Luke looking for final glory with Loughmacrory Premium

BY RYAN FERRY

IT’S a big Sunday ahead for Luke Barrett as he tries to help guide Loughmacrory to the first ever Tyrone senior title.

Loughmacrory have had a fine campaign to date and defeated their neighbours Carrickmore – who had Ryan McHugh on their backroom team – by one point after a replay last week.

Barrett was Donegal minor manager for four seasons and was part of Jim McGuinness’s senior backroom team for two years.

He was on the sideline back in July for the All-Ireland Final defeat to Kerry, and while that was hugely disappointing, Loughmacrory’s journey has given him a different focus this term.

Rising Red Hand stars Eoin McElholm and Ruairi McCullagh lead the charge but neither had kicked a ball at adult level when Barrett first started making the two-and-a-half hour round trip from his base in Milford.

“In my final year as minor manager, I was completing my dissertation with UL but I got contacted by Ciaran Meenagh, who is kind of Mr Loughmacrory.

“At the time, he was involved with the Derry senior team but he was also working with Loughmacrory, and he was looking for someone to come in and help and be a different voice I suppose.

“I could sense the ambition but while success is great, I wasn’t getting involved thinking I’m definitely going to win something here. But you could quickly see that there was a good group of players there.

“They already had a brilliant management team in place and most of them are predominantly still there – Ryan Keenan, Stephen McCullagh, Mark McCullagh, and Aaron Bradley.

“I’ve been involved for three years and Martin Boyle came in as manager two years ago.

“I would have managed against Martin and he won the All-Ireland Minor with Derry in 2020 so I was very familiar with work and it was just a seamless bedding in period.

“The whole club were extremely welcoming from the outset and you were made feel like one of their own. It’s been a privilege to be involved with them for the last few years.”

It is somewhat of a peculiar working arrangement.

Barrett and Boyle’s teams had some big battles at Ulster Minor level, while Ciaran Meenagh was coaching Down this year when Donegal defeated them in the semi-final.

Aodhan Donaghy, Oisin O’Kane, Cathal Donaghy, and the aforementioned McElholm were all involved with a Tyrone team that Barrett and Donegal encountered twice in 2025.

However, the 32-year-old says there have never been any lingering issues after intercounty games and they have all been building in the one direction with Loughmacrory.

“The big draw for me when I went in initially was the opportunity to learn from Ciaran Meenagh.

“He’d been involved at a high level and was involved in two successful Ulster Championship winning teams with Derry.

“I felt I could learn and develop from working with this person and then obviously Martin has been very successful as well.

“I know it might sound strange when you’re with different counties but myself and Martin would have got on well when he was Derry minor management.

“We would have been in contact organising challenge games and so on and we would have had a quiet word after games that we were competing in. There was a mutual respect there.

“With the intercounty season, I would consider Ciaran one of my closest friends but we didn’t talk in the lead up to the Down game. We shook hands before the match and after it and there was never anything untoward about it then or since.

“Ciaran and Martin and the rest of the management were very supportive of my Donegal journey as well.

“There would have rarely have been a day when they wouldn’t have wished me good luck. Most of them were at the All-Ireland Final supporting me.

“It’s more about building relationships and connections – rather than networking.

“It’s just a really good group of people who are working towards the same goal of getting the players into the best position to compete.

“We’ve done that now and we have earned our place in the county final on Sunday.”

In Donegal, the club season began on the first weekend in April and the first-choice county players weren’t involved until a group phase of the championship and there were then four knock-out rounds.

In Tyrone, the league didn’t start until June 1, but county players played two-thirds of the league and then went into a straight knock-out championship.

It can lead to a very short season if defeated early. For the second year in-a-row, Dromore lost in the first round, meaning their senior team were only playing competitive matches for three-and-a-half months.

Barrett feels that cut-throat nature appeals to players and supporters.

“I think to be honest the model Tyrone have works brilliant.

“There’s 16 teams in Division 1 and they are the teams that play in the Senior Championship. Your league standing is dictated by the league you’re playing in.

“The first five league games are starred so teams with county players are paired off with each other and you have ten games then before the championship.

“The players seem to enjoy it. They can have an off season this side of Christmas.

“Some of our people have gone travelling for a couple of months and came back in good time.

“You’re playing league games with your full team, and there’s huge crowds and the games are on Friday nights which adds to it.

“People might say when it’s knock-out, you’re putting in a lot of effort for one game but what I notice is even the teams at the bottom of the league who are in relegation danger can still put it up to the best teams.

“It’s all luck of the draw which everyone seems to like.”

Loughmacrory will take on Trillick at Healy Park and they are favourites after knocking out Ulster champions, Errigal Ciaran.

However, when the sides met two seasons ago, Trillick only won after a penalty shoot-out.

“Trillick have been probably the benchmark since I got involved.

“They have a lot of very good players and a strong level of depth.

“We do believe that we have a lot of good players and have a lot of good work done.

“We’re certainly not going with the attitude that we’re happy to be in the first final. The players want to maximise the opportunity.”

Barrett has stepped away from the Donegal management team ahead of the 2026 season and he’s likely to have plenty of intercounty and club offers to weigh up over the winter months but is coy on his future.

“I haven’t thought about anything other than Loughmacrory.

“I was up at training on the Tuesday after Donegal were beaten in the All-Ireland Final. It was all systems go to get to this point.

“I haven’t thought anything else about it. I’m doing a Masters (in Skill Acquisition in Sport) in MTU at the minute and I’ve taken part-time in work for that.

“I don’t know where my coaching journey will take me but at the moment all I’m concentrating on is Loughmacrory and the final on Sunday.”