THE Ulster semi-final win over Tyrone in 2011 remains one of Donegal’s most significant victories in recent times – and it’s a day Martin O’Reilly won’t forget in a hurry.
The football semi-final was delayed because the curtain raiser – the Ulster Under-21 hurling final – went to extra time.
O’Reilly played in that hurling final and scored a point as Donegal won 4-16 to 3-18 on a day when Ciaran Matthewson bagged 3-8. It is often forgotten that O’Reilly was tipped as one of the best emerging hurlers in Donegal at that time.
O’Reilly watched, exhausted and drained, from the Gerry Arthurs Stand as goals by Colm McFadden and Dermot Molloy shot Donegal to a 2-6 to 0-9 win over Tyrone in a tense semi.
When Donegal defeated Down three weeks later to win their first Ulster SFC title in 19 years, O’Reilly watched on from a bar in Grand Canaria, where he was on holidays.
A couple of months later, on the day of the Donegal senior football championship final, Donegal played Crossmaglen to mark the opening of the new pitch in Castlederg.
O’Reilly was one of the new faces called up by Jim McGuinness for that day.
“Jim rang me up and I couldn’t really believe it,” O’Reilly later remembered in an interview.
“I just wanted to get playing with the under 21s that year. I was only out of the minors, so I thought that was the realistic thing.
“All I was preparing for was the under 21s; next thing I know is I’m on the bus with the senior team.
[adrotate group=”76”]“Even getting the word that I was being called in to train with the team. That was just an amazing call to get.”
O’Reilly won Ulster and All-Ireland medals in 2012 and has since pocketed another Ulster medal and was back to an All-Ireland final in 2014.
That December, Rory Gallagher – who had succeeded Jim McGuinness as manager – dispatched O’Reilly to train with the Donegal Under-21s. He’d big plans for the Sean MacCumhaills man and it was a move designed to improve the fitness and finesse of the player.
[adrotate group=”37″]O’Reilly is now in his fifth year on the Donegal panel, but he has been an often-unheralded player.
However, he was Man of the Match in the semi-final replay win over Monaghan, kicking two points on a day when he was tasked with marking Karl O’Connell, the pick of the field in the drawn encounter.
Gallagher has certainly been taken by O’Reilly.
[adrotate group=”38″]“We’re working with him for five years now and he keeps coming back for more,” the Donegal manager said.
“Marty has had to fight for everything he’s got. He empties the tank and keeps on smiling. In the last 18 months he has really dug in and has got himself a lot fitter. He had glandular fever one year which kept him out.
“We have found a position for him now. He played inside when we were stuck for someone inside but, whether it’s in the half-back or half-forward line he’s comfortable.”
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