By Shaun Casey

THE 2026 season will be a historic one for the Tullysaran club as they compete at senior level for the very first time.

Their Division 2A league triumph last season propelled them to the top level, and they can’t wait to get going, says star man Mark McKeever.

The O’Connell’s club have a nice blend of youth and experience in their ranks and will be eyeing up a positive start to their life in Division 1B when they travel to Dromintee on Saturday week.

Just two years ago, they were struggling in Division 2A, but clubmen and recently retired players Pauric McGlone and Ciaran O’Riordan assumed the managerial reins and turned things around for the club.

Tullysaran failed to build on last year’s league success and suffered three defeats on the trot in the Intermediate Championship, dropping out at the group stage phase of the competition, but 2025 has been left behind and their preparing for a big campaign.

“We’re definitely looking forward to getting started, obviously we’ve never played senior football before but we’re just buzzing to get going and we can’t wait to get started,” said McKeever ahead of the new season.

“We celebrated that league win last year because it meant so much to us, but the celebrations are over now and we’re looking to make a stamp on Division One this year.”

Visiting famous grounds like Davitt Park, Clan na Gael, 14-time winners of the Armagh Senior Championship, as well as Maghery, who have twice lifted the Gerry Fagan Cup in the last decade, will bring its own excitement.

“We know it’s going to be a big step up in opposition compared to what we’re used to, but you want to be playing the best teams week in and week out and hopefully we can leave a mark for ourselves and compete with the likes of those teams.”

Tullysaran are renowned for their attacking quality with the likes of Eddie Mallon and Gavin Conlon aiding McKeever up front. They’ll be boosted by the addition of the three Mallon brothers, Daire, Ronan and Conan, who have recently transferred from Grange.

It’s Dromintee up first for the new kids on the block, and they have been competing at senior level for a long time now but finished in the bottom half of the Division 1B league table last season.

Tullysaran are on the road on the opening day but are set to host Clan na Gael, who reached back-to-back county finals as recently as 2023 and 2024, in round two and that will be a memorable day for the Tullysaran club.

“We love playing at home and we’ll try to make our home ground a bit of a fortress,” added McKeever, who has lined out anywhere from midfield up for Tullysaran in recent seasons.

“That’s the games we’ll really be looking at, our home games. We have Dromintee away in the first match and it won’t be easy, but we have to try and start well as opposed to chasing our tail and trying to pick up points late on.”

Tullysaran have a decent crop of youngsters coming through the underage ranks as well having won the Division Three Minor Championship title last year, beating St Paul’s 2-11 to 0-8 in the final at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds.

“There’s a few of those younger boys that have come through to the senior squad and they’re training with us week in, week out,” McKeever continued. “You can see that they’re not just there to make up the numbers at training, they’re there to push for a place too so it’s good for everyone else in the team as well.

“Last year brought a real buzz to the community and everyone coming up now through the younger age groups in Tullysaran, senior football is where we want to be and it’s where we want to stay.”

On that note, McKeever insists that their eyes are firmly on remaining in senior football for the foreseeable future and they are keen to avoid an instant return to Division Two.

“We want to really push on and see how far we can go but the main goal for the year will be to definitely try and stay in the division and see what happens after that.”