Carrickmore league winning captain welcomes ACL revamp

CARRICKMORE’S league winning captain Rory Donnelly has welcomed the Tyrone County Board’s aims to all but complete the ACL programme this season before the Championship.

A youthful Carmen side lay claim to the Division One title prior to Christmas in 2021, when beating Errigal Ciaran in a winner-takes-all showdown, but the fixture makers in the Couny are striving to get the League wrapped up earlier this year.

With the inter-county programme due to be finished by mid-summer, in theory there should be a much wider window in which to run off the bulk of the league games in Tyrone, ahead of the much anticipated O’Neill Cup series taking centre stage.

And Queen’s University student Donnelly, who had the honour of raising aloft the Brendan Dolan Trophy a few months ago, believes the schedule revamp can only boost the stature of the league.

” Using last year as an example we had something still to play for after we were knocked out of the Championship but for many teams they just had dead rubber games. You don’t want that in the league. You want it to be as competitive as possible. So if they can play all the league games before the Championship it makes perfect sense. Hopefully they will be able to stick to that.”

Donnelly stated that the build-up to week one in the League was always guaranteed to crank up the intensity and focus of club training sessions across the County

” It’s an exciting time of the year when the league starts up again. There is always a great buzz in and around training.

“When you come into pre-season this is the date that all players look forward to. You want to get back out and to get playing games. You even see in our own training when the fixtures are released everything just goes up a notch. It gives you something to concentrate on.”

St Colmcille’s begin the defence of their league title against reiging County champions Dromore this Friday evening. It’s the type of stern examination which Donnelly believes will provide an accurate guage of where his side stand in terms of preparations at the outset of the campaign.

” At the start of the year you can only win two competitions in Tyrone so while the Championship is the biggie the League is still a big target as well. I suppose time will tell how much we have progressed since that league win. It gave the club great excitement and showed that we might have a bright future. So we will be going at it hard again this year.

” We have Dromore first up and that’s the type of test you want to have early on to see where you stand in terms of fitness and preparation. The boys are all looking forward to that first game.”

Carrickmore’s fortunes are again being guided this year by club stalwarts Ryan Daly and Noel Hurson, and Rory Donnelly insists that the management will continue to give youth its fling, as worked so succesfully last year in the league.

” There will probably be one or two coming through but last year’s team was quite young anyway, with a lot of under-21s pushing through, so it’s all about building up experience. Boys who might not have got many minutes last year will be looking to breakthrough. But that is what you want competition.

” We have been building with them (managers) for a few years now. Hopefully we will take more strides forward and go on and challenge again this season. It’s all about progression.”

Donnelly was rewarded for his excellent showings in the Carrickmore jersey last season when called up to the Tyrone senior squad. It’s an experience which he has throughly enjoyed, though the downside is that he must sit out club starred games rounds.

” After the League Final which we won there was a few boys called up and there was a cut around the end of January, start of February.

“ It’s a different environment to be in but that is where you want to be. It’s very enjoyable. You just have to work hard and try and make an impact, if not now then for future years. You are training with the best of the best.

“That is who you should be striving to match in terms of standards and hunger. It’s a real eye opener to see what is needed at the top level.”