Pulsating derby duel goes the way of Donaghmore

TYRONE SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST ROUND

Donaghmore 3-24 Galbally 1-24

By Niall Gartland

AN outrageously entertaining spectacle. A grand total of 4-48 across the hour, three miserly wides, a boisterous atmosphere at O’Neill Park, and that’s without digging into into the game’s wider significance – the big parish derby and a stunning win for an up and coming Donaghmore side.

Cast your mind back to a memorable Wednesday evening at the Athletic Grounds at the tail-end of May. Four talented young Donaghmore lads were among the leading protagonists as Tyrone retained their All-Ireland U20 title in style against Louth.

Joey Clarke was captain, Noah Grimes had an absolute field-day up front and pocketed the Man of the Match award, Conor O’Neill starred in the middle sector (and was subsequently drafted into Malachy O’Rourke’s senior set-up) while Ben Hughes was typically assured in fulfilling his duties in the full-back line.

And that’s without delving into the Donaghmore influence on last year’s All-Ireland U20 success – it was a similar enough story. And all the underage club titles…to trot out just one statistic, they became the first ever team from the county to win three successive Tyrone Minor Championship titles when they bettered Cookstown in the 2023 showdown.

So where will it all lead? Can they break into that inner circle of clubs setting their sights on the O’Neill Cup on a yearly basis? It’s still far too early to say, and they face a massive test of their ambitions against a equally ambitious Loughmacrory team in the last-eight, but by golly did they give punters their money’s worth on Sunday. And to be fair, so did Galbally – it takes two teams to make a classic and this was more than worthy of that particular moniker.

Trailing by 1-11 to 0-3 with 20 minutes on the clock, Donaghmore hadn’t come to the party. Galbally, by contrast, were rampant. Four two-pointers (from four different players) and a fine goal from Darragh Donaghy opened up a lead that bordered on the insurmountable, but that’s where it all went a bit haywire for the Pearses.

Noah Grimes, who didn’t exactly have much to aim at, aimed a wicked shot to the far corner of the net after a beautiful ball from Ronan Cassidy.

It was more than a lifeline – it instigated ten minutes of almost total supremacy where Donaghmore lorded the skies in the middle and the scores duly followed.

Cassidy nailed a two-pointer while the influential Conor Cush added to his points tally with the goal at his mercy. Daniel Kerr, who had an outstanding first-half, beifly put a halt to Donaghmore’s momentum with a crowd-pleasing score, but Donaghmore struck for 1-2 in the space of four minutes to leave it all square on the scoreboard at half-time.

Their second goal, by the way, came from Tyrone’s All-Ireland winning captain Joey Clarke, who drove forward from centre-half back at every available opportunity.

Galbally had been excellent in every respect for the opening 20 minutes and almost found themselves out of sight, but they were back to square one. A draw it may have at half-time but psychologically, it was advantage Donaghmore.

Scorers

Donaghmore: Noah Grimes (1-5), Joey Clarke (1-1), Ryan Cush (0-3), Conor Cush (0-5), Ronan Cassidy (1-4, 1f), Feargal Donnelly (0-5, 1 2pt, 1 2pt f1f), Ronan Donnelly (0-1)

Galbally: Darragh Donaghy (1-1), Ronan Nugent (0-4, 2 2pt), Enda McGarrity (0-2, 1 2pt), Cormac Donnelly (0-2, 1 2pt), Daniel Kerr (0-5, 1 2pt, 2f), Eoin O’Neill (0-2, 1f), Mark Donnelly (0-3), Liam Rafferty (0-4, 2 2pt)

Teams

Donaghmore: Cormac McCartan, Ronan Donnelly, Paul McCann, Dermot McCann, James McCann, Joey Clarke, Sean Donaghy, Thomas McGuigan, Tom Grimes, Feargal Donaghy, Ronan Cassidy, Ryan Cush, Cormac McCann, Conor Cush, Noah Grimes. Subs: Peter McKenna for Donaghy, John McKenna for McGuigan

Galbally: Ronan McGeary, Fergal McGarrity, Conor Quinn, Conor Donnelly, John Hetherington, Christopher Morris, Liam Rafferty, Cormac Donnelly, Enda McGarrity, Oisin McGee, Ronan Nugent, Joe Corrigan, Eoin O’Neill, Daniel Kerr, Darragh Donaghy. Subs: Mark Donnelly for O’Neill, Aidan Carberry for Conor Donnelly, Sean Hughes for McGee, Sean Murphy for Corrigan

Referee: Kieran Eanetta (Omagh)