KILLYCLOGHER’s veteran defender Dermot Carlin was still only a teenager when he played in his part in two historic successes for both club and county.
As a 19-year-old in 2003 he was a member of the first Tyrone side to win the All-Ireland at senior level – and his charmed existence continued less than a month later when Killyclogher shocked the then Ulster Champions Errigal Ciaran to claim what remains their only O’Neill Cup success.
Championship glory at club – if not county – level dried up for Carlin in the intervening years. However, three months after making an ‘agonising’ decision to retire from intercounty football, his club Killyclogher will take their place in the county’s showpiece event for the first time since the heady days of 2003.
The mid-Tyrone club square off on Sunday against Trillick St McCartan’s, but Carlin, who saw the line for a second yellow in the semi-final, admits breathing a heavy sigh of relief as his teammates survived a frantic finish against a characteristically tenacious Dromore outfit a week and a half ago.
“It wasn’t easy for me watching from the bench at that stage but we held on and no more, we were very lucky – they showed their experience in the second half, they dropped men back and hit us on the counter.
“Who knows what would have happened if the game had have gone on another five minutes. Dromore were in the ascendancy, and we were just relieved to over the line more than anything else.”
Proponents of reducing the sport to a 13-a-side game saw a possible vision of the future at Healy Park, with referee Eamonn McHugh sending off two players from both teams. In the final count McHugh flashed 20 cards but Carlin believes that eye-raising statistic didn’t reflect the true nature of the match.
“I don’t think it was a dirty game, I’ve watched a bit of it back already, some of the yellows on another day wouldn’t have been given, and the ref is always going to try to even it up a bit after sending two [Dromore] men off,” he said.
Either way, Killyclogher turned in a particularly impressive performance against St Dympna's, racing into a 0-10 to 0-4 lead at half-time. While it would be remiss not to acknowledge Killyclogher’s range of scoring options, Carlin recognises the huge potential of Tyrone's Mark Bradley, who kicked three points off his intercounty teammate Cathal McCarron.
“Mark is probably one of the top players in Tyrone at the moment, the likes of himself and young [Lee] Brennan for Trillick, the two of them are the next big thing.
“He’s actually from Mountfield – he’d had injuries in the past, he’s exciting to watch but he comes in for a lot of abuse, he’s small and gets pulled a lot off the ball.”
Killyclogher aren’t reliant on their youthful talisman either – nine of the starting 15 found their range against Dromore and their accuracy in front of the posts has been a notable feature of their run to the final. The scores became increasingly hard to come by as Dromore mounted a late comeback, but Carlin believes their approach ultimately aided the opposition.
“We should’ve sat back – we still tried to attack and Dromore brought everybody behind the ball. We played into their hands, carrying the ball out to the half-way line instead of playing it safer and making Dromore come to us.
"At the end of the day we were winning, Dromore had to come out and get the ball so we should've tried to draw them in a bit, but it’s something to work on for the next day.”
Standing in their way in the final are Dromore’s neighbours, Trillick. Newly promoted to Division 1, they haven’t arrived at this juncture by accident. Mattie Donnelly needs no introduction and not long after kicking 1-10 against Dungannon in June 19-year-old Lee Brennan was called up to the Tyrone panel.
Carlin witnessed Brennan’s scoring feats first-hand as he contributed 0-6 to Trillick’s unexpected semi-final rout of Coalisland on September 27.
"I travelled up to the match and a lot of people were saying they expected Coalisland to come out on top but Trillick are a great side with Mattie and Richie Donnelly and the Brennans [Lee and older brother Rory] in the spine of their team, and you’ve still got Niall Donnelly who was a good player for Tyrone in his day.
“It was a great performance, we faltered at half-time in our semi-final but Trillick didn’t let up, they dominated midfield and they’ll take a lot of watching from our side.”
