Brennan embracing the Red Hand journey

RORY Brennan has an enviable collection of medals for show for a successful playing career spanning both club and county, but he refuses to stand still and is only too happy to learn from Malachy O’Rourke and his management team.

The vastly experienced Trillick defender has returned to the intercounty set-up this season and it didn’t take long to re-establish himself as a steady starting member in the heart of the Tyrone rearguard.

A player of exceptional intelligence who knows exactly what is going on around him amid the apparent bedlam of high-stakes championship football, Rory says that he’s still learning more and more about his trade with every passing week, and now he’s hoping it all comes to fruition for the team in Saturday’s mouth-watering All-Ireland semi-final tie against the men from Kerry.

“You’re learning with every training session you get with the lads, and we feel we’re ticking along nicely and we’re looking forward to it.

“We’re looking for that consistency of performance – we were up against Donegal, dipped against Mayo and then got ourselves up for the Cavan game before beating Dublin.

“So that was two good performances in a row, and hopefully we can build on that again.”

By the same token, Brennan wasn’t uncritical of their quarter-final victory over the Dubs, as deserved and all as it was. He says neither team hit the heights of which they’re capable in a cagey first-half, but it was Tyrone who seized the initiative when the game was there to be won, spurred on by their impressive array of subs.

“I thought we did well in the second-half and we got a great impact from our bench.

“Our tenacity in the tackle was good, we got a few turnovers, and I think the injection of pace into our forward line got us over the line.

“Croke Park feels differently than any other pitch, it feels like you have a bit more space but I thought we made hard work of it at times but when we started to win turnovers in the second half, I think we broke well up the pitch and got the scores.

“I think we got four or five points off our bench and to have fresh legs coming in at that stage of the game is important – I think the bench probably won the game for us in the end.”

It was Tyrone’s first win over Dublin of any description in championship football since that day in the rain back in 2008, a formidable win over the Dubs paving the way for a memorable run to a third All-Ireland title in six years.

It was satisfying to end their 17-year wait but it’s now been well and truly parked as Saturday’s crunch tie with Kerry comes into view.

“Dublin are a serious outfit and they’re very hard to put away. We knew we’d have to put in a good performance and while it wasn’t perfect, any day you beat the Dubs is a good day.

“We’re happy to come out on the right side of it, we got the result in the end and hopefully we can build on it.”