Another weekend, another giant-killing.
It’s been quite a club championship up and down the country with favourites falling, Goliaths dying, and underdog dreams living to fight another day.
In Tyrone, there’s no lip service paid to any given Sunday.
Just four teams remain in the senior football championship and that means there are two cracking semi-finals in store.
Tyrone SFC semi-finals
Killyclogher v Ardboe
Edendork v Coalisland
This weekend alone, both the champions Omagh St. Enda’s and the mighty Errigal Ciaran were toppled. Coalisland have unfinished business with this championship and they dumped out Peter Harte and his club men whilst Killyclogher, champions two years ago, put paid to Omagh’s defence with six points to spare.
But this is nothing new in a land that has crowned eight different kings in the last 13 years.
In fact, no-one has managed to retain the Tyrone title since Carrickmore did it in 2005. Only one champion has ever made it back to the final in that time.
The champions gone in Tyrone. No team’s retained the title since Carrickmore in 2005, and only one has even made it back to a final. You can have all the development squads you want but that competitiveness in their club scene is why Tyrone are where they are https://t.co/bg2KDq4j5M
— Cahair O'Kane (@CahairOKane1) September 30, 2018
Competitive championships is something that is all too easily used as a negative when considering a team like Derry, for example. Great players, great clubs, successful schools but sure their club championship is too competitive so how could they come together?
They come together in Tyrone.
They fight – sometimes literally – for their own parishes and they dethrone champs and they all come back the next year expecting to win again. And, somehow, they’re able to put it aside for the greater good of Tyrone when it matters.
They have a thriving club championship and they have a thriving county team. They might even have the most competitive championship in Ireland.
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