That sense of unbridled joy is there for all to see in the faces of Sean Og Grogan and Damian Casey.
The pair had soldiered together for years with the Tyrone hurlers, Grogan in his mid-30s, Casey just turned 29 that year. This was the high water mark.
Tyrone hurling had never soared so high. A Nicky Rackard Cup triumph had just been secured to go with a place in Division 2, secured earlier in the season.
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Casey had just hit 14 points in an All-Ireland final. Grogan was a happy man, delighted he would bow out of inter-county hurling at Croke Park as an All-Ireland champion.
It was the perfect ending. Little did he know what lay ahead. A few short weeks later Grogan was standing outside St. Patrick’s church in Dungannon at Casey’s funeral after he died suddenly on holiday in Spain.
He got talking to CJ McGourty - the former Antrim dual player who had thrown his lot in with Tyrone. Both men had decided to retire after the Rackard Cup win.
Now, they just couldn’t level.
Tonight, Tyrone will play competitively for the first time since the man many believe is the county’s greatest ever hurler, passed away.
London are in town at Casey’s home club, Eoghan Ruadh, Dungannon for a Division 2B encounter. It will be the first time Tyrone take to the field without their late forward star in over a decade.
Casey lined out in 101 games in a row for the county, an “absolutely crazy” stat in the eyes of Grogan. Tonight will be difficult, strange and poignant as they honour the memory of their late friend and teammate.
“A few of us were talking that whole time that Damian died,” recalls Grogan.
“We were standing outside the chapel, obviously after the funeral and that. I remember saying to CJ - he had hung them up - ‘We can’t walk away now.’
“Back at that stage, we’d said it. A few boys like myself were maybe on our last legs. We were always saying it. We were not being persuaded to come back.
“We were coming back and that was it - because of Damian. That’s why we are back. He was the main man for a long time.
“We are just trying to represent the county and represent him too, maybe if we can, to the best of our ability and hopefully keep Tyrone hurling on the upwards curve it was on the last few years.”
Grogan continues: “I had definitely hung them up in Croke Park last year. It was quite satisfying.
“I remember thinking to myself it’s not too often you get to retire in Croke Park on a win. It was pretty nice.
“But you couldn’t. You just couldn’t walk away, with everybody having been through that together as a team last year. And we were a close side.
“You want to try and do whatever you can now. The legs mightn't be fit for much more, but if I can give whatever to help at training, just to try and push the thing on.
“See if we could get a good positive season in Division 2.
“We are all there pushing on, which is good. We are all in it together that way, which is a good sign. Everybody is back.
“It’s a mark of Damian that it doesn’t have to be reinforced. Everybody just knows why we are doing it.
“With what happened ‘D’ it’s always going to be that wee bit different. In the camp everybody seems to be determined to try and represent Tyrone on behalf of Damian as best we can
“I think there is a good bit of determination to try and do ourselves justice and Damian.”
Grogan was standing on the line at club training last summer, injured, when he received a phone call he will never forget.
“I just ran out and stopped club training,” he says. “The manager and the boys were, ‘What are you on about?’
‘Just stop training.’
“I told everybody about Damian and everybody just literally walked away to their cars. It was disbelief at the time.
“It just hits you every now and again. It’s not that you forget. Just something comes up or a picture, or you see something, and you start thinking about the good times you had, and how unfair it is.
“Damian was a supremely talented hurling and all the accolades are completely deserved, but he was just a nice lad too. A good personality and really easy going. It’s just awful it happened to him.”
Tyrone were playing a challenge match a few nights back.
Another fleeting trigger.
“It was just seeing somebody lining up to hit the frees, wee things like that,” says Grogan. “It was always Damian on them.”
Michael McShane, the Tyrone manager, says the main reason he ended up in the job was through conversations with Casey.
“It was his passion for Tyrone hurling that really enticed me,” says McShane. “When he talked about Tyrone hurling he talked about it with a serious passion.
“I am a very passionate hurling man myself. I love my game. I would have known a bit about club hurling in Tyrone.
“Damian would have confirmed it for me, that they were probably punching below their weight and there was talent in the county that could be harnessed.
“They weren’t realising their potential. It was a challenge and there’s nothing I like more than a challenge.
“I got to know him very, very well. He was the captain for the first year. Everyone accepts and would have known that Damian was the driving force behind Tyrone hurling.
“He was a big part of any of my decision making.”
McShane recalls it vividly, the “awful high” of winning the Rackard Cup and how low they were as a group a few short weeks later.
“The excitement of winning that,” says the Ballycastle man, who has managed Slaughtneil for nine years. “We had a fabulous season.
“When the news filtered through it was obviously a massive shock to everybody throughout the county, most especially obviously to Damian’s family and close friends.
“He had a lot of close friends on the team. We all mourned together. We got together a couple of nights after Damian’s passing and we talked. There was a lot of emotion in the room.
“We just said we will be there for each other. We would support each other.
“There was a great outpouring of grief across Tyrone and the country. There was a week we were waiting for Damian’s remains to come home.
“We just kept talking to each other and kept the communication lines open and tried to play our part in supporting Damian’s family and honouring him on the day of the funeral.
“The Dungannon club put a lot of things in place to help their own players to deal with that.
“Everybody wanted to deal with it in their own way. Some people processed it quicker than others.”
McShane says it took him time to try and work through it: “Personally, I found it very difficult for a number of weeks, just to get my head around that it had actually happened.
“That you had gone from the highest of highs, standing looking at Damian in Croke Park putting 14 balls over the bar in an All-Ireland final and four weeks later he is no longer with you.
“It’s very hard to process that and get used to it. We were just all there for each other. When we got back together things were going to go one of two ways.
“Either the heart was going to be ripped out of everybody and nobody would have the desire to go back. Or people were going to put their shoulder to the wheel harder than they have ever done and push Tyrone on.
“That was the attitude of everybody that was there last year and people who have come on board this year. They are doing it for one reason. We don’t shout it from the rooftops.
“It’s being done for one reason and one reason only. Hopefully we can get a win in Dungannon and honour Damian’s memory in the best possible way.
“We will never forget Damian Casey, what he brought to Tyrone and what he represents.
“Every man with Tyrone senior hurlers this year, whether a player or manager are doing it for one primary reason, to carry on the great work Damian Casey did for Tyrone hurling over 10 years.
“He’s the man that carried the baton of responsibility and now it’s been passed on to each and every one. We feel that responsibility.
“We take a lot of pride in doing that and carrying that on and that’s what we hope to do. The best way to serve Damian’s memory is to keep driving Tyrone to a better place, the best place they can possibly be.
“We have already done that last year with Damian’s help and input and now without him we have to carry on.”
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