TRANSITION is a much-used term in modern football, but Aidan McCrory has another angle to it – the switch from winning the county championship to playing in Ulster.
The Errigal Ciaran defender has plenty of experience on the inter-county front, having played throughout the previous decade for the Red Hands, winning two provincial titles.
However, his only Ulster Club experience before this season has come in 2012, then again two years ago.
Although they lost their opener in 2022, a thriller against eventual Ulster champs Glen of Derry, McCrory feels that that recent knowledge of provincial club combat has helped them make it to this year’s semi-final stage.
Errigal dethroned holders Trillick in the county final, meaning it’s now 19 years since any club retained the Tyrone title, a factor that McCrory feels makes this type of transition tougher for teams from the O’Neill county:
“That experience [from 2022] will help, so that we were fit to adapt from winning the county final to zoning in again.
“The big thing that really catches Tyrone teams out is that transition: you’re always looking, ‘Can I win Tyrone?’, it’s such a battle – then you have to change your focus quickly enough.
“This year we only had a week until playing in Ulster because the [Tyrone] final got called off the first day. Being involved two years ago definitely helped with that part this time.”
So far this season Errigal have edged past Donegal side St Eunan’s, Letterkenny in the Ulster preliminary round before beating Antrim champs Cargin by eight points in the quarter-finals.
Yet although the Ballygawley men are the only Tyrone club to have won the Ulster Club SFC – in 1993 and 2002 – McCrory insists there is no feeling that they ‘should’ succeed on the provincial front:
“I don’t think you could call it an expectation. There’s a hope. You know it’s possible. But it’s such a battle, and most of the teams you’re coming up against have been there before and have more experience than we have. You’re just hopeful, see where we get to.”
The semi-final pits them against Armagh champs Clann Eireann, who achieved a narrow victory over Derry’s Newbridge. The Lurgan outfit have similar recent Ulster experience (or lack of it) to Errigal, having played three years ago when they lost in the semi-finals to Derrygonnelly of Fermanagh.
McCrory also feels that Clann Eireann will be more battle-ready than circumstances meant Cargin were: “They have played, it’s not like Cargin, who were waiting for four weeks [since the Antrim final]. They’ve won a game as well, so we’re both on even terms.”
Errigal’s run of three games in just over a fortnight was a double-edged sword, the 37-year-old McCrory admits. The two weeks until the semi-final was “well-needed at this stage,” he says: “The body was sore, it had been a tough three weeks, that was a hard game.”
The scoreline might suggest otherwise, but McCrory was up against the towering Pat Shivers, and Cargin in general posed physical problems to Errigal:
“Every game has probably stood to us, they’ve all been tough. Every team has given us something else to deal with.
“What Cargin gave us was probably like what Clonoe gave us, or Pomeroy early in the [Tyrone] championship, a more physical battle, and that [previous experience] stood to us.”
Certainly Errigal defended well against high balls, which did not surprise McCrory: “If the other team has big players you need to use your bigger players to combat that. We’re not blessed with 15 big men, but we’ve enough big men that we can handle it, boys do whatever they need to do to deal with it.”
After some slow starts in Tyrone, Errigal began more brightly in Ulster, and did so again against Cargin, to take a grip on the game which they never really released:
“We got some early scores, which always helps, and then missed a few scores as well – but thankfully Cargin didn’t really take advantage of that.
“It took them a wee while to get going, they’ve been four weeks since their final, so took them some time to get back into competitive action. By that time we’d got a few more scores in a row before they were up and running.”
Viewing that succession of Errigal wides during the first half, when Cargin reduced the gap to two points, did not unduly worry him, though - summing up an attitude which he’s garnered from years of experience:
“Here, we were still ahead and there was still plenty of the game left. There are plenty of times we’ve missed chances throughout the championship. You keep swinging until the final whistle and hopefully end up on top.”
