Galbally’s Rafferty can’t wait for derby duel

SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST ROUND

GALBALLY joint-captain Liam Rafferty is counting down the days to their eagerly anticipated Senior Championship first-round clash against Parish neighbours Donaghmore.

Describing the prospect of Sunday evening’s battle royale at O’Neill Park as ‘brilliant’, this is the type of blockbuster meeting that makes the Tyrone Senior Championship so special.

It’s a game that will need no hyping up in either camp between two sets of players who know each other inside out.

Donaghmore ended Galbally’s unbeaten record in the league at a time when the Pearses were flying high at the top of the table but that result will have no bearing on this encounter in Dungannon.

Galbally wing half-back Liam Rafferty, who was a member of the Tyrone All Ireland winning squad of 2021, is clearly looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead.

“It’s brilliant you know,” said Liam.

“Dungannon under lights on Sunday evening against Donaghmore, our Parish rivals. It’s not going to be hard to get up for that game.

” We have a few niggles but as you know yourself they always seem to disappear as the championship approaches and this will be no different. We will aim to have everybody back on the field and get a few good training sessions under our belts and be ready for Donaghmore.”

The Pearses were unbeaten in the league after eight games but their form then dipped and it wasn’t until the last game against Killyclogher that they returned to winning ways.

Liam admits that it was a tough schedule of games, with seven outings in August alone all against some of the leading teams in the County.

“We were very happy with the start of the league, it went well and we got a few big wins,” he said.

“We then picked up a few knocks and the games were coming thick and fast with two games a week sometimes so you had to manage players.

“We had to look at that schedule and the target was to try and have everybody right for the championship as we were safe in the league. The same 17, 18 or 19 men couldn’t play all of those games so we had to rest a few.

“We learnt from last year as we went hell for leather in a lot of the league games and we ended up that we weren’t right coming into the championship.”

While the second half of the league didn’t quite to go plan in terms of results, Rafferty says the scorelines didn’t always reflect their actual performances.

“The preparation was all about being ready and at the same time gaining confidence from good performances and we have had a couple of good displays lately. At times we perhaps didn’t get the result but we did put in good performances and we are hoping to have got our confidence back from that.

“Our last home game against Loughmacrory was disappointing as we had put in a good performance and the final scoreline didn’t reflect that. There were aspects of that game that were good for us but there were also a lot of things that we can learn from it.

“Loughmacrory are a top team as are the sides that we have played recently such as Donaghmore, Trillick, Errigal Ciaran and Dungannon, they are all top Senior clubs. It was a tough few weeks but hopefully it will stand to us this weekend.”