By Niall Gartland

ONE of the veterans of the Glenelly cause, Ronan O’Kane, is hoping for some long-awaited redemption in Friday evening’s Junior Championship semi-final against Aghaloo.

O’Kane was corner-forward the last time Glenelly made the last four of the Championship, back in 2012, where by coincidence they fell short against Aghaloo.

Glenelly’s exit on that occasion was overshadowed by a serious head injury suffered by their half-back Conor McGarvey, an injury that halted the action for half-an-hour in the second-half.

Aghaloo emerged triumphant on the scoreboard by 2-11 to 0-11 on that occasion but there have been wholesale changes on both teams in the intervening 12 years – barring a couple of seasoned campaigners like O’Kane, who kicked five points in Glenelly’s quarter-final victory over Errigal Ciaran Thirds a fortnight ago.

Glenelly have never won a Tyrone Junior Championship title (they came closest in 1983, losing out in the final to Dregish) but they were in excellent form in the last eight so they will quietly fancy their chances of reaching a second ever final.

The outside perception is that Aghaloo and Killeeshil will lock swords on county final day but O’Kane doesn’t mind having the underdogs tag.

“I’ve been playing a long time at this stage and this will be only my third semi-final appearance, so it’s definitely one I’m looking forward to.

“It’s a massive challenge – we probably struggled against the top three teams in the league this year, Aghaloo, Killeeshil and Drumquin, so I think it’s fair enough to say we’re underdogs. That suits us okay, and we’ll put in the work and see how it goes.”

Glenelly had a solid Championship campaign last year under the tutelage of highly rated coach and manager Diarmaid McNulty, who steered Omagh CBS to back-to-back Hogan Cup titles as well as playing a big role in Tyrone’s All-Ireland U20 success this season. It was important they got the right replacement for McNulty, and they brought on board Roger Keenan and Tony Scullion, two hugely respected figures in their own right. The duo led Kildress to the 2020 Tyrone JFC title and O’Kane is really enjoying playing under them.

“They’re both absolutely brilliant, they’re really refreshing. I’ve played under many different managers and they’ve all been really good. This year has been really enjoyable, they try and make things so simple for us and it’s a really good set-up all round.”

Glenelly stuttered to victory against outsiders Urney on their first-day out and knew the same wouldn’t suffice if they’re to leave a real mark in the competition. They were much better on their second day out against Errigal Ciaran Thirds but O’Kane says there’s still work to be done.

“We were really disappointed that first day with our performance and we put in a real good block of work in the fortnight leading up the the quarters, We really put the head down and there’s still lots to work on from that performance against Errigal.. We were just glad to get over the line and we’ll give it our very best shot against Aghaloo.”