re looking forward to, not something we’ll be afraid of. ”

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