TRILLICK are “ambitious” about the idea of fixing the inexplicable record of Tyrone clubs in the Ulster series, according to midfield talisman Richie Donnelly.
Despite the strength in depth of Tyrone football and its place as one of the elite club championships in Ireland, only Errigal Ciaran (twice) have ever won the provincial crown.
Trillick’s previous attempt saw them beat the Glenties before falling two points short of Scotstown in the semi-final four years ago.
With a handful of inter-county stars at their disposal, they are coming off the back of an impressive run past three of their nearest rivals and they’ll have had three weeks’ rest by the time they face Derrygonnelly next weekend.
“I’m not sure as to the reasons [for Tyrone clubs’ poor record]. We’ve only been there once with this group of players, I can’t really speak of any other club,” said Donnelly.
“But our minds are definitely on the next phase, the next round. We’re very ambitious. We’ve worked hard so we’ll definitely give it a good lash.”
They had won the Tyrone title in 2015 but in the years since, their reliance on their inter-county stars had been that bit heavier.
Donnelly saw the evidence of the work the rest of the panel were doing in the form of an upturn in results in starred games this year.
“It’s unbelievable testament to every player and our management team. They’ve put in huge work and the standards, the levels at training whenever we’re not there, it’s really brought us on.
“You can see that in our starred games, the last three or four years, our results have started to turn in them.
“That’s testament to the work the boys are doing themselves individually, and the way they’re driving it at training.
“You see the benefit of it, we don’t rely on any one player, we’ve a good balance and we all know our roles.”
Despite injury troubles during the summer, Richie Donnelly played in two-thirds of Tyrone’s 22 games in 2019. His brother Mattie played in them all, while Rory Brennan was virtually ever-present as well.
Clubs with heavy representation on county panels don’t always thrive in the autumn but Trillick have looked fresh and sharp, and have been led by their inter-county trio, all of whom had great campaigns in the Tyrone championship.
“It’s definitely a lot of football but you can look at it in the way that you’ve a lot of football under the belt and that can only be a good thing. It prepares you well for club championship.
“When you come back into the club setup from the county scene, it’s a mindset more than anything. I know a lot of county players reference it as draining and you’ve no energy to give, but that’s certainly not the case with us.
“We’re back the first night at training after Tyrone finish up and it’s only a good thing. We can’t wait to get back in with the boys and prepare, and it’s paid off.”
Their county final win over Errigal Ciaran was more evidence that they have been a second half team of late. In much the same manner as their semi-final win over Coalisland, it was a case of figuring the game out and then going and winning it.
“The thing with knockout games is it’s important you’re not out of them at half-time, and we go out thinking of that,” says Donnelly.
“But we still go and play what’s in front of us and to win the game. Errigal were very well organised and nearly forced us to play like that, but we did review it at half-time and pushing Mattie up inside gave us that focal point.
“It made them back off into that territory and it gave us a release then, our runners could get off him. Knockout games, it’s just important you’re in them at half-time. The third quarter’s the big quarter.”
