By Michael Devlin

Ryan Murray laughs to himself that he’s nearly lost count of the games Lamh Dhearg have played in this year’s Antrim Senior Football Championship.

The answer is six; an opening-round win over Ahoghill, then Creggan in the quarter-final, a trilogy of semi-finals against Casement's Portglenone before ultimately last week’s drawn decider with reigning champions Erin's Own Cargin.

He’s hoping this Saturday’s replay at Corrigan Park will be lucky number seven.

“A strange few weeks,” is how Murray mildly puts it. “In Antrim, if you got a bye to the quarterfinal, you could be three games away to winning the championship. We’ve been basically having a match every few days, but it’s just a case of getting on with it.”

This year’s run has certainly been unique not only in the high frequency of games, but also in the circumstances that came to pass midway through the aforementioned trilogy with Casements.

Let’s cut to the scene on September 26th at The Dub, Belfast. Five days before, Lamh Dhearg vs Casements Part I ended in dramatic fashion with the Ports coming back to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat courtesy of a late late penalty goal from Conall Delargy.

Take two, and this time not even extra-time could separate the sides. By the time the final whistle sounded, it was 1-12 to 0-15, and a free-kick shoot-out was required. The country tuned into Antrim GAA’s live Twitter stream as the teams went at it, blow for blow. They were tied on 9-9 before more unexpected drama arrived.

Antrim county chairman Ciaran McCavana stepped in to call a halt to proceedings just as Paddy Cunningham lined up to take another kick. It was past 10.30pm by that stage.

“I made the call after speaking to the two managers that the game should be played and won on the pitch,” said McCavana after the game. “We have amateur players giving their all, training for nine months. They don't deserve to lose a county semi-final and a chance to play in the county final that way."

Murray recalls the situation. “Paddy Cunningham was starting his third round of the free kicks, he was doing his normal pre-shot routine, and as he was running up to kick it, he could hear a voice in the background, ‘Paddy, Paddy!’.

“Paddy’s reaction, I think he thought it was one of the Portglenone players trying to put him off. It was actually the chairman trying to get him to stop!”

Full forward Murray himself was out of the drama. He’d received a black card at the end of normal time, ruling himself out of extra time and free kicks. His head was spinning by the time the teams were preparing for the shoot-out.

“Could I come back on? Is it a new game? Can I hit a free kick? There were a lot of different scenarios going on in my head, so it was a weird experience. One of their fella's, Paddy Kelly, missed a free for them, and there was actually a weird feeling in my head going, ‘I’m not even sure if I even want to win in this way’.

“The whole atmosphere was brilliant through the game and the extra time, then it just kind of dissolved when it got to the free kicks. Both sets of players and spectators felt a bit helpless that whatever happens here now happens, and I don’t think it would have been a fair way to end that game considering we were so closely matched, point for point. Personally, I don’t think free-kicks were the right way to resolve the game.”

He admits that while he wouldn’t necessarily have been brimming with confidence if he was in his team-mates’ boots at the time, Murray would have had no problem sticking his hand up to take a free if needed.

“You can be sure when I was watching the fella's hitting them, I don’t know how nervous they must have been because I was certainly nervous watching it! I have lots of respect for our boys and their boys for hitting them under that pressure.”

When Murray and his team-mates got back out on the pitch a few nights after for training, it was time to tune in again. They had another match that Monday, the teams’ third and ultimate meeting in the space of ten days. Eventually, the tie was settled with a Lamh Dhearg win.

“I think we handled that quite well,” says Murray. “Maybe our team being slightly more experienced than Portglenone in terms of championship, and it helped us for that game. The chat about the free kicks pretty much went out the window the next day after it happened.”

The compact schedule of games has been atypical of the usual build up to a championship final for Murray, a county champion with the Lamh’s in 2017 and runner-up in 2015 and 2011. His last two weeks have been spent in swimming pools and ice baths, any form of recovery he can avail of.

“You can argue about players in terms of recovery and rest, it can work both ways. The more tired you convince yourself that you are, the more tired you’ll feel. You have to get on with it and not think about it too much, the body can recover relatively quick.

“Coming into a final you usually have the big build up and everything is to plan. A few heavy sessions early on then the week of the game, taper down. With these games coming thick and fast, you are spending most of your time going to work then going to an ice bath and doing a bit of stretching, and training for half an hour. It’s a very different preparation to anything we had before.”

Due to the live broadcast of the free-kick action unfolding, the Antrim Championship briefly became the talk of the GAA world. Another thrilling finale came last week in the final, with Erin’s Own chipping away at the Hannahstown side’s advantage and Tomas McCann's late free forcing yet another redo.

Add into that Lamh Dhearg’s captain and goalkeeper being the Lord Mayor of Belfast, John Finucane, and national interest has certainly been piqued by the goings-on in the Saffron County of late.

“I suppose it’s been good to see so much reaction to the competition with what’s happened,” says Murray. “Especially in Ulster, everyone maybe holds the Derry and Tyrone championship in high regard, whereas the likes of the Antrim championship is probably not considered in that same realm.

“In recent years, it’s been very competitive and there have been some great teams coming out of it. The way the whole thing started with the replay, the extra time, the free kicks, then the county chairman stepping in, I think everyone who was watching, and playing, were thinking, “What the hell is going on here?”

“I think it snowballed, and also the fact our game with Cargin then in the final was another really competitive game and good football played, that sort of added to the chat.”

So on Saturday, Lamh Dhearg enter the breach once more. Minutes away from being county champions last weekend, they also know they could be watching on as spectators had a ball been kicked another way against Portglenone. Murray admits though that there was a tinge of regret that the job wasn’t done last Sunday.

“You can disguise it any way, but ultimately we were six points up, then three points up in the dying minutes of the game, and we didn’t come out with a championship medal. I think anyone in that situation would have some sort of regret or disappointment in their head.

“But we’ve been used to having a few setbacks so far, and we’ve done well to put them behind us the next day and get on with it. It is a weird feeling. When we won in 2017, you went up to the club and it was a celebration. When we lost, you still go up to the club and its more of a pat on the back of the head and a ‘hard luck’.

“With a draw, you are doing neither, so it’s a bit of a weird situation, and I’m sure it was the same for Cargin. We performed reasonably well on the day, and the challenge is to perform as good and better the next day.”

The memories of that Championship title in 2017 are something Murray cherishes intensely. “I suppose it’s there in your head as something you always want to get back to. 2017 was a massive thing for the club.

“I was playing with my middle brother, my nephew was water boy, my dad was kitman. My eldest brother who used to play, he went his whole lifetime and never got a championship medal. So it was just a huge thing.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget when the final whistle went, the scenes and the celebrations up at the club. At the end of the day we all play football because we love it and we love our club, so to have a big celebration of winning a trophy and seeing how happy everyone in the club.

“The lead-up too, seeing the buzz around the club with the kids, and all the people who help us to play. You want to have success, so why shouldn’t you have those memories in your head when you go out to play matches?”

Needless to say, with all that has come to pass, Lamh Dhearg will be prepared for all scenarios come Saturday afternoon. Antrim GAA’s edict is clear, extra-time and penalties will declare a winner if they and Cargin cannot be separated by another hour's football.

“There might be a few boys out their back practising penalties if it comes to it!” jokes Murray. “It wouldn’t surprise with the way this season has went if it went the whole way down to the wire.”