Tyrone boss O’Grady hopes for a shade more luck

TYRONE camogie boss Paul O’Grady is back for another season in charge, and he’s hoping for a shade more luck on the results front as their Division Three campaign swings into view.

The Red Hands get their campaign underway at home to familiar foes Wicklow this Saturday afternoon, and Mayo native O’Grady, who now lives locally in Tyrone, is looking forward to his third year at the helm.

They delivered a string of commendable performances in last year’s league campaign, but suffered a number of narrow defeats along the way before a big win over Kildare on their final day out at Brocagh.

O’Grady said: “We played quite a lot of challenge games over recent weeks, against universities and teams like that. We played Derry last Wednesday night up in Claudy.

“Things are going well but I’m not going to get too excited – I got excited last week and it didn’t work out!

“In saying that, I think if we’d a bit more luck things would have gone a bit better. We lost a few games very narrowly, and we’d an awful lot of injuries as well. Different things didn’t work out.”

O’Grady has appointed new team captains this season. Reagan Fay, a star in Eglish’s recent Ulster Intermediate Championship win, and Eimear Colton, their brilliant team goalkeeper, will lead the side out against Wicklow this Saturday. They last met in an All-Ireland Premier Junior Championship encounter at Derrytresk last summer, Wicklow edging a hard-hitting encounter by 1-12 to 1-9.

“We always really look forward to the Wicklow games – it’s always a big one for us. They’re very physical but very skilful too.

“You know it’s always going to be a good match it’s never going to be a game where either team gets blown out of the water. It always comes down to the last couple of minutes, which is brilliant, that’s what you want.”

The 2025 campaign was a memorable season for Tyrone on the club front with Eglish landing Ulster Intermediate honours, Brocagh winning the Bridie McMenamin and Éire Óg, Carrickmore, surging to an All-Ireland Intermediate title. O’Grady says he’s been mindful of not overburdening his players.

“Because it was such a long year, we didn’t want those games back too quickly. Those three teams went the whole way in Ulster and beyond, so we’re trying to manage that. It’s a long season and a fair bit away from August.

“We’ve had a big intake into the panel so we’re up on numbers again. We’re just shy of 40 players.

“We’ve 38 at the moment, it’s great to have it. There’s a few still to come back from injury so we’re not fully up to 40 yet.”

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