By Cian O’Connell

Jody Gormley is back where it all began.

During an interesting coaching career, featuring stints at every level of the game, Gormley is in charge of his home club, Trillick, who face Errigal Ciarán in the Tyrone SFC Final on Sunday.

“It is a lot different managing in your own club, managing guys when you know their parents and uncles, guys you would have played with,” Gormley acknowledges. “So there is a connection you wouldn't necessarily have in another club.”

Gormley, the former Tyrone star, accumulated significant experience as a coach and manager with the Antrim senior team while in his 30s a couple of decades ago.

“When you reflect on it, I was probably very inexperienced, I was still playing,” he recalls. “I was only 35, it was a good experience, but looking back there are probably things I could have done differently.

“When you are at the start of a journey, that is part of it. You learn from your mistakes, you reflect on what you can do better, and you try learn as you go along.”

With Abbey CBS Gormley managed a Hogan Cup winning outfit too. Making an impact in different grades mattered, but returning to spearhead Trillick’s drive for silverware is a nice challenge.

“I think it is a good thing to maybe learn your trade away from home before you come back,” Gormley says. “It takes years of trying out different ideas, dealing with people, seeing what works and what you could do better. I think it has been a good experience for me.

“I really enjoy coaching and management, so it was always something I had in the back of my head, that I'd like to get involved with Trillick again.

“I got the opportunity last year to come in as a coach under Nigel Seaney and then it was a natural progression whenever Nigel stood down that I would take over.”

Long before Trillick stitched a sequence of wins together in the 2023 Tyrone SFC, Gormley sensed something was stirring. “There is a real positive energy in the group in Trillick,” he says. “The level of commitment is absolutely first class. You have great leaders, a great bunch of players to work with.

“The fellas involved in the management team are all very dedicated and committed. It is a pleasure heading down to training every evening. There is a good excitement around the group, but there has been from the start of the year, it isn't just because we are in the county final.

“You are dealing with players who really want to play for Trillick, you are dealing with people, who want to be involved in managing Trillick. There is a very positive energy around the group. That is what has contributed to how we have progressed so far.”

Gormley won a couple of Ulster Championships with Tyrone in 1995 and 1996 under the shrewd guidance of Art McRory. “I learned a lot from big Art about how to manage people,” Gormley remarks. “I'd have similar values regarding commitment and hard work. You learn an awful lot along the way.”

Not long after that memorable spell with Tyrone, Gormley was in London. Football was on the agenda with the county side and Tír Chonaill Gaels. “I was playing for Tír Chonaill Gaels, I helped out training the team when I was there,” he vividly remembers. “That whet my appetite for getting involved training teams to be honest. Then when I came here, I did the PGCE, I was living in Belfast at the time.

“I actually got an opportunity to train Antrim for PJ O'Hare. So I did, it sort of took off from there. In my first year in the Abbey we had a really good team, we won the Hogan Cup, I managed that team.

“So, I suppose, it has evolved over the years, like everything else, you gain experience. It was good to gain a lot of experience before I came back home to Trillick.”

Gormley’s managerial adventure is still going strong.