On a cold but magical December night in Healy Park, Ballinderry captain Gareth McKinless stood on the podium, with a microphone in his hand, an Ulster trophy to his right, and a sea of blue and white in front of him.
The Derry side had just won the Intermediate provincial title and the onlooking crowd roared with delight when their star man said: “At the start of the year, we said we would get on the bus and see where it takes us… well, we aren’t ready to get off it yet.”
The bus in question set upon a journey at the beginning of the season to get the club out of the intermediate league, and back into the senior ranks, but it’s now taking the scenic route down the motorway, and making a pit-stop at Croke Park this Sunday as they prepare to face Mayo’s Crossmolina in the All-Ireland Final.
The metaphor of the bus, though, wasn’t the only thing that was brought up in discussions at the start of the year, as the team had a series of frank conversations on issues that needed to be addressed.
“We used that analogy to try and explain where our journey could go,” McKinless revealed.
“That journey for this group of players doesn’t end this year or next year, it could be four or five years before it ends, and wherever it takes us, it takes us.
“We had some great meetings at the start of the year with [coaches] Jarlath (Bell) and Davy (Harte), we outlined a mantra for the group, for the team, and discussed what was going right, and what was going wrong, because there was plenty going wrong.
“There is no point in shying away from that, but we were honest enough as a group with each other.
“The biggest thing was that the players wanted success, they wanted to compete again — it was just about getting the right pieces in place to really drive the thing on.
“Jarlath and Davy have shown us the standards that are needed to compete at a high level, and to where we could potentially get back to.
“I wouldn’t say there were a lot of hard conversations, but there were conversations that we probably shied away from over the last four or five years.
“It comes with the changing of the guard in the group, because it does come back to the young players that have come in — they don’t want to be playing at a lower level.
“They want to be pushing on, and that’s the best thing. They have all played at high levels through schools, and underage development squads, so they want to push us all on, and we have a really good balance.”
The Derry defender may be one of the more seasoned players on a team full of teenage talent, but he was once the youthful prodigy, and was right in the thick of it when Ballinderry last won an Ulster title at senior level back in 2013.
Although McKinless is reluctant to dwell on the past, the combative competitor wanted to see a return to the high standards that previous players had set.
“I don’t really gauge myself on the medals, for me it was the ability to go out, compete every day, and know that you are going to compete,” he explained.
“I think that was the thing we were missing for large spells, we were going out in games and getting absolutely hammered off the pitch, from minute one to minute 60 — that was the thing that was sticking in me.
“Since I was a young lad, and the teams I was playing on, that never happened, it just did not happen.
“There are a load of reasons that culminate as to why it did start to happen, but it was really sticking in me — I can accept getting beat, even though you don’t want to; you know you’re not going to win every game, but it was the lack of competing that was killing me.
“As a group, it goes back to stripping it all back and having those conversations in terms of standards, because our standards did drop significantly.
“We had large spells of winning teams in the 2000s, and those teams’ standards were through the roof. There were no days off, those boys pushed the boundaries at every training but, through retirements and things, those boys move on and you’re not producing the same calibre of player to replace them.
“This group now, though, are very young, the average age is good, they’re keen, they’re mad to improve, and that’s all I can ask from my team-mates.”
There is no question that the beast of Ballinderry has been awakened once more, and competing is the bare minimum that this team produces.
As they head towards an All-Ireland Final this Sunday, McKinless notices that their opponents have been on a similar journey.
“Crossmolina are a massive club and have been in All-Ireland Finals as well, but they have probably had a similar path to us, in terms of having a bit of a drop-off.
“They have had a similar surge, though, with young players coming through, so I think the two teams are well balanced and well matched, so hopefully it will give us a really good game on Sunday, and whoever performs the best will come out on top — I just hope it’s us.”
Ballinderry take on Crossmolina in the Intermediate All-Ireland final this Sunday , January 12 at Croke Park. The game will be aired live on TG4 with throw-in scheduled for 4.30pm