Yahoo Sports Errigal Ciaran set for 'dream' All-Ireland final
Errigal Ciaran defender Aidan McCrory believes his side are "living off hope" ahead of their All-Ireland Club Championship final against Cuala.
The Tyrone side are aiming to win their first All-Ireland club title when they face the Dublin outfit in Sunday's decider at Croke Park.
After a dramatic extra-time win over Dr Crokes in the last four, McCrory is hopeful his side can once again rise to the occasion in their quest to make history.
"You hope you can go out and put in a performance you are happy with and proud of," McCrory told BBC Sport.
"After that you just have to accept what happens.
"If you can find some footage of the pitch in Armagh after the Ulster Final or the pitch in Newbridge after the semi-final win and see all the people out there, Everyone was buzzing.
"To see the next step up from that would be just amazing."
'It's been a dream'
The 37-year-old, a two-time Ulster Championship winner with Tyrone, admits that it was difficult to envisage reaching this stage of the competition given the competitive nature of not only their county championship but also the provincial one.
"When you're young at 16, 17 or 18 you don't have the experiences to say how hard this might; you're looking and you're going 'we could do that'," McCrory explained.
"When you start playing championship football you realise how tough it is and you start to think less you might ever get there but it's just been a dream."
All-Ireland success has been the impossible dream for club sides from Tyrone as no team from the county has ever reached the final before, never mind lifted the Andy Merrigan Cup.
In recent years, there has been Ulster success in the showpiece finale to the club football season with Down's Kilcoo (2022) and Derry's Glen (2024) taking home All-Ireland honours.
For Errigal Ciaran to make history, they will have to get passed Cuala, who won the Dublin and Leinster football titles for the first time this year and are also bidding for a maiden All-Ireland club football title.
"You can look at opposition, but we've never played them, so you don't know and that's the beauty of it," McCrory told BBC Sport NI.
"You get a bit of looking at them, but you don't know what it feels like to be in against them and how they really play football, so we're hoping, we're living off hope."
