Mattie Donnelly has been around so long that it can sometimes be forgotten that he was outstanding for years before Tyrone won the All-Ireland. He was twice an All Star and captained the county when they reached the 2018 All-Ireland final.
He played a significant role in landing the Sam Maguire three years later and was nominated for another All Star but by then injury had already begun to complicate his career.
By his own account, Sunday in Omagh was only his second full match in two years but it was significant. Tyrone needed the points as they were stranded at the foot of Division One – not the easiest of circumstances in which to welcome All-Ireland champions.
In their best display of the season, the 2021 champions took the points and Donnelly, now 32 years old, after a great personal performance, took the Man of the Match award. It was a redemptive afternoon for the Trillick forward, who has sustained two serious hamstring tears in the past couple of years.
In 2019 he tore it badly in an Ulster club championship match against Derrygonnelly and then last year, already battling a shoulder injury, worse was to come. Topically, Kerry provided a link.
“It was a bad injury but what a lot of people probably don’t know is that last year, down in Killarney, I actually suffered a worse one. The scans came back saying it was worse and they were looking for me to go for surgery again,” Donnelly says.
I used to be on the other side of the fence where you’re starting. You’re maybe captain and you think you can empathise with boys that aren’t getting minutes
“Same injury. The one in 2019 was graded a 3C and the one in Killarney last year was a 4C in the same hamstring but different tendon.
“When I got the phone call at that stage to tell me the scan results I was in a pretty bad place then in that I thought that was me cooked.”
He had a decision to make. Go under the knife again and he was signing up for a lengthy rehabilitation process, already familiar to him. Or try to recover without surgical intervention.
“I just thought that if I went for surgery, that was me done because it’s such a long way back and the body takes so long to get over it,” Donnelly says.
“I made the decision against a lot of advice to avoid surgery at that stage so there’s been a lot of hard work to get over that hurdle and there still is a lot of work just to keep the body right and to compete at this level.”
He has had to come to terms with being dropped and at times not first choice but bears it stoically.
“I used to be on the other side of the fence where you’re starting. You’re maybe captain and you think you can empathise with boys that aren’t getting minutes,” Donnelly says.
“You’re always telling them to be positive and that they’re putting the service down to Tyrone. I’d be a bit hypocritical if I didn’t practise what I preach there. That’s all I’ve been trying to do.
“No point lying, the last two years I went through the wringer with injuries and that but I’m content with where I’m at. There’s a lot of football to be played and, although I wasn’t getting many minutes, I had full faith that I could contribute to Tyrone.
“Whether it’s starting or coming off the bench, I’ll do it. Like the rest of them I’ve a lot of work to do.”
His form at the weekend was like a career rewind, moving well and linking the play as well as kicking three valuable points.
If we had have got that time, you never know what way the outcome would have gone but there’s no doubting it was a poor attempt
If Tyrone can maintain the improvement, they have two remaining matches to ensure that they stay in the top division. Both weeks involve Ulster opponents with Monaghan up next, also desperate for points to stay up and who haven’t lost this fixture in the league for four years.
Surviving in Division One would function as a turning point for a team that endured a grim 2022 when defending their All-Ireland. There were a number of departures from the panel and, while none was in itself hugely undermining, the collective loss of players from a successful panel must have been demoralising, even if Donnelly missed the whole championship.
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“We were disappointed. It was being brutally honest, a feeble attempt but having said that I don’t believe any All-Ireland champions have ever faced the turnaround and the fixtures schedule we had in terms of the club season and Covid,” Donnelly says.
“The schedules were impacted in going straight from the club into the county and I don’t think anyone got a chance to reset and refocus.
“If we had have got that time, you never know what way the outcome would have gone but there’s no doubting it was a poor attempt. We’re not the first team to fall at the back-to-back.”
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They aren’t and particularly in a county that struggled to defend its All-Ireland titles.
“You can probably trace it to the club game,” Donnelly says, “and club teams going back-to-back at that level. Maybe we get a bit too high when we’re up but some Tyrone team is going to crack it so we’ll see.”
