Mossey hoping for another memorable day at Croke Park

LIAM Og Mossey is hoping to once again savour that winning feeling in Saturday’s Hogan Cup showdown against Kerry side Mercy Mounthawk.

The Gortin lad has two MacRory Cup medals in his back-pocket and he’s hoping to add a second medal at national level to the collection this weekend.

He has warm memories of last year’s final as Omagh CBS made mincemeat of Summerhill College, racking up 3-8 in each half in a phenomenal all-round team performance from the school.

Liam Og contributed 1-1 that day and he hopes that the experience of last year will stand to the Brothers as they aim to become the first ever Tyrone school to retain the illustrious All-Ireland ‘A’ title.

Looking back on last year, he said: “It was surreal, I never thought we’d get into a Hogan Final and we ended up winning it, it was an amazing experience.

“The team played so well that day. We seemed to get better and better with every game and it all came together, 6-16 was unbelievable scoring.”

Mossey is one of six starting members of last year’s team still lining out for Omagh CBS, and that experience has surely stood to them in another wildly successful campaign for the school.

“We’ve been here before. We have a lot of really good players who know what they’re doing.

“The likes of Callum Daly, Ruairi McCullagh and Nathan Farry have so much experience already of high-level football and in the crucial moments they know what to do to pull us out of a hole.”

Mossey likewise has shown himself to be a clutch player, scoring four second-half points in a closely fought MacRory Cup final against St Patrick’s Academy.

He was a contender for man of the match ins a starring individual performance.

“I’d a poor enough first half to be honest but things opened up in the second-half and I started hitting a few scores.

“A lot of it was down to the hard work of my teammates, they put the ball on a plate for me. ‘Rooster’ [Ruairi McCullagh] and Paudi Dillon are class players. Paudi probably isn’t as well known but he’s brilliant and showed it in the Hogan Cup semi-final, he scored 1-4 and his goal was unbelievable.”

Liam Og is a clubmate of manager Diarmaid McNulty, a talented forward who was unfortunately forced into early retirement after suffering a number of concussions.

“I know Diarmaid very well and I’ve heard plenty of stories about what a good footballer he was.

“ He was two-footed and played on the Tyrone team that won the All-Ireland title in 2008.

“It’s very unfortunate that he had to give it up, I couldn’t imagine that personally. Football is everything for me right now, so it’s a shame that Diarmaid had to stop playing at a young age.

“We’re very lucky to have him.”