Kevin McCloy

Kevin McCloy (born 26 October 1978)[1] is a dual player of Gaelic games who plays Gaelic football for the Derry county team, with whom he has won a National League title. He also won an All Star for his performances in the 2007 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.

Kevin McCloy
Personal information
Sport Dual player
Football Position: Full back
Hurling Position: Midfield
Born (1978-10-26) 26 October 1978
Lavey, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Occupation Civil engineer[1]
Club(s)
Years Club
199 – present
 Lavey
Club titles
  Football Hurling
Derry titles 0 5
Inter-county(ies)
Years County
2001-2012
?-2000
 Derry (F)
Derry (H)
Inter-county titles
  Football Hurling
Ulster Titles 0 1
All-Ireland Titles 0 0
League titles 1 0
All-Stars 1 0

McCloy plays his club football for Erin's Own's Lavey. As a dual player, he also plays hurling for Lavey, and has in the past also hurled for Derry - winning an Ulster Senior Hurling Championship medal. He is well known for wearing his candystriped stockings above knee level.

In football, he is seen as a tough, old-fashioned full back, who is also very competent with the ball in his hands going forward and a good reader of the game.[2] Although full back is his usual position, he has said he prefers to play at centre half back and has done so on occasion for Derry and Lavey.[3]

Football career

Inter-county
Derry manager Paddy Crozier and Kevin McCloy celebrate winning the 2008 National League
McCloy (left) and Fermanagh's Barry Owens battling for the ball during the 2008 Ulster Championship semi-final

McCloy matured late in football terms and he never played at Minor or Under 21 level for Derry.[4] He joined the Senior team during the 2000/2001 National Football League[5] and made his Championship debut in 2001 against Antrim.[6]

McCloy missed the 2004 Championship through injury,[2] but had an exceptional year in 2005. He was nominated for an All Star.[7]

McCloy had another impressive season in 2007. Regular captain Kevin McGuckin got injured in the latter stages of the National League and McCloy became stand-in captain on the field of play that summer until McGuckin's return. After being knocked out of the Ulster Championship by Monaghan at the semi-final stage, Derry advanced through the qualifiers with victories over Armagh, Mayo and Laois. Against Mayo McCloy shattered his little finger in three places while getting an accidental kick from Conor Mortimer. He displaced the bones so bad that they were pushed up beyond his knuckle. He played on and played against Laois two weeks later. Derry were paired with Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter-final. Nine days before the tie McCloy had an operation on the finger. The surgeon told him not to play contact sport for 10 weeks and if he did he would risk never having the full use of his finger again. He contacted 10 doctors to see if any would administer a painkilling injection, but they all refused. McCloy played the game and despite finishing on the losing side in a tight encounter, McCloy was awarded man of the match.[8] On 19 October 2007 McCloy was named at full back on the 2007 All Star team. The award is the fifth All Star from the Lavey club, following in the footsteps of Anthony McGurk (twice), Johnny McGurk and Henry Downey.

McCloy was named new Derry captain for the 2008 season.[9] During the match against Dublin the previous year, he hit Mark Vaughan with a great shoulder tackle, however the tackle left McCloy with whiplash, hurting his other shoulder and also giving him groin problems which limited his appearances in the 2008 National League.[10] The start of McCloy's 2008 season was an injury hit one[11] - making just two substitute appearance in the Dr. McKenna Cup. He played seven games in the 2008 National League, three coming as a substitute. One of these substitute appearances came in the final, where he broke down injured in the warm-up, but came on later in the game.[11] Derry defeated Kerry in the final.[12][13] The league success saw Derry become favourites to win the Ulster Championship[14] and one of the top few for the All-Ireland. However, despite a good opening victory against Donegal,[15] Derry exited the Ulster Championship against Fermanagh at the semi-final stage[16] and were defeated by Monaghan in the first round of the Qualifiers.[17]

Province

McCloy was part of Ulster's 2007 Railway Cup winning team.[1]

International Rules

McCloy was asked to attend trials for the Ireland team for the 2008 International Rules Series.[18] He impressed initially and survived the initial cull of players from the squad,[18] but did not make the final 27-man squad for the trip to Australia, and was instead named as one of six standby players.[19]

Hurling career
McCloy (left) and Fergal Doherty try to dispossess Donegal's Colm McFadden during the 2008 National League

Inter-county

McCloy's first taste of inter-county action was with the Derry hurling team. McCloy won the 2000 Ulster Senior Hurling Championship with Derry, the county's first Ulster hurling title in 92 years.[2] He left the hurling team when the footballers called him up the next season.[2]

Club

With Lavey McCloy has won the Derry Senior Hurling Championship on 96 occasions.

Honours

Inter-county

Club

Province

References
  1. "Derry player profiles 2008". Official Derry GAA website. 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2009.
  2. O'Connor, Christy (27 April 2008). "Sperrin Mettle". The Sunday Times (Ireland).
  3. Scott, Ronan (23 May 2008). "Crozier mulls over his injury options". Gaelic Life.
  4. "All Stars". Derry GAA website. Retrieved 20 October 2007.
  5. "Coleman delivers a new-look Derry". BBC Sport Online. 19 October 2000. Retrieved 21 January 2008.
  6. "Derry's new look". BBC Sport Online. 30 May 2001. Retrieved 9 June 2008.
  7. "Tyrone top all-star nominations list". Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2007.
  8. "McCloy rues missed Derry chances". BBC Sport Online. 11 August 2007. Retrieved 20 October 2007.
  9. McCann, Chris (8 January 2008). "McCloy named new skipper". County Derry Post. p. 80.
  10. O'Kane, Karl. "Kev must hit the brakes". Irish Daily Star.
  11. Archer, Kenny (28 May 2008). "McCloy out to smash the Ulster title duopoly". The Irish News. Archived from the original on 23 January 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2008.
  12. "Derry 2-13 Kerry 2-09 2008 National League Final report". RTÉ. Archived from the original on 30 April 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  13. "Derry 2-13 Kerry 2-09 2008 National League Final report - Derry GAA website". Derry GAA website. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  14. "Monaghan 1-13 1-12 Derry - Match report (BBC)". BBC Sport Online. 19 July 2008. Retrieved 7 October 2008.
  15. "Donegal 1-12 Derry 1-14 - Match report". RTÉ. 1 June 2008. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2008.
  16. "Fermanagh 1-11 Derry 1-09 - Match report". RTÉ. 21 June 2008. Archived from the original on 1 September 2009. Retrieved 2 September 2008.
  17. "Monaghan 1-13 Derry 1-12 - Match report (RTÉ)". RTÉ. 19 July 2008. Retrieved 2 September 2008.
  18. Heaney, Paddy (24 September 2008). "Kennelly and Clarke Ruled out of series". The Irish News. p. 68. Archived from the original on 22 January 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
  19. "Ireland squad has nine Ulstermen". BBC Sport Online. 7 October 2008. Retrieved 20 October 2008.
  20. "Derry line-ups 2005". Derry GAA website. Archived from the original on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2008.
Gaelic games
Preceded by
Kevin McGuckin		 Derry senior
football captain
2007		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
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