Gourley enjoying life back inside the fold

IF TYRONE’S route back to the All-Ireland final has encountered peaks and troughs, then Ciarán Gourley’s personal journey has had a similar theme.

Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final success over Wexford, saw the Rock clubman line out at left corner-back but his place in the Tyrone side has never had permanency to it.

When Tyrone lost out in a cracking Ulster quarter-final replay against Down back in June, Gourley manned the centre-back position. But in the culling that followed that defeat, he was one of the first victims. The early qualifier rounds against Louth and Westmeath were days when he was on the bench, and it was not until the qualifier showdown with Mayo that Gourley won back a starting jersey.

So Tyrone’s passage to an All-Ireland final is one he intends to savour. All the more so, considering that during their glorious All-Ireland win in 2005, Gourley did not figure at any stage.

“Certainly with 2005, it was a momentous year with the ten games and the way things worked out. I wasn’t part of that and didn’t play any part as such. I appreciate the fact that I’m back here. Only a couple of games ago this year I wasn’t getting a starting place. It’s probably through someone else’s injury that I got an opportunity. So you appreciate your chance when you do get it and I’m just glad to have made the most of it. It’s fantastic to be back there. 2005 seems a long time ago since we were last there. It’s the boys on the team’s ambition every year to get to this stage and it’s just great that we’re going to be there.

“We’ve gone the long way about it. But even though we lost to Down, we took a lot of positives out of the game. We only lost by a point after extra-time and we knew we weren’t that far away. We knew if we could build on that, we could go somewhere. Throughout the qualifiers we gradually improved on our performances. You look at the Dublin game and before that we were being written off, to beat them was something we took great confidence from. That kickstarted us. It’s been a long road to this point and we’re just glad to be there.”

Sunday’s win over Wexford was instigated by a terrific early burst that saw them vault ahead on the scoreboard. Yet Gourley insists that they were mindful of a Wexford revival and the second-half lull in Tyrone’s performance provides food for thought as they prepare to face Kerry.

“You look at the games Wexford played this year. Against Meath they were down by ten points and came back to beat them. Dublin were the only team that beat them and that was mainly because they didn’t perform in the second-half. So they’ve been one of the most consistent teams this year.

“They had a lot of dangerous players, even when Mattie Forde went off in the second-half there were other guys who could step up to the plate. They were all a handful at various stages. We took our foot off the pedal with ten minutes to go in the first-half and even in the second-half we were slow to get going. Maybe there was a bit of complacency. So there are things that we’ll have to improve on for the final.”

If Tyrone’s presence in Croke Park is already assured, what of the fashion choice that is cropping up around the team. Will the bearded wonders of Gourley, McMenamin and McMahon keep resisting the razor?

“Looks like it’ll have to stay at this stage!”, laughs Gourley. “We’ll keep it going for another few weeks anyway.”