Aidan McCrory: Retirement on hold as former Tyrone full-back seeks All-Ireland glory with Errigal Ciaran

Retirement is very much on hold for Errigal Ciaran’s long-serving full-back Aidan McCrory as a storied career turns a corner into an enthralling new world.

At 37, he has just stepped into the most successful stage of his club journey, rejuvenated by a first Ulster Club Championship triumph.

The former Tyrone defender is hoping it can get even better this weekend when he tackles Munster champions Dr Crokes in the All-Ireland semi-final.

“If I’d retired a couple of years ago at an age that retirement wouldn’t have been inconceivable, I’d have retired with a lot less than what I have now,” he said.

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“In the last couple of years I’ve won as much as I’ve won in the early part of my club career.

“It’s been a long road and there’s been plenty of sad days, and you get more years that end in bad days than good days, and you grow up maybe dreaming a bit of getting to this stage of the competition.

“And as you get older you realise that they’re just dreams, and you start to think maybe you’re never going to actually get there, but thankfully this year everything just came together for us, and we just kind of went on the crest of a wave.”

Errigal have progressed to this stage of the competition twice before, but come nowhere close to the achievements of two-time All-Ireland champions Dr Crokes.

“Dr Crokes have an unbelievable club history that we can only dream of.

“Coming up against teams of that calibre is what you want to be doing.

“These are the games that you want to be part of. And playing on the stage that we’re playing at now, you can’t ask for more than that,” said McCrory, an Ulster Championship winner with Tyrone in 2016 and 2017.

Through the Tyrone and Ulster championships, Errigal have progressed along a steady learning curve that began as soon as new manager Enda McGinley and his right hand man Stephen Quinn arrived at the start of the year.

“I think if we weren’t learning we wouldn’t be improving, and if we weren’t improving we wouldn’t have achieved what we’ve achieved this year.

“Not just what Enda and Stevie have brought in, but also about our squad, the new players that we’ve brought in that are playing more senior football now, we’re learning about them, what they can bring to the game, what their strengths are, and how we can make the most out of the strengths of our players.”

A first round scare saw Pomeroy grab a couple of late goals and threaten a shock, but Errigal’s defensive record has been impressive since then, and they conceded just one major over four Ulster Championship ties.

“Pomeroy got a couple of goals from high balls that we didn’t deal with well enough.

“So when something like that happens, you put a wee bit more emphasis on it.

“So if we hadn’t improved from that point, we wouldn’t be still in the Championship.

“So definitely, it’s one of the things that we have improved on through the championship that have helped us get to where we are.

“There’s no drastic secret about it. It’s just about being prepared for it.

“We just practice it in training. A long, high ball is no different than a short, quick ball. You need to know what your opposition is capable of.

“You need to know what the player you’re marking is capable of, what the player on the ball is capable of.

“And you’re just always trying to make sure that you protect your goals and that you keep your opponent down as much as possible.”

The class of 2024 have joined the heroes of 1993 and 2002 as legend of Dunmoyle, and now the current Errigal team has an opportunity to go a step further than their forebearers.

Nemo Rangers twice halted the march of the Tyrone champions at All-Ireland semi-final stage, the most recent of those defeats witnessed by a youthful Aidan McCrory.

“I’d have been 14 or so I remember bits and pieces of it.

“I suppose the real things that stick in your memory from back then is the after, it’s the crowd on the pitch, it’s the buzz and everything that the whole club had, probably more so than the football at that stage.

“But yeah, that last weekend definitely, and the early part of this week brought back a lot of memories of those times, of what we experienced as children.”