After a stunning replay win over Errigal Ciaran, Edendork's strength-in-depth is set to be severely tested for this weekend's Ulster Club SFC preliminary round meeting with Down champions Clonduff

Ulster Club SFC preliminary round: Clonduff (Down) v Edendork (Tyrone) (Saturday, 6.15pm, Páirc Esler Newry)

Newly-crowned Tyrone champions will be without Neil Kilpatrick for Saturday’s Ulster Club SFC preliminary round meeting with Clonduff and, perhaps, the remainder of the season.

Kilpatrick, who is the younger brother of Tyrone star Conn, made a 14,320-mile round trip from Doha in Qatar in order to feature for Edendork as they claimed their maiden Tyrone SFC title following a replay win over Errigal Ciaran.

After missing their opening win over Ardboe, he made the trip four times, including in between the drawn game and last Friday’s replay in Omagh.

Speaking at Tuesday night’s launch of the Ulster Club series in Cookstown ’s Glenavon Hotel, manager Brian McGuckin revealed that Kilpatrick won’t be able to return home for their meeting with Down champions Clonduff and said any involvement in a potential quarter-final or beyond hasn’t been discussed.

“It is highly unlikely that Neil Kilpatrick will be available for us now - he is heading back to Qatar,” said McGuckin.

“He won’t be available for this weekend anyway. Beyond that, I don’t know.

“He had said he would make himself available for the Tyrone Championship, but that he couldn’t commit further than that. We will see. With a bit of persuasion, you never know.”

Whether or not Kilpatrick plays for St Malachy’s again in 2026 remains to be seen.

His impact and influence on an historic season cannot be understated according to McGuckin.

“It’s funny because he had been coming home to play League football for about six weeks for us and I was torturing him about playing in the Championship,” added McGuckin.

“When the Dingle lads were coming home from Australia, what excuse did he have?

“Thanfully, he committed this year and he said if we could get a Friday night fixture he’d come home and we got one in our second game against Clonoe.

“He keeps himself in supreme condition.He was playing a wee bit of football over there, a wee bit of nine-a-side. His skill set and all was to a high level.

“You have to take into account just the man and who he is. He's a phenomenal fella and he's a phenomenal footballer. If we need a fire put out in the opposition, he’s the man that you call upon.

“We just felt that in order for us to go on a run this year, that Neil committing and coming home was an absolute requirement.”

The younger Kilpatrick sibling did at least get to enjoy a few days of celebrations after Niall Morgan’s last-gasp two-pointer sealed a famous win for St Malachy’s.

Yet, the swift turnaround for the forthcoming provincial series meant Edendork weren’t able to enjoy a traditional ‘Monday Club’ as they returned to training to prepare for their meeting with Clonduff.

“We didn’t have a ‘Monday Club’ - we obviously partied hard on Friday night. They had a Saturday club and a Sunday club!

“We got them all back together on Monday night. We got them rehydrated and got them food. We started the whole recovery process in preparation for Saturday’s game.

“The whole thing has just been madness to tell you the God's honest truth. It was just sheer exhilaration for us all. I suppose now, three or four days later, we're starting to come to terms with it and realise what we have achieved.

“I’m just very, very proud of all the players and just delighted for them that they've finally achieved something that we always felt was out of reach.

“It's a culmination of a lot of hard work and a lot of commitment. I had said to them that we had great confidence in them and in order for us to win it this year, we felt that we were going to have to put all the pieces of the jigsaw together.

I just felt that everything fell into place for us this year.”

Edendork are also sweating over the fitness of midfielder Luke Ferguson, who picked up a knock in the replay win over Errigal.

The Dunmoyle outfit were Ulster club champions two years ago, but no other team from Tyrone has lifted the Seamus McFerran Cup.

McGuckin feels their battles with Errigal ought to stand to them, but concedes it is a big ask to topple the Down kingpins, who defeated Burren almost three weeks ago on Sunday, October 11.

“We have beaten some massive teams on our way to the Tyrone Championship,” stated McGuckin.

“We are playing a Clonduff team who are in the same boat as ourselves. They are coming into the Ulster Club Championship for the first time in a number of decades. I suppose they obviously have a bit more recovery than us.

“If we can get our best performance, I think we have a really good chance of winning the match.”