Ulster Club SHC: Matt Conlan urges Portaferry to live up to Gerard McGrattan's high standards
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Portaferry won their only Ulster Club Senior Hurling final against Cushendall with a 1-16 to 0-10 win in 2014.
Portaferry captain Matt Conlan has urged his team to live up to manager Gerard McGrattan's high standards in Sunday's Ulster Club Hurling semi-final against Cushendall.
The Down champions are aiming to end a nine-year wait to reclaim the Ulster Club Hurling title.
Conlan feels the club have the high-calibre manager to drive them into Ulster glory.
"He has very high standards," Conlan said of 1992 All-Star McGrattan.
"He's very organised, quite professional in his way and he obviously has a load of experience playing.
"He took me on at under-14 level and was with the under-14s for a few years after that, so everybody is familiar with him, so we just try and live up to those high standards."
Portaferry will be fiercely determined to overcome 11-time Ulster Club champions Cushendall to close the gap on Antrim and Derry clubs in the series.
McGrattan's side retained their Down title with a 0-20 to 0-16 over rivals and three-time Ulster Club winners Ballycran.
The Ards club will hope to take inspiration from their only Ulster club success back in 2014 where they impressively defeated Sunday's opponents Cushendall 1-16 to 0-10.
"It's always the way in the Down championship, you never win or lose by a handful of points," Conlan recalled of his side's victory over Ballycran at Pairc Esler.
"Form goes out the window. Ballycran were probably the most in-form team across the year and then we stepped up but it's always going to be tight in Down.
"This weekend [against Cushendall] is no different, it's just another team. We'll concentrate on ourselves and see how it goes. It's all on the day.
"The last few years in the Antrim league maybe they beat us or we beat them, there's never much between us. At the end of the day you could be playing anybody, so we'll maybe take confidence from [2014] but again it doesn't really matter who we are playing, we're just concentrating on ourselves."
Neil McManus says Portaferry were full value for their 2014 Ulster Club Final win over Cushendall
Cushendall are aiming to extend their record in the series to a 12th win having not claimed the title since 2018.
Dall secured their semi-final spot and a 15th Antrim Hurling title following a thrilling contest against Loughgiel at Corrigan Park last month.
The Antrim club will look to take revenge for the shock nine-point defeat in 2014 final but captain Neil McManus insists that Cushendall were not taken by surprise that year.
"I don't think they caught us on the hop, I think they were just the better team on the day," McManus reflected.
"That was a team that was very well seasoned at that stage. There's nearly an entirely new group of players on both teams now, bar a few of us.
"I know that on the day they were brilliant actually in truth and well deserving of their win at that stage.
"I think both teams know each other really, really well because obviously the three senior clubs in Down play in the Antrim league, so they're no stranger to each other.
"I think Portaferry got the better of us on one of those occasions and I think we drew on the other one. There's never much to choose between the two sides and this Sunday will be no different."