Niall Gartland speaks to Tyrone minor boss Gerard Donnelly ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland showdown…

Gerard Donnelly is the first man to lead a Tyrone team to three All-Ireland Minor Championship finals. His record heading into Sunday’s showdown with Cork is perfectly balanced: one won, one lost.

He’s the first to acknowledge that it’s not about him. It’s about the greater good of Tyrone football, and beginning to emerge at senior intercounty level is a swathe of talented young players who have already sampled success at the highest levels of minor and U20 football.

The Stewartstown clubman is now in his sixth year at the helm. His maiden season in 2021 ended in a one-point defeat to Meath in the All-Ireland final at Croke Park. Last year’s crop edged a thrilling contest with Kerry to lift the Tom Markham Cup.

Now, a predominantly new team stands on the cusp of a famous back-to-back, and we caught up with their manager ahead of Sunday’s decider against Cork in Newbridge.

Niall Gartland: It’s exciting for the county to be back in another All-Ireland final, but it’s not something Tyrone should take for granted either?

Gerard Donnelly: I keep saying this – it won’t last forever. The U20s have done brilliantly with three All-Irelands since 2022. The minors are in their third final in six seasons, but before we came into this role in 2021, Tyrone hadn’t won an Ulster minor title in nine years. It doesn’t happen all the time.

There’s great work going on in the schools, the clubs and the academies to get boys interested in playing for Tyrone. We have an easy enough job in that respect – refining them and getting them going. It’s definitely something you can’t take for granted, and to be in two All-Ireland finals in a row is a testament to the lads and my colleagues in the management team.

NG: Do you change how you operate from year to year, given this is now your sixth season in the role?

GD: Obviously you have to change wee things depending on the type of lads you have…

NG: So how would you assess this group?

GD: I have to say every group of lads we’ve had has been fantastic to work with. The interest that’s out there to play for Tyrone is incredible, and it’s so good to see some of our lads now playing for the Tyrone seniors.

Every young lad wants to play for Tyrone and, when they’re with us, the attitude is brilliant. It’s a credit to their parents and the manners they have. Before good footballers, we want good people, and if we can help make them better people – humility, taking pride in themselves, taking pride in the jersey – all those wee things are important. We want to help move them on to Paul [Devlin, Tyrone U20 manager] and Malachy [O’Rourke, Tyrone senior manager].

NG: Focusing on this particular crop, there’s been a real trajectory of improvement. They lost the Ulster Minor League final, and you acknowledged that Monaghan were the better team. Then they came so close to losing to Cavan, which would have been the end of the road. Since then, though, they’ve just grown and grown.

GD: In every game there have been periods of bad play, but you’re not going to get 60 minutes of domination. We try to make sure the other team’s periods of dominance are as limited as possible.

These lads have definitely improved and, do you know what, they’re such a great group. You see the friendships growing as well, and I love seeing that journey. When they first come in, you maybe have school friends sitting together, but as the year goes on, when they’re in the gym for example, you see everyone linking with everyone, chatting and laughing. You get that over time.

The great thing is that we’ve got to work with these lads for as long as we possibly could. We knew the ultimate end goal was the first weekend of July and we’ve got there.

NG: There are players here from clubs that perhaps wouldn’t traditionally be regarded as the bigger clubs in Tyrone, so there’s a good spread across the county.

GD: Absolutely, and that’s important as well. We always say on the management team that we don’t care where you’re from. If you show well at trials or for your school, you’ll get an opportunity.

We had lads from smaller clubs last year and we’ve lads from smaller clubs this year too. Look, it’s a big deal playing at this level, so it’s great for those clubs because their county players become role models for the younger boys coming through. These lads are making memories that, in 10 or 15 years’ time, they’ll be able to look back on and remember the 2026 minor season.

NG: It’s the manager’s job to talk up the opposition, but from what I gather Cork are genuinely a really good team.

GD: You don’t have to build up Cork. I hadn’t watched them at all before the All-Ireland semi-final because they weren’t on our radar. When we won the Ulster title, we knew our path to an All-Ireland final was Galway and then the winners of Kildare and Kerry.

But even without watching them, you kept hearing, “Cork, Cork, Cork.” Their manager Keith Ricken is so enthusiastic about Cork football and he genuinely believes in his lads.

You look at their scores. They were run close by Kerry in a Munster final on a really bad wet night and I think somebody said Cork kicked a serious amount of wides. But you look at the rest of their results. They beat Meath by 13 points and Derry by 11.

We’re massive underdogs and we’re not afraid to say it. It is what it is. We can’t control who’s favourites or who’s not. We just want to get the best performance out of our boys and see where it takes us.

NG: It was a bit of a dogfight at times against Kildare in the semi-final, particularly with the conditions, but the lads were throwing themselves on the line for the cause.

GD: Look, that’s a trait you can’t coach. That desire and want, that’s something that’s been instilled in them by their parents, their clubs, their families and their schools. That’s already in them.

What I loved about it was that it showed how much they wanted it. They threw themselves at shots and at men’s feet. That’s just desire. We’re going to need all of that, and plenty of good football on top of it, if we’re to win this final.

NG: At underage level, it’s probably more of an unknown how players will respond to the occasion of an All-Ireland final. Even at senior level, teams sometimes don’t perform.

GD: It’s not just finals, it’s every single game. These lads have sat through GCSEs and AS Levels. There are things going on in their own personal lives. We’re only with these boys a couple of times a week, so for all those other hours they’re away from us, dealing with different things.

Lads can be in different moods, but isn’t that the beauty of it in a way? It’s an unknown, but I think that’s why minor football is so good. There’s a freedom to it. Teams just go out and play.

We just try to keep things as positive as we can because they are children at the end of the day and they’re placed in our care. If they have a bit of craic, a bit of fun and some success along the way, isn’t that great?

NG: Finally, it would be remiss not to mention team captain Ciaran McCrystal, who’ll miss the final through injury. He’s shown a great attitude since getting injured in the quarter-final against Galway.

GD: Look, nobody’s going to lie, it’s not easy on him and it’s not easy on us losing a player like him. He’ll never say it to me, but it can’t be easy for him.

For him to still be here among us, to want to be about the group all the time – Ciaran hasn’t missed a single session since he got injured. Ciaran McCrystal was and is our captain. He is our leader and he’s still playing a massive role for us.

He’ll talk to the defenders, he’ll keep them right and he’ll speak to the whole group. When you’re in the gym, you see that they naturally gravitate towards him because they all know what he brings, even off the pitch.

I said after the semi-final how delighted I was that he’d get to lead us into an All-Ireland final. I’m devastated for him that he suffered that injury. It was such a freak injury too – he just went to run for the ball.

I’m annoyed for him that he won’t get to play, but at the same time I’m delighted we’ve got to the final for him. When he looks back on it, it’ll feel different to 2025 because he was playing last year. He’s still our captain and that was never going to change. He’ll be there with us every step of the way.

Wee Aidan Farley came in against Kildare and, while you’re devastated for Ciaran, that’s what a squad’s for. I thought Aidan did really well. You just don’t know what will happen. We hope nobody else gets injured, but if it happens, somebody else will get their chance in the final. That’s just how it goes.