Key-man Donnelly a late developer

Mark Donnelly is hoping his patience and perseverance will finally pay off.

The Tyrone attacker played no part in the county’s golden era, when the Sam Maguire Cup was captured three times between 2003 and 2008. The 29-year-old failed to make the cut during the ’00s, and it wasn’t until 2010 he eventually convinced Mickey Hare he had something to offer.

He may have been a late developer, but the Carrickmore man wasted no time establishing himself as a key member of the team, linking defence to attack with his awesome workrate. Now he’s ready to grab a slice of the real action and fulfil his dream of playing in an All-Ireland final.

“It would be brilliant to get to an All-Ireland final. In ’03, ’05 and ’08 I was sitting in the stands watching the games, and I always dreamed of playing in an All-Ireland final.

“We’re 70 minutes away from that now, and as a team, and as a player, we will be doing everything we can to get into that All-Ireland final. We have worked extremely hard, we have been working very hard since last November, all throughout the season, and we hope that hard work is going to pay dividends against Mayo.”

A new-look Tyrone team seized the initiative early, reaching the Allianz FL Division 1 final, before embarking on a championship run which has taken them all the way to this weekend’s All-Ireland semi-final.

“I know at the beginning of the year, we had just come up from Division 2, and we were one of the teams being tipped to go back down to Division 2.

“So our objective at the beginning of the year was to get into the semi-finals, so we could get extra games before the Donegal game.

“We got to the league final, and unfortunately were pipped by Dublin, and we could have won that game. So I thought we showed great progress throughout the league, and played a lot of new players as well, along the way.”

Tyrone have taken the back door route to the last four, but it’s a familiar path, trodden before by the All-Ireland winning teams of 2005 and 2008.

“Mickey, and us players, would like to have gone through the Ulster route, and won the Ulster Championship, because we haven’t won one since 2010,” said Donnelly.

“But I think the qualifiers have been good in that a lot of the younger players have got the chance to get game time, the likes of Kevin Gallagher, Sean Warnock, Plunkett Kane. Those boys who have made their debut in the championship may not have got that opportunity in Ulster, so I think it bodes well for the semi-final that a lot of the players have been tested at that level, and hopefully whenever called upon they will be able to produce the goods.”