Full circle for Errigal manager Enda

ENDA McGinley and county final day. A match made in heaven? Well, he’s certainly featured in his fair share of them.

The Errigal Ciaran boss lined out in a whopping eight Tyrone Senior Championship finals during his playing days – four victories, two defeats and two draws speaks to a man accustomed to the big day.

Indeed, one of his proudest moments came at the tail-end of an illustrious career across club and county, captaining Errigal Ciaran to the 2012 O’Neill Cup with victory over Dromore.

Also involved that day were present-day players Peter Harte, Tommy Canavan, Aidan McRory and Ciaran McGinley.

Enda himself has long since hung up the boots but his passion for the game and love of his home club meant he was never going to cut the apron strings, and he’s struck up an effective partnership on the managerial front with Stevie Quinn, another former teammate.

They worked alongside each other in a two-year spell in charge of the Antrim footballers between 2021-2022, and they also helped Swatragh to a third-placed finish in the league during a stint in charge of the Derry club in years previous.

McGinley and Quinn were also at the coalface of a hugely successful period at the Errigal Ciaran minor team that won back-to-back Grade One Championships in 2017 and 2018.

Many of the players involved are now mainstays of the senior side, including Darragh Canavan, Joe Oguz, Cormac Quinn and Peter Og Macartan.

So in a sense it’s all come full circle for Enda, who’s determined not to get bogged down in the stress of it all ahead of the blue ribbon event this Sunday.

“Look, county finals are brilliant occasions and that’s something we spoke about before the semi-final.

“They are serious occasions to be part of, and we fully intend on enjoying it. They’re a very special moment in a player’s life, you build up to that performance on the day itself and you believe in yourself and what you can do. We know we’re up against it but we can’t wait.”

It hasn’t been a straightforward path to the final but McGinley says that it’s just one of those facts of life that the Tyrone Senior Championship is littered with potential pitfalls. They were taken to a replay by Clonoe in the quarters and needed a last-gasp winning point from Peter Harte on their last day out to see off Killyclogher, but that’s just the nature of the beast.

“If you look at the entire run from Pomeroy in the first-round onwards, we’ve been tested by all the teams we’ve faced.

“The quality throughout the Tyrone Championship is just serious. I’m involved with my young cubs at U10s, U12s and U14s and you see the effort that every single club is putting in.

“It leaves you with a huge sense of pride when you see how we’ve come through our previous matches, its so hard-fought.

“It hasn’t been in any way comfortable but we’re just glad to have progressed. Killyclogher was a tough one, so was Clonoe and Pomeroy wasn’t exactly comfortable for us on the first day out either.”

And it doesn’t get any easier. Reigning champions Trillick stand in their way of a second O’Neill Cup title in three years and it promises to be one hell of a contest on Sunday afternoon. It’s a repeat of last year’s final pairing which Trillick edged after extra-time and they come into Sunday’s game on the back of a resounding victory over Dungannon Clarkes.

McGinley said: “Usually my role is to build up the opposition and play down our chances but Trillick spoke for themselves pretty loudly against Dungannon and spoke for themselves last year as county champions as well. But we put it to the boys before the Killyclogher game is it worth getting to the final because Trillick’s there, and the boys were unanimous that they wanted to get over the semi-final to give it a go.”