Cormac O'Doherty: 'We're trending in the right way'

By Paul Keane

In the very last play of the 2023 Christy Ring Cup final, Cormac O'Doherty lofted a free in towards the danger area in front of the Davin End goals at Croke Park.

Trailing by two points, Derry needed a goal but, agonisingly, a Meath hurl intercepted his hopeful punt and, moments later, full-time sounded. O'Doherty dropped to the ground and pulled his jersey up over his head. It felt like all of Derry's remarkable efforts had been in vain.

It wasn't so much earlier that they'd trailed Meath by 13 points but they somehow whittled that deficit down to a one-point game in stoppage time. Afterwards, there were plenty of 'if onlys' uttered, from frustration with their slow start - "I think it was 15 minutes before we scored," recalled O'Doherty - to what might have happened if a Derry player had just managed to grab that ball out of the sky at the death when O'Doherty dropped it in.

A year on, they've returned to the final stage though there is no great sense of trepidation or fear attached to Derry's bid to beat Kildare tomorrow. Sure, Kildare have won four titles, the most of any county, and Derry will be hoping to avoid a fourth final loss but there is real optimism in O'Doherty's outlook.

"We've got that experience under our belt now," said the Slaughtneil man assuredly, nodding back towards last year's near miss. "It's not so much about righting a wrong but moreso focusing on ourselves and doing ourselves justice which we felt for a lot of last year's final we didn't do. So that's the big focus going into this Sunday. If we do that we're confident we can come out the right side of it."

Derry lost to Kildare when the sides met in the group stage of the competition but, again, there is no particular panic in O'Doherty's voice.

"We learned from it," he said. "I'm sure they learned from it too but we felt we finished the group fairly strongly and we're trending in the right way."

Derry responded with big wins over London and Sligo to close out the round robin section, scoring six goals in the process. Having also lost the 2021 final to Offaly, and a 2015 decider against Kerry, they could be forgiven for being desperate to finally end their barren streak in Ring Cup deciders.

"Desperate? I wouldn't say that as much as we're just very, very keen to make that step up," said O'Doherty. "We feel like we're capable of it."

The 28-year-old knows that great gains await if Derry can just deliver their A game. He has witnessed first hand with Slaughtneil how quickly giant oaks can spring from tiny acorns. In all, O'Doherty has 15 county senior medals, 10 in hurling and five in football.

"Back around 2015, 2016, when we won our first Ulster club hurling title, it really changed a lot of minds," he said. "And the fact that we were able to back it up in the years after that and compete in All-Ireland semi-finals, it did change perceptions a lot. There's still work to be done, football is still the main game and probably always will be in the county but definitely we've seen that change in mindset towards hurling."

Who knows, maybe an All-Ireland double could even be on the cards this year, for both of Derry's senior teams. The footballers are National League Division 1 title holders and will host Armagh in Round 2 of the All-Ireland SFC tomorrow, shortly after the conclusion of the hurlers' final.

O'Doherty's Slaughtneil clubmates Brendan Rogers and Chrissy McKaigue have been named again to play with the footballers though both All-Stars are former Derry hurlers.

"They did try to do both for a couple of years but it's impossible to get the best out of themselves, to put their best foot forward, in both," said O'Doherty. "We've got a group that's devoted to hurling and that wants to hurling for Derry so that's great. We focus on what we can control, which is our squad of 30, 31 players, and that's all we can worry about."

O'Doherty, 28, views Derry's latest final as a great opportunity to begin an upward turn in the county's hurling graph, just like the footballers have enjoyed in recent years.

"Five or six years ago, they weren't going well either, but they got their structures in place and they went from strength to strength," said O'Doherty of the county footballers. "That's sort of our aim at the minute.

"There's enough good hurling people in Derry to progress it. We've seen that over the last 18 months where we've got a good group in place, we've got the right structure in place, our underage has been successful at All-Ireland stage and just the general hurling structures with all the competitions has been a massive boost for a lot of counties.

"It gives that chance of silverware, that chance of going to Croke Park every year and it's a massive ambition for every young player. For the Derry hurlers to be back in Croke Park, for the third time in four years, that's bringing the game to a wider audience in Derry and we can see that from our own matches. There are more supporters, there are some young hurling clubs starting up, it's all slowly building."