Dunloy have "confidence" for huge St Thomas' task

Dunloy joint-captain Paul Shiels says the side have "confidence in our ranks" for Sunday's All-Ireland Club Hurling semi-final at Croke Park against Galway champions St Thomas'.

"We're well aware that coming from the north, we're not expected to go down and win," Shiels told BBC Sport NI.

"But when we started with this group, the aim was to get to Croke Park."

To achieve that, Dunloy were going to have to get past Slaughtneil in Ulster and at the fourth time of asking two weeks ago, after three defeats in the previous five years, the Cuchullainns finally managed to beat Michael McShane's side by earning a 2-12 to 0-16 victory in the provincial decider in Armagh.

Amid joyous scenes from the Dunloy faithful after the final whistle at the Athletic Grounds, Shiels spoke passionately of how "Slaughtneil have lived in our heads for the last five years".

'We want to express ourselves at Croke Park'

But while Shiels continues to have the height of admiration for a Slaughtneil side who had "sent us back to the drawing board on every aspect of our game", the task in hand is now St Thomas', a club that landed the All-Ireland title in 2013 and reached the final as recently as three years ago.

St Thomas' clinched their fifth straight Galway title by beating Loughrea by a single point in the replayed final.

As has been the case over the last decade and more, the St Thomas' outfit is backboned by the Burke hurling brothers, with 2013 All-Ireland winner Kenneth now managing the side and Galway stars Eanna and David among the starting line-up along with other siblings Cathal and Darragh, and cousin Fintan also operating at full-back for good measure.

Not surprisingly amid their domination of club hurling in the county, the team is replete with further Galway stars including Conor Cooney so Shiels says Dunloy are fully mindful of the magnitude of the task that they face on Sunday.

"They are serial Galway winners so it's going to be a massive ask for us.

"But we just want to go down there and express our game and play to what we think are our strengths and we think Croke Park is as good a place as any to showcase that.

"We train hard. We do what we're supposed and we're just want to get down there and play.

Gregory O'Kane played on four losing Dunloy teams in All-Ireland Club Finals and is now hoping to guide the club to another decider

"And boys [such as Conor Cunning and Keelan Molloy] have been playing county hurling and have been exposed to Division One and played Cork in the senior championship this year. That's just the level they are at and hopefully they can bring that on Sunday."

Dunloy's lost appearance at the All-Ireland stage in the Spring of 2010 saw them lose a semi-final against Galway opposition in the shape of Portumna.

However, six years earlier Dunloy defeated Portumna in an All-Ireland semi-final while they also beat another Galway side Athenry at the last-four stage when reaching their first national decider in 1995.

Dunloy's 2004 semi-final win set up a second successive All-Ireland Final appearance which was the club's last Croke Park game as they slipped to a very disappointing 0-17 to 1-6 defeat against Cork side Newtownshandrum.

That reverse was the Cuchullains' fourth final defeat in nine years which included two losses against Birr (1995 after a replay and 2003) and the 1996 decider against Sixmilebridge.

Dunloy manager Gregory O'Kane played in all four All-Ireland Finals and now is attempting to guide his players to another decider where they would have the chance to achieve something that he and his team-mates couldn't quite do.