The Antrim champions suffered a 13-point loss to the Ulster champions in Saturday’s provincial final in Armagh
Pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong for St John’s and manager Gerard Cunningham conceded his side fell well short of the standard set by Slaughtneil in Saturday’s Ulster Club SHC final.
The Derry men ran out comfortable 13-point winners at the Box-It Athletic Grounds while St John’s finished with 14 men after Oisin Donnelly’s late red card.
Slaughtneil have now won six Ulster titles since 2016 and will face Loughrea in the All-Ireland Club semi-final on Saturday, December 20 and St John’s are now aware of the level they need to get to in order to compete for a provincial title themselves.
“It’s very disappointing. It wouldn’t be as disappointing if we had played the way we can play, but we didn’t turn up,” said Cunningham.
“Fair dues to Slaughtneil, it shows you the standard we needed to get to be Ulster champions and we just weren’t at that standard today. They put us under a lot of pressure, sussed us out and took our game-plan away from us.
It’s a tough one to take.”
The fact that Shea Shannon, Donal Carson and Conor Johnston were kept scoreless speaks volumes of Slaughtneil’s incredible defence effort added Cunningham.
“Our main men couldn’t get on the ball, and when they did get on the ball there was three or four men around them, hitting them hard tackles.
“We just couldn’t get the freedom to get into our style of hurling, and that was down to the way they set-up. Fair play to them.”
Despite losing the Ulster final, the 2025 season will live long in the memory of the St John’s squad and their supporters after they won the Volunteer Cup for the first time since 1973.
“It’s been a great journey,” added Cunningham.
“The lads deserved to win the Antrim championship, but this is disappointing, It’ll probably take us a day or two to get rid of this disappointment before we can really think back on the journey we’ve went through in the championship.
“It’s a tough one to take today, but the lads had a great journey this year, we’ve give the club a great year, and we still need to remember that when we’re disappointed here.”
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