By Barry O'Donnell
LEITIR MOR Naomh Anna GFC , situated on the outskirts of the Ghaeltacht in west Connemara, is the rather novel opposition now blocking Cookstown's potential path to an historic All-Ireland Club Final appearance at Croke Park after the Fr Rocks victory in the Ulster Intermediate Championship last weekend.
Chris Lawn's charges succeeded Trillick as provincial champions when they battled their way to a 0-9 to 1-4 triumph over teak-tough Cavan opponents Lavey at Brewster Park on Sunday afternoon, and after savouring this triumph over the festive period they will then turn their thoughts to the mystery men from the west.
Galway side Leitir Mor scooped the Connacht crown with a thrilling single point win over Mayo's Westport 2-14 to 2-13 after extra-time, the high-scoring nature of that sea-saw affair contrasting markedly with the abrasive, physical Ulster encounter served up in Enniskillen.
Cookstown were pushed to the pins of their collar by Lavey, even when the Breffni outfit were reduced to fourteen men, and it required a spate of quality late scores from Owen Mulligan, Raymond Mulgrew and Martin Murray to see them across the winning line.
This milestone success provided a perfect ending to this milestone year for the GAA for the Fr Rocks and they can now harbour realistic aspirations of an appearance in Croke Park in mid-February should they account for the Tribesmen in the semi-final.
A date at Croker is nothing knew of course to Cookstown's talisman Mulligan, who top scored in last Sunday's final with four points, and has lit up the Jones Road venue many times before with his dazzling skills ('mind a certain goal against Dublin in '05').
However for some of Mugsy's team-mates it will be a first ever competitive fixture at the Jones Road venue, though there is an anxious, gruelling sixty minutes of football to be played yet before that dream becomes reality.
Victory on Sunday was particularly sweet for some of the veterans in the Rocks line-up, men who have endured their fair share of disappointment in the light blue jersey down through the decades. Among those savouring the moment was former Tyrone defender Paul McGurk who was delighted that a long, arduous campaign was capped in such memorable fashion.
" It's been a long year. We had a meeting with Chris Lawn after he became manager in the Parochial Centre in Cookstown at the end of January. We set out our hopes and plans for the year and here we are on the 29th November with a brilliant culmination to a year of hard work.
" We went into a lot of games in Tyrone probably as favourites because we were a team coming down from Division One and we had a few county men. But believe me all year through League and Championship it hasn't been easy and that was the case again against Lavey."
The long serving defensive stalwart, an Anglo-Celt winner with Tyrone at the outset of this decade, admitted that last season's relegation from senior football hit him and the club hard, however he feels the revival this season will reinvigorate them for future assignments.
" Fifteen years I've been about the senior squad in Cookstown and after so many years of struggling against relegation and not having much to celebrate it's a brilliant day for everyone involved with the club.
" We've won the League and Championship double and no doubt people will say we were too good for Intermediate Football. But over the last number of years we just haven't proven consistent enough to be a Division One team. Last year when we went down after losing the relegation play-off against Donaghmore in Pomeroy it was just a day when nothing happened right for us. It was tough and there was a bit of soul searching went on.
The likes of myself at the latter end of my career you do question if you can still cut the mustard in Division One if you do make it back. But after days like this it keeps the enthusiasm for the old boys going."
And the 31-year old was happy to look ahead to a possible crowning moment in his club career, by collecting an All-Ireland trophy under the bowels of the Hogan Stand at Croke Park
" We'll take times to let the sores heal and muscles settle and we'll be back out then at the end of January.
" That's the beauty of this Ulster competition. We're in the All-Ireland Club series now and we're lucky enough to have men in the club with All-Ireland medals in their pockets. Even they've spoke of how special it would be to achieve something with boys they've grown up with. We'll give the All-Ireland a real rattle, though there's a lot of work to be done between now and then."
