It was meant to be an intriguing dress rehearsal for the stand-out tie of the Tyrone SFC’s first round, but this week’s league meeting between Killyclogher and Errigal Ciaran fell far short of expectations.
County champions Errigal arrived at Ballinamullan without their seven county players, effectively reducing the Division One tie to a phoney war.
Killyclogher took the points on a 3-7 to 2-7 scoreline, but learned little about the challenge that faces them in the forthcoming O’Neill Cup clash.
The visitors were without the Canavan brothers, Darragh and Ruairi, Peter Harte, Cormac Quinn, Joe Oguz, Niall Kelly and Peter Og McCartan, while the home side were missing former Tyrone attacker Mark Bradley, who is currently in the USA.
At least some of the Errigal stars were injured, but Killyclogher manager Kieran Howe blamed the timing of the championship draw for the stand-off, claiming it was made too early.
The draw was made on April 25, more than three weeks before the league series began, and almost five months ahead of the Championship opener.
“That’s the problem with having an early championship draw,” he said.
“It would have been a good game if we didn’t know we were playing each other in the championship.
“It was the same last year with Dromore, we went up there and it was the same sort of scenario.
“Maybe the championship draw needs to be a bit later on in the year, to guard against that.”
Errigal, bidding to become the first club to retain the Tyrone title in 18 years, will have all their big guns back for the defence of their championship title in September.
“It’s a scary thought to think that there’s seven county players to come back into that team,” said Howe.
“We’ll have our work cut out based on what we saw.
“I guess it wouldn’t be worth winning unless it was going to be hard. Nobody wants anything easy, I suppose.
“It’s a massive challenge, but we’re getting on with our own business and trying to look forward to it as much as we can.
“These guys are not soft in Killyclogher either, so I think, come the time, we’ll be there or thereabouts.”
Looking on the bright side, the Killyclogher boss believes the title-holders may be at their most vulnerable in the first round.
The St Mary’s were also drawn against the defending champions last year, when they lost to Dromore in the opening tie.
“They keep on telling me that the best place to catch them is in the first round.
“That wasn’t the case last year, and Errigal Ciaran will have something to say about it this year as well.”
The return of Bradley to their attack will be a big boost, but he’s not due back until the end of the summer.
“He’ll be very welcome when he’s back. But he has missed about six or seven games, so he’ll only have two or three to get himself right for the Championship.
“But that’s a long way off, so we’ll take care of a few weeks business before that.”
Killyclogher’s League form has been strong, with just one defeat in their seven games to date, and they currently sit third in the Division One table, behind unbeaten Dromore and Carrickmore.
“We’re not doing too badly. We probably haven’t had a full team out all year, so we’d be hoping things will start coming together for us a wee bit more in the coming weeks going into the Championship.
“It changes from week to week, and we have a couple of players ruled out for the rest of the season, so that puts a spanner in the works, and it is hard to get a constant team out.”
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