In a club championship season of historic breakthroughs, Dunloy’s vice-captain Deaglan Smith acknowledged “it must be the year of the underdog”.
The Antrim champions travel to Owenbeg on Saturday (18:00 GMT) to face Derry kingpins Newbridge in the preliminary round of the Ulster Club Senior Football Championship.
Both teams went into their respective county finals as outsiders, with Dunloy turning the tables on the 2023 final defeat to Cargin to bridge an 89-year gap, while Newbridge – despite being defending champions – beat a fancied Magherafelt side seven days later.
The winner will face Madden, who won the club’s first Armagh senior and with Tyrone’s Loughmacrory another first-time winner, there has been something in the water in 2025.
Smith, who played through the pain barrier in the Antrim final, said their victory over Cargin “was hard to believe at the time” but fuelled by their loss at the same stage two years earlier, plus the previous week’s hurling semi-final defeat to Loughgiel, they were determined not to come up empty-handed.
“It’s good to see a change and I’m sure there are a lot of people sick of seeing the same teams come up against each other with the same outcomes,” he told BBC Sport NI’s Mark Sidebottom.
“We had a week to take it all in, but it was hard to believe at the time. We knew we could do it, so it was just good to get over the line.
“There’s a lot of heart in the group. We took that defeat (2023 final) bad and took the hurling defeat 10-times worse, so we used that as fuel for the fire.”
Dunloy have been lauded for their attacking style and although the tests are tougher on the provincial stage, Smith says “there’s no point changing now”.
“They’ve a lot of danger men who will need a close eye on but I’m sure they’ll be saying the same about a couple of our boys,” he continued.
“They’re an attacking team, we’re an attacking team, so it is going to be a good game.”
