“It’s terrible when you hear that [about Ciara’s death] and it puts things into perspective as well.”

PERSPECTIVE prompts perspiration.

You might sweat because you’re nervous about a final – and also simply because you can, because you’re lucky enough to be fit to put that effort in.

Conal Cunning top-scored in the Antrim SHC Final with 0-10, leading Dunloy Cuchullains to a 1-19 to 1-13 victory over Cushendall.

Afterwards, on the day Irish sport learned of the tragically early death of star athlete and former camogie player Ciara Mageean, he revealed another source of inspiration for him and his team-mates:

“It’s terrible when you hear that [about Ciara’s death] and it puts things into perspective as well.

“You’re going out, you’re playing a game that you’re enjoying and you’re thinking, you’re getting so nervous – and then you think ‘Oh, there’s people really struggling…’”

Another example came even closer to home for Cunning: “Eunan Curry, a young man from Dunloy, was diagnosed with cancer there two three weeks ago. See the way our village has come around him and how strong he’s been? It’s unbelievable.

“We talked about him before the game there and that is one of the things that we really strived for.

“Honestly, look - we think we’re in a pressure situation, but we’re not. What that man’s doing is unbelievable. You look at young boys like that, they’re 10 years younger than you, and they’re doing things to get over that.

“You just look to that and that inspired us today, to be honest.”

Dunloy can never be accused of a lack of effort, with 10 of the side that started the county hurling final having also lined out in the football semi-final as they lost their crown to eventual new champions St Brigid’s – and Tom McFerran came off the bench for the hurlers on Sunday after playing for the footballers.

Corner-back Oran Quinn – who wasn’t on the football side – perhaps deployed soccer skill to kick the sliotar away when bottled up late on by a Cushendall attacker.

Football full-back Aaron Crawford, who man-marked Cushendall’s star forward Joseph McLaughlin in the hurling decider, deployed a rugby tackle to wrestle Neil McManus to the ground, with the former Antrim captain getting up to drive the subsequent free to the Dunloy net.

That was a rare defensive lapse from Crawford, and victory meant Cunning was able to laugh off that moment, saying: “I don’t know how many sports we’re playing - we’re trying two, two’s enough, I think, at the minute!”

Speaking seriously, the demands on Dunloy’s dual stars, including himself, have been heavy, he acknowledged:

“It’s actually been tough this last year, both sports week in, week out. Against St Brigid’s there… we had an off day and we didn’t play well; fair play to them, they played well.

“The amount of time boys just go to the well, every game after game. Maybe people don’t understand that but that’s not easy.

“We’d really targeted that this year, it was ‘The next game, the next game - don’t worry about anything else, it’s just the next game.’”

The next game will be against Ciara Mageean’s club Portaferry, the Down champions, in the only Ulster club SHC semi-final, on November 15.

Dunloy ended up as provincial champions on their last involvement, and even reached the All-Ireland Club SHC Final against Ballyhale Shamrocks – but that was four seasons ago, as Cunning knows all too well:

“A lot of boys, you maybe don’t realise: you’re in a few finals and you think these things just come easy - and then there’s three, four years go by and it’s never just as easy to get here as maybe you thought at the start.

“The work we’ve put in over the last many years [without winning]… So we’ve appreciated everything there and we just thought we weren’t going to let this one go.”

Overcoming the Ruairi Ogs, who were Antrim winners in 2023 and 2024 (beating Dunloy in the latter final), was as difficult as Cunning knew it would be, despite a blast of 1-4 in the first half giving the Cuchullains some measure of control:

“Look, that was unbelievable there. It was a tough battle, always is against Cushendall.

“We just fought tooth and nail for every ball there that second half. I know maybe it wasn’t pretty at times to watch but we were just digging deep every time winning the rucks.”

Key to Dunloy’s triumph was their midfield combination of Nicky McKeague and Seaan Elliott – the former mostly protecting the defence, the latter scoring five points from play.

Cunning hailed that duo’s contribution, commenting: “They were so good today. If you look at them two, oh my God, between turnovers, scores, everything - flip me, I don’t know what they weren’t doing.

“That’s what you’re asking for in a midfield. Them boys are just the most honest two men you’ll ever meet - maybe not the biggest men but I’d say they won their fair share of ruck balls, dirty ball - and that’s what it takes to win championships.”