Trillick boss Jody Gormley believes the fiercely competitive nature of the Tyrone Championship is responsible for the county’s poor record in the Ulster Club series.
Only one Tyrone club has ever won the provincial title – Errigal Ciaran, in 1993 and 2002 – and it’s a rarity to even see a finalist from the Red Hand county.
Gormley argues that clubs which regularly win their own county championship are better placed to challenge for Ulster honours due to their regular involvement in the competition.
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Crossmaglen, Slaughtneil and Kilcoo have all carried domestic dominance into the provincial arena in recent years, all three winning successive titles off the back of sustained supremacy within their own counties.
“If you look at those teams who have strong records in Ulster Club competitions, they have won, if not a lot of consecutive county titles, a significant number of titles. That does make a difference,” he said.
In Tyrone’s case, it’s almost two decades since any club has managed to retain the O’Neill Cup.
Trillick ensured that the sequence would continue when they defeated holders Errigal Ciaran in the final less than two weeks ago.
“The Tyrone Championship is hard fought, hard won and hard celebrated.
“I do think that does have an impact. At the start of the year, you’re not focusing on an Ulster Club Championship, you’re focusing on your county title.
“Teams who have won two or three county titles back to back, maybe their focus for the year is to win an Ulster title and maybe an All-Ireland title.
“That’s something that we’ll certainly look at and hope to rectify.”
The recently crowned Tyrone champions survived a series of ferocious battles to get their hands on the O’Neill Cup for the second time in five years, including a first round penalty shoot-out against Loughmacrory.
“Our goalkeeper pulled off two good saves and our penalty takers struck them well.
“The games were tight but at no stage did we ever feel that we were in a position to lose.
“Our boys are confident and we trust the work that they put in, that’s a big thing.”
They had to go to the well in every single game, including
[ the final, which went to extra-time,Opens in new window ]
before the defending champions were eventually ousted in a gripping encounter.
Gormley insisted that his players were always confident they could match Errigal Ciaran’s star-studded team.
“Whenever you go on to a pitch to play a match, they’re just footballers. It was fifteen Trillick men against fifteen Errigal men.
“There was no special consideration given to whether the boys play county or not.
“We trust the work that the players have put in, we know we have good footballers, we know Errigal have good footballers, but when you get to a county final, the opposition is going to be well conditioned and ready to go, so you just have to trust yourself.”
One of those Ulster giants, Crossmaglen, albeit without a title since 2015, heads for Omagh on Saturday evening with an intent to heap more misery on a Tyrone contender.
“I suppose they have been a while away for a while, but they have the pedigree and the history within their club, and they’ll be a significant challenge,” said Gormley.
“It’s another big challenge for us against Cross. Every game we have played this year we have had significant challenges and every game we have gone in as underdogs, and I can’t see that changing for the next one.”
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