Reds ‘Jib’ ready to tackle the champs

THE Tyrone Senior Championship final is only ten days away so it’s full steam ahead for this year’s finalists Errigal Ciaran and Trillick.

Defending champions Errigal are bidding to become the first team in nearly twenty years to complete the back-the-back in Tyrone, and on the evidence of their devastating semi-final performance over Ardboe, they’ll be quietly confident of doing so. 1-14 to 0-3 at the half-time interval, it was scintillating stuff from the champions.

But Trillick likewise will have an expectation of getting their hands on the O’Neill Cup. They have navigated a memorable journey to this year’s final culminating in a magnificent all-round team display against Dungannon Clarkes last Friday night.

It’s a repeat of the 2019 final pairing which Trillick won on a scoreline of 0-12 to 2-4. Four years have passed in the meantime but Niall ‘Jib’ Donnelly seems to defy age (he’s now 38) with a performance of boundless energy against Dungannon.

Trillick ran out 2-11 to 1-9 victors on the night and they were full value for it as they virtually shut down the Dungannon attack, something easier said than done.

Speaking after the game, Donnelly said: “Everything we worked on seemed to click for us and I think our fitness levels told. We’d men running and putting in tackles, diving on the ball, right up to the final whistle. You couldn’t fault any player for the effort they put in.”

The 2015 and 2019 champions have had some disappointing days out in more recent championship campaigns. They lost to rivals Dromore in a high quality semi-final clash in 2021 before falling to a disappointing defeat to Dungannon in the first-round last year. Donnelly says they knew what needed to be done.

“We looked at all those matches and tried to knuckle down defensively and make ourselves difficult to beat.

“We let in a couple of goals against Dungannon last year, so we’ve tried to sort out the basics. We conceded one goal this time around against Dungannon but we got two ourselves and goals win games.”

It’s been a memorable journey already for Trillick, who are now on the cusp of a ninth ever Senior Championship title. They were pushed to the hilt in their first two matches against Loughmacrory and Edendork respectively but they seem to be getting better with every game.

“We’ve been challenged in every game and it could easily have been Loughmacrory or Edendork in the semi-final.

“We learnt a lot from the Loughmacrory game, they’re probably the most structured team in Tyrone. Edendork have three or four of the top players in Ireland never mind Tyrone. Then Dungannon have everything and they’re our old nemesis, no matter what we did we couldn’t seem to beat them, so we’re delighted to be through to the final.”