By Niall Gartland

TRILLICK’S Rory Brennan is embracing the prospect of another blockbuster clash against their old friends Dungannon in Friday evening’s blockbuster under lights in O’Neill’s Healy Park.

It’s the second successive semi-final meeting of the two teams, and a fourth championship meeting in all since the turn of the decade, Dungannon coming out on top in 2020 and 2022 before Trillick turned the tables on their opposition in their march to a ninth ever O’Neill Cup crown this time last year.

Brennan, captain of last year’s league and championship double, believes it will be a very different challenge to their cagey quarter-final victory over Ardboe on their last day out and they’ll have to be on their toes against the Paul Donaghys of this world, but that’s all part of the fun, so to speak.

“We’re delighted to be in the hat for the semi-finals and we’re really looking forward to it. We’ve had some great battles against Dungannon down the years and we really like and enjoy playing them, so we’ll put the heads down and work hard in preparation for the game.

“In the Tyrone Championship there’s never more than a point here and a point there between the teams, and we’ll look to take the learnings from the Ardboe game, we’re expecting it’ll be much the same again in terms of competitiveness and it’s just a matter of rising to the challenge put in front of us.”

“Dungannon carry a different sort of challenge to Ardboe,” continued Brennan. “They played two men inside so it’ll be a different dynamic but we enjoy all the different sorts of tactical battles and we’ll work hard on it.”

Trillick are the latest team bidding to retain the O’Neill Cup title, a quest that has proved beyond the reach of every championship winner since Carrickmore in 2004/5. The hunters become the hunted and the path to glory is littered with potential pitfalls, but Brennan is enjoying the challenge and he’s encouraged by the influx of talented younger players into the ranks of the Reds.

“It’s a new year and last year is behind us, so we’re just trying to build on what we have and we’ve added new faces into the starting line-up and to the squad as a whole. There are lads who aren’t on the matchday panel pushing really hard to get into it, and it took our bench to get us over the line against Ardboe.”

Brennan added: “We’re lucky in Trillick, we’ve a great conveyor belt of players and there’s the likes of Nathan Farry, Charlie Donnelly and the Corrys coming through. We’re getting an influx of youth and that’s what it takes to push the thing on.

“Having new faces pushing for places keeps the boys on the starting line-up hungry – we’re lucky to have a great coaching system in Trillick and we’re reaping the rewards of that at senior level.”