Donnelly to lead Trillick as new seasons begins

RICHIE Donnelly will lead the Tyrone county champions’ defence of the O’Neill Cup this year as Trillick’s new captain.

Donnelly takes over from Rory Brennan as skipper of a Reds side which dominated Tyrone club football in the county last year, winning the league and championship double.

The new captain will devote all his energies to inspiring the St Macartan’s to another successful campaign, having stepped away from the Tyrone squad, at least temporarily.

“It's a great honour, it wasn't something that wasn't on my radar personally but it's something I've a lot of pride in,” he said.

“My father did it, my brother's done it, so it's something I take huge pride in and I'm greatly honoured to do it.”

The new league campaign begins this weekend in a high profile clash with Errigal Ciaran, a repeat of last year’s championship final.

Due to concerns on the part of some clubs over an imbalance in the availability of county players, the opening round was postponed from last weekend, with a new schedule of fixtures drawn up, but there’s no change to this particular scheduled tie, which has been eagerly anticipated since the season schedule was released several weeks ago.

With home advantage at Donnelly Park, Trillick will be keen so get off to a strong start in front of their own supporters.

The league is taken extremely seriously by the club, as evidenced by the manner in which they followed up championship triumph in 2023 by committing all their efforts to the drive to complete the double, defeating Carrickmore in the Division One final.

“The league is very important in Trillick, firstly from a competitive point of view, we want to go out every weekend and win league games, we want to be consistent,” said the team captain.

“It's something we didn't have in Trillick for a number of years, it's something we worked really hard on, to be consistent every weekend we go out. Thankfully we've managed to do that in recent years.”

A third successive league title is one target for Trillick in the season ahead, with the main objective being championship success.

But in the weeks ahead, it’s all about channelling all the energies of players into Division One action, with difficult fixtures coming thick and fast on a weekly basis.

And it’s important to use the league to build levels of consistency in preparation for championship football later in the year.

“It definitely is. Being consistent in the league is a strong reflection of the standards driving us in the set-up. If you're going into games, Jekyll and Hyde performances, it's reflective of something not right.

“I think showing a level of consistency is very important to us because it gives you a good barometer of where the group's at, so it'll be interesting to see how we go.”

Trillick will be bidding to become the first team in almost two decades to retain the O’Neill Cup, but first the focus is on winning a third successive league title.

“We'd absolutely love to do that and we'll fight tooth and nail to do it. When you break that outcome down, what it means is being competitive every Sunday and fighting for two points, and that's what we plan to do.”

And he’s expecting another fiercely competitive championship campaign, with the Tyrone series, still played in a straight knock-out basis, renowned as the most difficult one to win.

“I'd say every team in the Senior Championship faces the same challenge.

“There's a number of teams that can win it and you could literally be out on the first day or you could progress, it's a lottery and we saw that in the first round last year, we went to penalties with Loughmacrory. We just know what it brings and we'll prepare as best we can.”

Donnelly sees a bright future for Trillick, with a wave of exciting young talent emerging and making their mark at inter-county level.

“On the surface there's a lot of good ability there, Charlie Donnelly and Nathan Farry featured very strongly for Omagh CBS that did back-to-backs and you've a few hidden gems there as well.

“Club minors like James Corry and Liam Corry and Sean and boys like that, a lot of good young characters we'd be very hopeful we'll pull through in the next year or two and play at a very high level for Trillick and beyond.”

Division One clubs have already had an opportunity to engage in competitive action, thanks to the revival of the Jim Devlin Cup this season, in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the murder of former Coalisland and Tyrone player Jim Devlin and his wife Gertie.

It was Trillick’s neighbours Dromore who emerged as winners of the trophy beating Clonoe in the final, but Trillick’s involvement was extremely worthwhile, according to Donnelly.

“It's a really good idea I think and there's good incentive there for teams to go and use it as challenge games to go and win, to try and get two or three games out of it.”