HOGAN CUP MEMORIES

McGuckin, Hughes and McNicholl
celebrate the 2003 title

In the buildup to Saturday’s Hogan Final we caught up with former St Patrick's Maghera supremo Adrian McGuckin. No better man to help us look back at the College's Hogan Cup history.

Back in 1980 St Patrick’s played in their first final in Croke Park against Carmelite College Moate. “We lost eight of the team [age difference between MacRory and Hogan] and it was a disappointing defeat because we had a very young team.” 

Dermot McNicholl was a third year and there was ‘a couple of’ fourth years on board and as McGuckin recalls ten of them went on to play Rannafast the following year. The last minute defeat to Moate was a tough pill to swallow.

On the Moate team there were a couple of players who went on bigger things. “Val Daly became a Galway legend after that and John Maughan who went on to manage Mayo.”

Four years later and back again to Croke Park, this time kingpins St Jarlath’s were the opponents and as McGuckin recalls once again the age difference struck.

“We lost a serious number of players from the MacRory including Damian Cassidy and Dermot McNicholl. We finished up with a one point defeat as well with the last kick of the game.”

FIRST TITLE

So after two heart-breaking defeats Maghera and McGuckin in particular built on the experience and in 1989 after a semi-final win over Tuam CBS, the Derry men were back in another decider. 

It went to a replay against Cork side Coláiste Chríost Rí after a hard fought drawn game. Following from the narrow defeats in 1980 and 1984 the tide was slowly beginning to turn.

“We played them in Portlaoise and drew in a tight enough match. We had a chance to win it right at the end but we got them in the replay in Longford.”

On the way up the road from the drawn game Maghera realised they were the better team and the self-belief began to kick in.

“We beat them handy enough [in the replay]. Big Corkery was playing but we had Anthony [Tohill] and Joe McCullagh in the middle of the field. We were more relaxed and expressed ourselves better. We got the early scores and they [Chríost Rí] dropped the heads pretty quick.”

“That was a special day winning that one and making the breakthrough,” recalls McGuckin and that was the start of a special relationship with the Hogan Cup. Maghera sit third in the roll of honour behind Jarlath’s (12) and St Colman’s Newry (8), two schools that he has a mutual respect for.

“It was a rivalry but it was a special sort of rivalry because they were a special college St Jarlath’s. I was recently talking to Dermot [McNicholl] after the MacRory and we were saying how special it was to play them in the All-Ireland competition.”

“It was the same with St Colman’s Newry in the MacRory, because they were two schools that seemed to be different. Both of them played a tremendous style of football. Their sportsmanship was always of the highest order; they could take defeat and victory the same.”

1990 Champions

BACK TO BACK

The following year Maghera retained the MacRory against St Colman’s and after defeating St Mel’s Longford were faced with St Jarlath’s once again in the final. 

Like the previous year it went to a replay after a war of attrition in the drawn game but the replay holds a special place for McGuckin.

“It was a real classic of a game and it as played as a curtain raiser to Tyrone’s U21 Final [defeat to Kerry]. Ours was the best game of the two and I remember everybody saying that.”

“St Jarlath’s had Derek Duggan and Jarlath Fallon playing for them. Fallon played centre half forward in the first match and we had all our plans for him but in the replay he went out to right half forward.”

McGuckin didn’t reshuffle his pack. he placed trust in his team. “Barry McGonigle marked him and did a tremendous job on him.”

“We had Hugh Mullan and Brian McCormick at midfield, with Fallon dropping out around there. The high catching that day was phenomenal. That was the big thing, the amount of high catching there was around the middle of the field.” It had impressed the neutrals in Breffni that day. 

This was no surprise. I was lucky enough to experience McGuckin’s meticulous preparation. He was ahead of his time but never forgot the basics and the endless hours of kicking and catching on the back pitch that gave his teams a great platform for success.

KILLER GOALS

The scoreline from the 1994 Hogan Final (3-11 to 0-9) suggests a comprehensive win for Jarlath’s but after viewing the video McGuckin didn’t see it that way. There was also a subplot.

The game had been refixed from the week before. “We travelled the whole way to Longford and now looking back it was absolutely ridiculous. I was told [unofficially] the night before that the pitch was unplayable and we travelled down and we were actually togged out.”

“Then having to turn and make that journey with ten buses of supporters and the expense of making that journey back down again.”

The 1994 St Jarlath’s team was a star-studded one. “There was eight of them that won All-Ireland senior medals with Galway just four years later. Michael Donnellan, the Joyces (Padraig and Tommie), the Meehans (Declan and Tomas) and John Divilliy were among them.”

Goals were crucial that day in Longford but the timing of them was more significant. “They scored a goal right from the throw-in and had another banged in before we knew the game was started. We came back into it and were playing the better football but they hit us with another goal.”

McGuckin met Padraig Joyce recently and the topic of 1994 came into the conversation and Joyce told McGuckin about the recent Jarlath’s reunion. “Their opinion was that they won it easy but after watching the DVD they couldn’t believe how much we were in the game.”

THIRD TITLE

1995 Champions

Both teams had plenty of survivors back in 1995 but the rematch never materialised as Jarlath’s were piped by Tuam CBS in the Connacht Final.

Maghera were again hit with the age difference and six of the panel (including four starters) were ineligible. That same year the MacRory Final clashed with Bellaghy’s involvement in the All-Ireland Club Final involving David O’Neill and Mark Diamond. 

The MacRory was played the following Sunday leaving a very tight turnaround against Tuam CBS and McGuckin didn’t recruit any more players and ending winning the Hogan with a panel of just 20 players.

The final was a comfortable win over Wexford’s Good Counsel but the semi final was the defining moment on a windy day up in Ballyshannon.

“We had the wind in the first half and we weren’t that much up at half time. I remember Conleth Murphy working a great point but it was backs to the wall stuff in the second half. We won and nothing more, Derek Savage played that day and gave us plenty of trouble.”

HOGAN FACTOR

There was a difference in the approach from the MacRory to the All-Ireland series. “You are a very good team whenever you win the Hogan but there is something more romantic about winning the MacRory. Even if you win the Hogan is seems like a bit of an anti-climax.”

“Your whole year and training was geared towards winning the MacRory. You never really thought much about winning the Hogan until the next day after the MacRory. You start looking at how many people you have eligible and when the semi final was and getting going again.”

“At that time the teams down south played a different brand of football. The kicking and passing was so precise but we were equal to any of them.”

“At that time a lot of the teams down South were boarding schools not just taking boys from their own communities but from other counties. Jarlath’s had boys from Donegal, Mayo and Roscommon so it was a big step up but it was all the better whenever you could win one of them.”

McGuckin’s enthusiasm is an infectious one and every player that passed through his hands will have been the better for having done so. Eamonn Burns mentioned it when he was speaking before the MacRory Final and the confidence he gained from school football.

The win in 1989 was the start of it all. Current boss Paul Hughes always makes reference to ‘what Adrian started’. Sean Marty Lockhart and Dermot McNicholl are all protégés of McGuckin and the Hogan breeding ground and are back coaching the next generation.

Pep Guardiola was talking about Johan Cryuff recently and Hughes has the same sentiments about the influence of McGuckin. “He built the chapel and the rest of us maintain it!”

MAGHERA’S HOGAN FINALS

• 2014 Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne 1-8 St Patrick’s Maghera 1-6
• 2013 St Patrick’s Maghera 1-20 St Patrick’s Navan 1-10
• 2003 St Patrick’s Maghera 1-9 St Jarlath’s Tuam 2-4
• 1996 Killorglin Community School 4-8 St Patrick’s Maghera 1-14
• 1995 St Patrick’s Maghera 2-11 Good Counsel New Ross 1-6
• 1994 St Jarlath’s Tuam 3-11 St Patrick’s Maghera 0-
• 1990 St Patrick’s Maghera 1-11 St Jarlath’s Tuam 0-13 Replay
• 1990 St Patrick’s Maghera 1-4 St Jarlath’s Tuam 0-7
• 1989 St Patrick’s Maghera 2-15 Coláiste Chríost Rí, Cork 1-6 Replay
• 1989 St Patrick’s Maghera 1-5 Coláiste Chríost Rí, Cork 0-8
• 1984 St Jarlath’s Tuam 0-10 St Patrick’s Maghera 2-3
• 1980 Carmelite College Moate 0-12 St Patrick’s Maghera 1-8