Elliott impressed by Dunloy's true grit in Ulster triumph

When people think of Dunloy, they think of speed, fancy footwork and no shortage of eye-catching scores, but ace attacker Nigel Elliott feels that Sunday's Ulster Hurling final win over Slaughtneil in Armagh demonstrated a whole new side to them.

Very few teams can stand toe-to-toe with the Derry side when it comes to physicality and bravery around the breaks, but after a difficult third quarter when the holders picked off a series of scores to level things up, it was Gregory O’Kane’s men who put their bodies on the line and forced a series of morale-boosting turnovers in defence to help them get their hands on the Four Seasons Cup.

This young Dunloy side is one of the most exciting to come out of Antrim in modern times, and five titles in six seasons is a throwback to their decade of dominance between 1994 and 2003 when they won eight county titles.

Those eight titles were transferred into seven Ulster crowns with the one missing link coming in 1998 when they were banned from the provincial series following ugly scenes in the previous year’s final win over Lavey.

For the current version, their four previous titles have yielded no Ulster honours. The 2020 competition was not played due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but Slaughtneil’s winning margins against Dunloy in 2017, 2019 and 2021 had been seven points, eight points and seven points again.

Conal Cunning’s free put O’Kane’s men 2-07 to 0-07 ahead at the start of the second half. Fifteen minutes later it was 2-09 to 0-15 and Slaughtneil looked like they were going to overpower Dunloy once again heading down the stretch.

Not this time though, as the Cuchullains dug deep and found that true grit that had often abandoned them against the Derry side.

"Breaking Slaughtneil down, it