Former dual star McCullagh precious to Harte

GIVEN THE close and sometimes uncanny resemblance between Gaelic football and soccer it's surprising there's not a more regular transfer market.

Few players have made the move, either one way or the other, partly because it's not something generally encouraged, or generally successful.

While there have been some successful alliances in recent years - including Dublin's Jason Sherlock at Shamrock Rovers, Donegal's Brendan Devenny at Finn Harps, and Westmeath's Gary Connaughton at Athlone Town - it's never really been an issue for the GAA, unlike say the transfer market between Australian Rules football, or even the transfer market between football and hurling.

The precise moments when Colm McCullagh transferred from Gaelic football to soccer and back again are a little fuzzy. Sometimes he played both.

What is certain is McCullagh is now solely and purposely a Tyrone footballer; certain to be wearing the number 15 shirt for Sunday's All-Ireland final against Kerry; and certainly a key component of their scoring artillery.

Although he's now 30 years old, McCullagh is one of the fresh faces on the Tyrone team (particularly as he still looks about 18) and Sunday marks his first start in an All-Ireland final.

He was on the panel in 2005, but only made one brief appearance during that All-Ireland run, and this has been the first summer where he's truly nailed down a starting position.

He may be what is sometimes unfairly termed a late developer and there's no doubt he's playing the best football of his career, but McCullagh has not come this far by accident.

In 1995 he first tried out with the Tyrone minors, but never made the cut. He did make the under-21 team for a while but not during their successful years. He was also given a run on the senior panel as far back as 2001, under Tyrone's previous management team of Art McRory and Eugene McKenna.

Around then, however, he pursued his interest in soccer, which soon pursued an interest in him. He had played a junior international with Northern Ireland, and got himself a contract with Omagh Town in the Irish League Premier Division, ending up as club captain in 2003.

Although McCullagh continued to play some Gaelic football with Dromore, the newly installed Tyrone manager Mickey Harte drew a line through any dual commitments: if McCullagh wanted to play on his panel, the soccer would have to go.

"There had to be a choice at county level," says Harte, "I don't believe you can handle both games at that level. At a time, he chose to play soccer, and I respected that. At another time, when he was asked the question, he went for the Gaelic."

That question came at the start of 2004: McCullagh having tried out in the McKenna Cup, scoring 2-10, Harte asked him to commit to Tyrone - which of course meant surrendering his earnings with Omagh Town.

McCullagh hardly hesitated.

"Gaelic's always been my number-one sport," he says. "Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed playing soccer as well but when I've ever had to pick I've always gone for the Gaelic. It will always be number one."

But was there ever any interest from the big-money boys across the Irish Sea?

"No, unfortunately not."

Still, it took him a while to break into the team. He was unlucky with injuries in early 2005, breaking a rib and also a bone in his hand, and was never in contention for a starting place on that All-Ireland winning line-up.

After getting married later that year, McCullagh then took another break from Gaelic football, and returned to soccer - playing half a season with Newry City in 2006.

The next time he returned to the Tyrone team it was for good.

As he continued to shine for Dromore, Harte went looking for him again, and after being released from Newry, McCullagh found himself in the starting 15 for Tyrone's All-Ireland qualifier replay against Louth in June 2006. He's been a first-choice corner forward, preferably the left corner, practically ever since.

"He's such a quality player," adds Harte, "and we're only now seeing the best of him at national level. He has a lot of skill, is a very composed player, and is still developing his game along the way. I can see huge development in the way he's playing.

"I mean he's really developed as a playmaker; that's really the new dimension to his game. He was always skilful, could always take a score, always very controlled on the ball. But his capacity to play men into the game is very much to the fore now."

McCullagh has all the attributes of a good forward: the ability to get on the ball, to collect and distribute passes, to score or set up a score, all done at tremendous pace. Off the field, he's both quiet and quietly confident. Like the rest of his team-mates, he saw losing to Down earlier in the summer as a temporary setback.

"I just know after the Down game we all sat down, realised we were out of the Ulster championship, and discussed where we wanted to go from there. We said we'd take each game and see where that took us. We struggled, maybe, in some of those games. Definitely the Mayo game. And against Westmeath as well. But we snuck through them and improved as we went along.

"The Dublin game really was just a case of playing well, whereas against Mayo, say, we didn't play particularly well. But Kerry represent a new challenge again. They've definitely been the best team in the country for the past few years, going for the three in a row now. So this is probably the game everyone wanted."

The game McCullagh has wanted too, and waited for, for over a decade.

COLM McCULLAGH

Age: 30

Club: Dromore

Position: Left corner forward

Honours: All-Ireland SFC 2005, Ulster SFC 2005, 2007