By Ciaran O’Donnell
When Gerard Melaugh came back into the Red Hughs fold at the back end of the summer in 2017, he was far from convinced he’d done the right thing. In June of last year, the Red Hughs captain and his wife, Stacey, buried their two-year-old son, Caolan. He had been diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer when aged 10 weeks.
No words will ever truly capture the sense of loss and sadness that followed Caolan’s passing.
In truth, the Irish soldier based at Finner Camp had no intentions of playing again.
“I was lost for a while,” he says, recalling the darkest time of his 34 years.
“My first game back was for the reserves in Convoy. I remember walking off the pitch afterwards and thinking this was a mistake. The fitness wasn’t there.”
Two weeks later he was back with the seniors for a league game against Naomh Mhuire.
“I came off the bench, got roped back in and started to enjoy my football again. The fitness started to come back then,” he adds.
Last season ended with a championship final defeat at the hands of Naomh Colmcille. Having led the decider at one stage by four points, Red Hughs found themselves back at the bottom of the mountain they’d come so close to scaling yet again. Base camp was nothing new around Killygordon when plans for the new season were being drawn up.
The first training session of the season was held on January 6th.
“Every man was doing a bit on their own and they landed back in serious nick,” Gerard says.
“After last year’s final defeat, we knew there was something missing. We knew we had the players there to win a championship, and straight away lads started to do their own stuff and get in good shape for whoever was taking over. Here we are still going, almost twelve months on.”
Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter final win over Dunedin Connolly’s of Edinburgh after extra time was far from pretty. The men from The Cross have played a whole lot better this year. But it’s a results business now.
“It would have been easier to lie down in extra time and say it’s not worth it, that we don’t really want it, that we don’t want to have to train over Christmas and plan ahead for January. But I think it’s evident that it’s no problem for us all to train and stay focused.”
“We looked tired on Sunday and that’s not usual for us. We have a lot of games under our belt and they did take their toll. We’ll take this week off, take Christmas week off and that should do us in terms of rest. We don’t want to have any regrets come January 19th,” he comments.
Seosamh McKelvey took on the job for a second time at the turn of the year and carried on building on the good progress made by his predecessor, Joe Carlin.
“Joe had us back enjoying our football. He made us believe in ourselves again. Unfortunately he couldn’t stay with us for personal reasons and Seosamh came back. We knew things had to change and we had to do stuff we hadn’t done before. We had to challenge ourselves. We had three sessions a week under Seosamh and there was a buy-in and those things have been the difference. Seosamh also has a great backroom team and they all work so well together,” Gerard adds.
“Seosamh came in and laid down the plans. We had already warmed to him from his time with the club before, although he had five or six new players which was a good injection to work with. He’s football-mad. Sometimes it’s his way or no way. The good thing about him is that he’ll tell you straight and he had a really sensible approach to the season.”
In seasons past, Gerard would have regarded himself a “real die-hard”.
“I couldn’t understand why boys missed training. But I’ve since realised that football is only sport at the end of the day. As passionate as I still am about it, I would be more understanding now about people’s circumstances. Things happen and family comes first at the end of the day.”
After experiencing defeats in the junior finals of 2003, 2015 and 2017, Gerard and Co finally got their hands on special silverware.
“The ambition of every club and every player is to be at the stage we are at now. It’s a great position to be in and we still have to keep working at it.”
Gerard was just 19 when he lined out in his first county final 15 years ago. He has since progressed to become the team’s spiritual leader, showing the way for the rest to follow.
“I played along with some great players – Anthony McDaid, Paul Campbell, Lyndon Gillespie and PJ Gallagher who was captain in 2003. As a young lad, I remember watching Marty Carlin playing and being in awe of him at the way he was able to score from the sideline with the outside of his boot. Red Hughs were a hard, physical team back then too. To be mentioned in the same bracket as those players is an honour.
“I’ve learned a lot from some great captains who have captained me. This has been my first year to have the full captain’s role and it’s something I’ve really enjoyed. I like sticking my neck out and the pressure of it helps your game, too.”
Gerard and his team mates felt they’d let so many people down last year after failing to get over the line when in the driving seat in the county final. To do the business in this year’s showdown against Urris and kick on to add an Ulster title have made the efforts all the more rewarding.
Over the coming weeks, much of the Red Hughs attention will focus on the challenge their Connacht counterparts from Easkey will pose.
“The reward for beating the Sligo champions is a final appearance at Croke Park and trying to get there will be part of the motivation,” he adds.
2018 has been a mixture of emotions for Gerard.
“This year has been strange…it’s hard to explain. You’re so happy for the club and everyone involved, and at the same time, you’re sad. It was difficult. I’m still delighted and very proud. But at the same time, it doesn’t change things. It’s hard,” he comments.
When he gathers around with his wife, Stacey, and their son, Eoghan, who recently celebrated his second birthday, to see in the new year, Gerard will have plenty to look back on from the current. The visit to Caolan’s grave at The Cross the night Red Hughs were crowned Ulster club champions in November is the memory that will always be closest to his heart. Accompanied by the personnel from the Red Hughs club who’d been instrumental in the double success, Gerard carried both cups to the cemetery. All stood alongside their captain with dignity, and in silence. It’s a moment in time none will forget.
He’d made a promise to his lovely little red-haired son that he’d win a championship for him, come what may.
Like every good father, he stayed true to his word.
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