Passage of time has Conall savouring Sunday even more

GIVEN the giddy exuberance of youth Conall Monaghan could have been forgiven for thinking that County Final appearances for his beloved Killeeshil would come around all the time.

Back in 2013 the then seventeen year old was already one of the pivotal figures in his side as the St Mary’s, managed by Seamus McCallan, accounted for Loughmacrory 1-8 to 1-6 to secure the Junior Championship title.

With Kevin ‘Hub’ Hughes spearheading their glory assault Killeeshil then embarked on a superb provincial campaign, only to come up short against Emyvale in the Ulster Final.

However in the subsequent decade the bells have fallen silent. Yes there has been a Division There league title in the intervening period, when Conall Monaghan captained the side, but on the Championship front there has been nothing to write home about.

Little wonder then that Conall is savouring the build-up to Sunday’s Junior Final showdown with neighbours Aghaloo at O’Neill’s Healy Park.

“ The two Reillys, myself Bernard (O’Neill) and Packie (McMullan), probably that is all remaining from that (2013) team. We are the old hands now.

“ I was seventeen at the time, Seamie McCallan was taking us. I probably took it for granted a bit looking back

“ You think Finals are going to come around every year or so and I have learnt that definitely isn’t the case. I have had a lot of dark days in the jersey don’t get me wrong so you need to relish these occasions when you get to a County Final.”

Twelve, seven and eight point victories in their three respective Championship outings to date suggest that Killeeshil are a team on a mission in 2024, though Monaghan insists that their mentality still had to be spot on despite being raging hot favourites in several of those contests. He also appreciates that Aghaloo will represent another significant step up.

“ You still have to go out and do the job. But you have to be on your guard because there is always an upset somewhere in Tyrone football in the Championship.

“ Aghaloo has some serious players and were probably a bit unlucky not to go up already by winning the league.

“ They beat us by two points in the league. They are a very well coached side. I would be very friendly with their manager and I’m sure they will be very well prepared for us, but Lorcan and Gary will have us the same.

“ They have been there or thereabouts this last couple of years and maybe should have got over the line in terms of promotion before now. But they will hope to learn from those defeats and put it right next Sunday.”

Killeeshil booked their passage through to a first Championship decider in eleven seasons with a workmanlike 0-13 to 0-5 victory over Strabane in the semi-finals. Conall revealed that past failures at that stage in the competition ensured the team were on their guard.

“ It’s a cliché I know but semi-finals are all about just getting over the line. We beat Strabane in the league but we knew looking at out past records in the Championship we had been in three semi-finals since we last won the Championship and lost to a team who we had beaten in the League earlier in the season in every one, so we definitely weren’t taking Strabane for granted.

“ We went out knowing we wanted to put that stat to bed. There was no fist pumping done at the end of that game. Who remembers who was in the semi-final or lost the final last year. You only remember the winners and that is top of our minds. All you can do is take it one game at a time especially in the Tyrone Championship. We have one more to go.”

Monaghan was pleased at the manner in which Killeeshil made the elements work in their favour in both of their most recent games, as they sought to build up a first half cushion.

“ In both the quarter-final and semi-final we had the wind in our favour in the first half and we wanted to take full advantage and make our opponents face a big deficit to make up. If these teams like Strabane and Drumquin get on top of you they are very hard to shake so we knew that we had to get off to a good start.

“ We did that in both games though we didn’t really play our best football but we got the scores when we needed them and got the right men in shooting positions.

“We have plenty to work on though don’t get me wrong.”