MINE’S A TREBLE SAYS GALLAGHER

It was a good weekend for Tyrone sides with Strabane collecting the Championship and Sammy Jeffrey trophies, as well as cups for the intermediate sides of Donemana and Bready. It’s been a great season for the Red Caps under Kevin Gallagher with the new skipper proving a great success as they return to the top flight of NW cricket.

“It’s been an unreal season for us with all the lads buying into our ethos,” said Gallagher. “John Mooney coming in as player/coach gave us all a real boost and ensured everyone was on the same page.

“We worked hard, trained hard and we got our just rewards. We would have loved to have won the All-Ireland too but can have no complaints as Rush were the best team on the day. It was certainly a memorable season for the club, and one to talk about in the years to come.

“It’s a big step up now to the Premiership and also competing in the Bob Kerr. We will continue to work hard and try to add to the squad over the winter, and hopefully we can get more success in 2025.”

It wasn’t just at senior level that Strabane enjoyed a renaissance, as they put in place foundations that will stand them in good stead for the years ahead.

“The trophies won by the 1st XI team highlight the success on the field but there was a lot more to be celebrated on top of that,” outlined club stalwart Michael Gillespie.

“The youth structure that had been decimated by the Covid era has been painstakingly built back up over the last few seasons and the fruits of this hard work culminated in a return to action this season of the Club’s Under 11 and Under 13 teams. The women’s 2nd XI team completed their second competitive season and the women’s 1st XI team enjoyed their most successful season in a few years. The men’s 2nd XI team lost only 1 league game all season and were denied a tilt at promotion by the fact they lost 5 games to the weather.

“Overall, it would be fair to say that the success of the Club’s 1st XI team filtered down through all the other teams. Kevin Gallagher, in his first season as captain, did a fantastic job of organizing and marshalling the group. Supported on every front by his vice-captain, Aaron Gillespie, one of their most underrated successes was to get a consistent team out onto the pitch, week after week and this is something that we had been struggling to do in recent years. This consistency of selection created competition for places and for leading roles within the group and the team benefitted from this.   The team ethic was definitely the most important factor and this was highlighted by the turnout at training and indeed by the extra work that the lads put in.

“I was very impressed by the way that Kevin Gallagher, supported by Aaron, steered the group through what turned out to be a long season. Kevin should be very proud of the way he handled every challenge that he was presented with.

“It would be remiss of me not to talk about the positive role that John Mooney played in the team’s success. He used his international playing and coaching experience to assist Kevin and the group, whenever it was needed. As a coach, one of John’s strengths is his ability to work with players to identify their specific role and to help them and to give them the freedom and confidence to implement that role.

"He’s very adept at getting players to focus on what they’re trying to achieve, both during games and just as importantly, during training sessions. John’s also an inspiring character and he’ll never ask anyone to do something he wouldn’t do himself. This season, he’s been able to help bring a very talented bunch of cricketers together as a team. Winning cricket matches is an art and John Mooney is a winner.”