IT’S the obvious place to start: Tyrone masters are bidding to win a historic fifth successive All-Ireland title in Saturday afternoon’s All-Ireland final showdown against Donegal at Kingspan Breffni.

Last year, they became the first team ever to win the Dr Mick Loftus Cup four years running, so they’re already on an unprecedented run, but there’s something about the five-in-a-row that really rolls off the tongue.

They’ve come this far and let’s hope they go out and finish the job.

But there’s always a subplot or two and that explains our decision to get in touch with Tyrone forward Michael Anderson in the lead-up to Saturday’s game.

First of all, he’s one of the lads who have been part of this journey since the very beginning. Your classic stalwarts who have devoted so much of their time and energy to Tyrone masters since this run began in earnest with the All-Ireland final win over Dublin in 2021.

Secondly, there are his strong Donegal connections. His father Patsy was a native of Castlefin, a stone’s throw across the border, and he actually supported Donegal in his childhood.

Since his teenage years though, it’s all been about Aghyaran. Aghyaran and Tyrone. He played on the county minor team of 1999 alongside the likes of Owen Mulligan and Enda McGinley before going on to enjoy a stellar club career with St Davog’s.

He remains at the coalface of club life, helping to bring through the younger generation of budding Aghyaran footballers.

Though he’s still no stranger to Donegal – he actually works in Killygordon.

Most would have hung up the boots for good by now, but Anderson committed to enrolling with the Tyrone masters and giving it a lash. Half-a-decade on, he’s still firmly on board, still knocking over points and still chasing medals.

“I came in because of Kieran and Damian Leonard – they’re good at the recruiting, they’ll torture you! They were flat out on the phone.

“It was after Covid and there was a bit of a recruitment drive – Damian had taken on training the team, and a few of the lads who had won the All-Ireland in 2003 were in their 40th year, like Stephen O’Neill and Conor Gormley, so there was a big push.

“The whole experience has been brilliant – there’s lads who marked me in club football who now I’m teammates with.

“For example, Aidan Brady was Clonoe’s full-back and I might’ve been Aghyaran’s full-forward on any particular day.

“We’d never really spoken to each other on the pitch, but now we’re inseparable. So it’s been great in that respect.”

The profile of the masters has increased in recent years, and it’s already becoming something of a tradition that the All-Ireland final is streamed live on YouTube. Anderson says there’s plenty of well-wishers around Aghyaran.

“The club’s always been supportive, they put up messages online, wish you good luck and all the rest of it. The club is very much in favour of it.

“I think some people perhaps don’t know how seriously we take it, and maybe we take it more seriously than some other counties, but I definitely think it’s improving in terms of viewership and things like that.”

An opening-round group stage defeat to Cavan threatened to derail Tyrone’s drive-for-five before it had even left the station.

That unwanted result left very little room for error but they’ve managed to make it back to another All-Ireland final.

Anderson said: “We’ve been a bit slow to get going in the last couple of years. I suppose we’re getting that bit older now.

“Cavan beat us on our first day out so that left us under proper pressure for the rest of the year, as losing another game meant we wouldn’t be in the ‘A’ competition.

“Thankfully we’ve won every game since. We’ve had a couple of big games with Dublin, they’re always hard to beat. We got away from them in the semi-final but we’d been expecting a tougher game.”

Anderson, who says there’s been no five-in-a-row talk circulating around the camp, expects nothing easy against Donegal. He certainly needs no introduction, anyway.

“My father Patsy was a big Donegal supporter, and I didn’t start attending Tyrone games until I was old enough to go to them myself. My father was a bit conflicted when I became a county minor.

“I work there as well, but we’d know the Donegal boys well anyway. We get on well with them, and we’d a big weekend away with them earlier in the year when we went to Scotland together, played a match and were paraded around Celtic Park. It was a fantastic experience and they’re good lads.

“I’m expecting a proper battle against them, our toughest match of the year. They were the last team to win it before us. They’ve always brought a lot to the masters and we need to be at our very best on Saturday.”