Carrickmore’s championship tradition is the envy of every other club in Tyrone, a model of sustained excellence often imitated but never equalled.
It will be several years before their record of 15 titles is challenged, but in the meantime the pursuit goes on.
Dromore is one of many clubs with a dream to be recognised as a leading force, and their O’Neill Cup opener against Carrickmore on Friday gives them an opportunity to take another step on that path.
“Carrickmore is a championship team, and they always pride themselves in being a championship team,” says Dromore defender Peter Teague.
“They have been there throughout the years for a long time, whereas we’re only more recent success in the noughties, but we’re trying to stamp our authority on the championship and become a championship team as well.
“That’s our vision as a club, to become a championship team and to be competing every year, and we feel like we have been doing that more recently in the last few years, which is always good.”
Both teams go into the Healy Park tie on the back of strong league campaigns, Carrickmore making the semi-finals, Dromore falling just short of qualification.
“We played Carrickmore in the first round of the league and they gave us a lesson that day.
“They’re a formidable team definitely, and they have been lucky enough with injuries this year, bar one or two.
“And they have been a really consistent team throughout the league, compared to most other teams.
“They have been able to keep that consistent 16, 17 players every week, and whenever you’re able to do that and build confidence in each other as a team, it’s very hard to break that down.”
Injuries in the early part of the season contributed to a sluggish start for the St Dympna’s, but they have grown stronger in the approach to the business end of the year.
“We definitely struggled with injuries this year, there’s no doubt about it,” said Teague.
“You could argue we have been forced into being a team in transition at the moment because of that.
“We have been forced to play a lot of younger lads earlier than we had expected, but in fairness to the younger lads, they have stepped in and done really well, our young minor lads, backboned by a lot of boys that featured in the MacRory Cup this year.
“It’s great to get them in and get them involved in senior football.”
The loss of a number of players who went travelling to Australia has been difficult to deal with at Gardrum Park, but the return from Oz of clinical finisher Emmet McNabb could solve some of Dromore’s attacking problems.
“Emmet was a massive loss to us last year, as were the other fellows that emigrated to Australia.
“We’re missing six or seven lads that played in the county final three years ago, and that’s a serious loss to any team.
“Primarily Emmet McNabb was a massive loss. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to get him on to the pitch this year as of yet, but fingers crossed, hopefully he’ll be able to feature in some way.
“But time is against him at the moment. It’s just one of those things, but it’s great to have that competition in the forward unit.”
Sudden-death football sets the Tyrone series apart, with no room for error.
Most other counties have adopted a round-robin system ahead of the knock-out stages, but Teague is driven by the jeopardy that makes the race for the O’Neill Cup unparalleled in terms of drama and ferocity.
“Personally, I love the championship in Tyrone. It’s dog eat dog, it’s great when you win and it’s so hard whenever you lose, and it can take you two, three, weeks to get over it. Sometimes you can’t get over it.
“But that’s the nature of it, we all know that that’s the laws of the game in Tyrone, and I think everybody embraces that and looks forward to it.
“It’s up for debate whether a second bite at the cherry would be good, but I like the way it is.”