Hectic schedule ahead of Championship not ideal-McGinley

THERE’S a frantic race to the finish line with the Championship just around the corner, and Errigal Ciaran joint-manager Enda McGinley believes that the demanding run of fixtures is a ‘far from ideal’ situation for all the teams that are finalising their championship preparations.

Last night’s (Wednesday) derby tussle against Carrickmore marked Errigal Ciaran’s fourth league outing in less than a fortnight and McGinley says he’s acutely conscious of ensuring that his players aren’t overburdened ahead of their forthcoming senior championship first-round clash against Pomeroy in a fortnight’s time.

Whoever happens to emerge with the O’Neill Cup will be pitted in an Ulster Championship preliminary round, while replays have been reinstated in all rounds in Tyrone, so McGinley is understanding of the thought process behind bringing the Senior Championship forward a full fortnight from last year.

“It’s immensely tough for all the players, just in terms of the energy levels it takes to repeatedly do that, the injury count will be notable for all squads coming in, so it’s very tough,” he said.

“It’s probably far from ideal but in general I think the fixtures schedule works really well in Tyrone. It’s probably particularly condensed this year, I think championship has been brought forward a wee bit so it’s exceptionally tough for all panels to try to manage it, you just have to manage it as best you can.”

McGinley, who manages the team with Stephen Quinn, has also issued an update on the fitness of Cormac Quinn, who enjoyed a breakout season with Tyrone in 2023. The talented half-back has sat out his club’s league campaign with a groin injury and McGinley believes that their championship opener against Pomeroy will in all likelihood come too soon for the former Tyrone U20 captain.

“He hasn’t [played club this year], he came back from the county and then had surgery. He’s making his way back, he’s doing some running work at the minute. The first-round is probably going to be too soon for him but we’ll see. He recovered really well from a similar injury – well a slightly different injury but a similar circumstance last year, but certainly if he’s available at all he’d be very useful to have.”

McGinley was speaking after Saturday afternoon’s drawn encounter against Dromore, a game where Errigal Ciaran didn’t fire on all cylinders but secured a draw nonetheless thanks to a cracking late goal from Ruairi Canavan.

Ruairi’s brother Darragh was held in reserve in the first-half, while Joe Oguz, who has struggled with injury this year, gained some precious game-time late in proceedings. Errigal round off a hugely productive league campaign this Sunday against Killyclogher, another in-form team, but for McGinley, the big priority is their forthcoming championship campaign.

“I suppose points are secondary, we’re three weeks out from playing Pomeroy in the championship and that’s the focus at the minute.”

“We’re probably seven or eight lads down but Dromore probably would have been the same, and we’ve a strong panel thankfully.

“It’s been stretched because there’s reserve championships on at the minute, but it is about managing boys’ game-time, giving them game-time but not too much game-time. If anybody has niggles you’re having to be careful because you don’t have time for boys to get a bigger injury and still have them back for championship. I think for all the top teams it’s a tough spell at the minute.”