By 
ALL-IRELAND INTERMEDIATE HURLING CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINAL
A SEASON of real progress came to an end for the Carrickmore Eire Ogs within reach of an historic Croke Park appearance that will now remain a major motivating factor as they bid to build on their important 2025 successes.
Their hopes of progressing to the All-Ireland Final were halted at this penultimate stage in Cavan on Sunday. The 1-28 to 1-17 loss only came during the final stages of the clash and certasinly didn’t reflect the huge level of effort produced by the Eire Ogs.
Defeat in this clash marked the end of the Tyrone GAA season for this year. With Carrickmore exiting the club title race, the county’s hopes of further glory in 2026 now rest on the shoulders of the Clogher Eire Ogs footballers.
But for now, the Carrickmore team manager, Adrian Slane, was full of praise for the efforts of the entire panel. He believes the experience of progressing to this All-Ireland semi-final can act as a stepping stone to future progress in the years ahead.
“I’m bitterly disappointed by the result to be honest, but also very proud of the 35 players that we have in the panel.
“No-one gave an inch in this game today, but when you see a sideline cut going over for them from 35 yards then you kind of know it wasn’t going to be our day,” he said.
“This was our first crack at an All-Ireland and hopefully it won’t be our last.
“We came out, put our best foot forward and tried as hard as we could. But some of the scores weren’t working out for us at times.
“In fairness to Tooreen, they have good hurlers. We matched them in the first half, but then in the second half they got a purple patch and we couldn’t get them stopped. There were fresh legs introduced at stages and unfortunately things just didn’t work out.”
Victory for the sixth year running in the Tyrone championship earned the Eire Ogs a place in the provincial campaign. There, they made history by becoming the first team from the county to win an Intermediate title.
It marked the culmination of many years of effort by successive generations of both players and managers. They entered Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final with real hope of getting to Croke Park. However, it was Tooreen, who have played in the All-Ireland final before, who held the aces when it mattered.
“This was bonus territory for us in fairness. Our goal was to win the Ulster title and that was what we achieved. Anything past Ulster was going to be great and here we were 30 minutes from Croke Park and that was where the players and managers really wanted to be.
“This team has had some tight battles the whole way through. Every day out was a tussle, and there was nothing easy. A last minute goal won the county final for us, and it was tight against Glenarrife, St Eunan’s and Lisbellaw.
“Maybe the impact of those games was evident in a little bit of fatigue here. But we live to fight another day.
“There were five or six Minors with us today, this is where you want to be playing at this level and the experience will stand to them. We will be back again.”
