RORY BRENNAN has run out of superlatives to describe six crazy months that have transformed his life.
An All-Ireland U21 title was followed by a call-up to the Tyrone senior squad and a roller-coaster run to the All-Ireland semi-final. Now, he has added a senior championship triumph with his club to the cascade of honours, and he’s not finished yet.
“It’s been unbelievable, it’s difficult to put it into words. It’s been a good year from the start,” said Brenan, who helped newly promoted Trillick to the Tyrone SFC crown last Sunday.
Victory over Tipperary in a thrilling U21 decider at Parnell Park last May provided Brennan with his first major success. It’s one he continues to savour, but his involvement in Trillick’s renaissance ranks as his proudest moment.
“It has to be club, it has to be boys that you’ve grown up with, from U8s, U10s, boys that you train every week with. It’s been unbelievable to do it with friends and family. We’re just a band of brothers and we’re so happy that we were able to do it together. We really put the shoulder to the wheel this year and came out on top.”
A heavy defeat in last year’s Intermediate Championship final was a key motivating factor. They also slipped up in the Division Two league, but managed to gain promotion through the play-offs.
The players knew they had failed to do themselves justice and set themselves a challenge that would see them realise the immense potential that exists within a talented and tightly-knit squad.
“The boys got together after the defeat in the county final [IFC] last year," said Brennan.
"We were a bit heartbroken after that and we said that Trillick deserved to be back in Division One and that we could challenge for the league, to be in the top four in that league, and that we could challenge for the championship. And we put our words into motion and got the thing going well this year.”
A novel pairing emerged to contest this year’s county final. Neither Killyclogher or Trillick were among the title favourites at the beginning of the campaign, but both teams got there purely on merit, claiming big scalps on the way.
“Neither team, Killyclogher or ourselves, would have been near favourites to get into the final, but we proved everyone wrong," Brennan added.
“I suppose you could say that, with the way the draw worked out, people could have seen it.”
Brennan and Tiernán McCann, both renowned for their piercing runs from deep, found themselves in direct opposition at Healy Park, each given a brief to track the other.
“Tiernán is a great player. He’s one of their strongest players and we knew he was going to cause us bother with his pace from deep," Brennan said.
“Conall [McCann] as well and wee Mark [Bradley] inside, we knew we were going to have to cut off that early ball inside. I tried to get myself into positions to try and cut out that early ball, but you could have two or three men on that wee Bradley and he’d still get away.”
Crucially, however, Brennan made one surging run count inside the opening minute of the game. He appeared on Richie Donnelly’s shoulder to set up a sensational goal for younger brother Lee after just 13 seconds.
“We caught them cold at the start. I suppose they weren’t expecting us to hit them with such a bang. And it stood to us in the end, that early goal," he said.
“We had a difficult patch coming in to the last 10 minutes of the first half. We had a couple of mistakes, I think the nerves actually started to show later in the first half.”
Younger brother Lee finished with 1-4, bringing his championship total to 2-27, running away with the Patsy Forbes Top Scorer trophy with 19 points to spare.
“He always comes to the fore when you need him. Throughout the U21 campaign too, he has been on top form throughout the year," Rory said.
“He’s just a blessing, he’s such a talent and words can’t describe how much he means to the team.”
And with an Ulster Club Championship clash on the horizon against the Donegal champions, more exciting times lie ahead for Trillick.
“We’ll go on now to the Ulster Club, but we’ll take it as it comes, enjoy ourselves a bit first and then get back to work in the middle of the week.”
