LAST UPDATE | 31 Oct 2023
FOR SO MANY years, Matthew Donnelly has been the Fear Láidir of the Trillick St Macartan’s team.
So to see him standing on the sideline in a full leg brace on Sunday as he continues to rehab a horrendous posterior cruciate ligament rupture and fractured tibia, sustained during the Kilmacud Sevens, would cause significant concern when assessing the chances of Trillick beating reigning champions Errigal Ciaran.
Within their own camp, they were seeing things differently. And they defied the odds appearing in some places of 12/1 for a Trillick win. Three titles in nine years they are the most successful club of the last decade in the championship acknowledged as the hardest to win.
When the Trillick team came to training, Matthew along with Michael Gallagher, would already be in the gym going through their rehab exercises.
After they were finished, showered and ready for home, the stricken players were still locked into their own hell, speeding up their recovery.
Rather than one man replacing Donnelly’s leader status within the group, a whole host of players delivered career-best performances. One of them was his brother Richard. He swept over three majestic points, all of them coming at critical times with no end of bravery to take on the shot.
“There were a lot of factors during the year that you were just piling them up and thinking, ‘that’s another motivation, another motivation,’” explains Richard Donnelly.
“You just kept your powder dry and worked hard. That is a very, very tough day for Mickey (Gallagher) and Mattie, Simon Garrity as well.
“Those boys are in our minds. The way they have carried themselves for the last two, three months since they got injured – they are in the gym before we arrive every night for training and they’re there after we leave.
“Subconsciously, that sends a message to our group that they’re committed to the group and the type of leaders and characters they are, they still had a huge impact on that performance out there. We love them to bits and we are so happy to do that for them.”
The Trillick team were wearing black armbands on the day and there was an impeccably-observed minutes’ silence for Donnelly’s uncle, Gerry who passed away after a battle with illness on 17th October.
As a player, he himself won five championships. As a coach, every player in Trillick would have passed through his guidance at some point, as well as all the other numerous roles he filled in the club. You cannot replace men like that, you just learn to cope without them.
“Obviously the most acute one is Uncle Gerry,” he stated.
“We have had a lot of big characters that we have laid to rest in the club this year.
“Our own Auntie Kathleen O’Hagan, Charlie and Vincie Keenan, Eileen Monaghan, Conor McCaughey last November, there’s been a lot of good people from good families put to rest this year.
“Again you just clock that up as motivation and think the families involved, the community and the club need days like this to lift us because this gives you hope and makes people proud, so I’m very happy.”
One of the things that sets Trillick apart is the appreciation that the current senior players have of the teams that went before them. The club can be said to have had an illustrious history in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but this crew are outstripping it. And it’s something that all sides embrace.
“This wipes out every championship Trillick has ever won,” Donnelly beams.
“The elder statesmen who won in the ‘70s and ‘80s, they are in tears here and it is definitely the most special given everything that’s happened and the obstacles that’s been thrown in front of us as well with injuries and everything.
“To deliver what we have is honestly very special.”
He explains the deeper cause of Trillick’s success, saying; “There are a lot of variables. I think we have the foundational stuff right, we have a very strong purpose. It’s the John and Patsy Kellys, uncle Shep, the auld boy Liam, Pat King, Brendan Donnelly, Sean Donnelly, it’s those boys have passed that on to us.
“They meet us on the street and they’re not a burden to their success, those men want to lift us up. They want us to taste it. You just have to look them in the eye.
“I met John Kelly this morning at the grave and the two of us just cried. You don’t have to speak. They pass that on to us. That’s our foundation. And then we have the quality, the work rate and the desire to go and do it.”
