A second season in senior football, and Galbally are ready to make their move.
With one of the most exciting young squads in Tyrone, the boys in blue sense a bright future of boundless possibilities.
After finding their feet in the unforgiving world of top tier football last summer, the Pearses are preparing to press ahead with a mix of unity and ambition.
Manager John Moylan gathered his men around him last week as they emerged from isolation to re-connect in a way that passes for normality in these strange and troubling times.
The mood was buoyant, a collective solidarity palpable at that first training session of 2021, despite its fragmented nature, with groups limited to fifteen.
“The boys were mad to get on the field just to play a bit of football, and for the social aspect of it more than anything else,” said Moylan.
“That bit of craic was massively missed.
“Sometimes you say it would be no harm to get away from the football for a while, but when you’re away from it for so long, you do realise that you do miss it.
“The crack and the banter that goes on down at the field, the buzz and the energy that comes from having a good session on the training pitch, you come back up home after it and you’re in great form.”
Attention to detail was essential as all clubs returned to the pitches in strict compliance with latest public health guidance.
“It takes a bit of organising compared to a normal session, with the groups of fifteen.
“The new rules are there and we have to plan the session accordingly.”
But Pearse Park is perfectly set up to accommodate the reduced pods of players required by current Covid-19 restrictions.
A sprawling complex constructed around four pitches is the envy of most clubs in the province, and since the resumption of gaelic games activity just over a week ago, it has been a hive of activity, teeming with young and old, male and female, in a systematic fashion.
“We have plenty of fantastic playing surfaces, three full size pitches and a juvenile pitch.
“We have top class facilities, plenty of space to get a bit of work done and we’re very glad of it.
“I’m sure it’s tough on clubs that don’t have the same space that we have.”
Moylan’s management team of Kevin Kelly, Paul O’Hagan, Peter Murphy, Larry Murphy, Niall Corrigan and Aidan Nugent ensured that quality, co-ordinated coaching was delivered to the various groups of senior squad members, blended with the reserve panel.
“Between us all we take the seniors and the reserves, we have plenty of men to help out.”
A measure of the strength of Galbally’s challenge is the club’s representation in the Tyrone squad.
Four of their players – Liam Rafferty, Daniel Kerr, Conor Quinn and Ronan Nugent – have been called up by new Red Hand managers Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher.
Moylan believes the top level coaching and inter-county experience they gain will have a positive knock-on effect back at Pearse Park.
“It’s exciting times for Galbally. I’m a blow-in to the parish, and I don’t know if they ever had that many before, but I don’t think they did.
“It’s wonderful for the club, and they will bring back great experience from the county sessions back to our sessions at the club.
“They’ll bring a fierce competitive edge to the session, because they’re getting it week in, week out with Tyrone and they’ll bring it back to the club.
“You’ll have young fellows all over the club looking up at these fellows and looking for inspiration.
“I see it for the next step for this club, to have that strong representation at county level. I think that’s the next step that you have to go to if you’re going to establish yourself as a strong senior team year in-year out.
“We may have to play some league games without them. We’ll just have to wait and see what the CCC put together as regards a fixtures schedule, but all in all, it’s good for the club.”
The current group has been together for more than a decade, moving through the under-age ranks and winning an U21 Championship title in 2017.
Unusually for a rural club, virtually all of those players have remained in the locality and maintained their involvement.
And that togetherness brought further rewards in 2019 when Galbally won the Intermediate Championship and reached the Ulster Club IFC final, losing out to Magheracloone of Monaghan.
“The work for 2019 was probably going on for ten years prior to that,” said Moylan.
“Kevin Kelly, who is with me now, was involved in a lot of that, in was in and out of it, and a lot of other coaches in the club as well.
“Sometimes when you have a team like that, they go off to college, they emigrate or whatever.
“But we have been very lucky with this current group.
“They more or less have all stayed around here. They’re all about the place, working here and studying locally.
“You need things like that to go for you as well.
“That buzz of 2019, winning week in, week out, and the energy that was coming from the supporters and the community, I think the players got a taste of that and they crave it again.”
The club’s first year back in senior football was severely impacted by Covid, but an innovative approach by the county’s fixture-makers ensured that a meaningful season did take shape, and the newcomers were not found wanting.
Drawn against holders Trillick in the first round of the Championship, they faced the toughest possible task, but made the champions battle to the end for a hard-fought win.
“Last year it was just about getting ourselves established, and it was a strange year, with Covid.
“In our championship game against Trillick, we were disappointed, because for long periods of the game we had them under the cosh, and in the end period of the game they pushed away.
“In the league we had four competitive games, and the rest of them were dead rubbers.
“It was the way the league was set up, with no relegation.
“We lost to Dromore narrowly, we lost to Coalisland narrowly, we beat Clonoe and we beat Donaghmore.
“They were all very tight games, every one of them, and we were very happy with that.
“We wanted to go up and establish ourselves, and let the boys know that they’re good enough to compete with these top teams, and they are top teams.”
Another fiercely competitive championship is anticipated this year to follow on from last season’s series, when its unpredictability reached new heights as Dungannon came from nowhere to win a first title in 64 years.
Moylan believes that virtually any of the Division One teams is capable of winning the O’Neill Cup, and he wants his players to believe that they can be contenders.
“There’s a case to be made for ten of twelve teams to win the O’Neill Cup this year.
“We just want to let our boys know that they are good enough, and then it’s just down to any given day, whoever gets the break, the luck of the draw or any factor, and I think anyone can pip anyone on any give day.
“Our boys need to say to themselves, you know what, we’re good enough for that, we can hold our own up here.
“Dungannon were fantastic, they were refreshing to watch, and what they did created a fierce stir in Tyrone and further afield.
“I’m sure every club have their ears pricked up and saying that ‘if Dungannon can do it, if they can show that belief in themselves, why can’t we?’
“I think the Tyrone Championship is the best, bar none, in the country.
“The amount of teams that can possibly win it makes it a fantastic competition, absolutely brilliant.”
