McClure hits the reset button

SOME 51 weeks after relegation to the intermediate grade, Tyrone’s Clonoe head into Saturday’s Ulster Intermediate quarter-final clash with Saval firmly on the other side of disappointment.

The corner has been turned again. Nineteen wins from as many games guaranteed top spot in the league, promotion and delivered a fifth intermediate championship.

It needed a goal from payer of the match PJ Laverty to help steer clear of Eglish but Clonoe were champions again.

There was irony in Clonoe’s relegation with Érrigal Ciaran being crowned Ulster champions three weeks later. The O’Rahilly’s had them on the quarter-final ropes. That spells out the fine margins in Tyrone.

Clonoe’s turnaround has been brilliant, points out captain Declan McClure. Their stall was set out at the turn of ’25.

“Our main goal was to try and get back into Division One again,” he said. “To do that, we had to concentrate on the league and we treated every game as if it was the championship.”

Keeping everyone both injury free and locked in on the task in hand laid their foundations.

Like most successful teams, they had the common blend of young and old. Everyone was in it together.

“It made training and everything else around the team more competitive,” McClure added.

“Thankfully we’ve got everybody back together, and we’ve got the youth coming through and experienced boys. It’s really driven everything on, and the bigger the squad obviously the better the trainings are.

“If you do pick up a few knocks, you’ve four, five, six, seven or eight boys there on the bench that can come in and do a good job.

“When we had the league won, we sat ourselves down again and really wanted to go for the championship.”

Greencastle came on the radar. After victory, they locked in on Kildress and then Aghaloo before applying the finish against Eglish in the decider.

“Every team’s going to up their game because it’s their day and it’s knockout,” McClure stressed.

“We knew in every round that we had to be on our game or else we’d get knocked out very easily.”

The winning feeling was a welcome replacement for the hurtful end to last season.

Three weeks has allowed time to get their eyes locked on Saval.

“This is probably the first time in a while that we’ve actually got a bit of time to sit down and focus and regroup,” McClure added, ahead of Saturday’s game in Omagh as part of a double-header with Kilcoo and Loughmacrory.

“We’ve got back into training to get our bodies right and look ahead to this game. Everybody’s looking forward to this, they’re glad to be here and they really want to give it their all. It’s something to look forward to.”