Midfielder O’Neill at the centre of Tyrone triumph

Tyrone produced an outstanding display of attacking football at O’Moore Park in Portlaoise on Sunday afternoon to deservedly lift their second All Ireland U20 title in three years.

1-18 of their 1-20 tally came from play with the triple threat of Ruairi McCullagh, Ronan Cassidy and man of the match Eoin McElholm notching 0-17 between them. It was a superb team display with the defence producing a number of blocks and turnovers while midfield ran themselves to a standstill.

One of those midfielders was Conor O’Neill and the Donaghmore man was delighted afterwards. After winning a number of underage titles with his club he added an Ulster Minor Championship medal and then followed that up with All Ireland success with his school last year.

“It’s unbelievable to win an All Ireland in my first year at this level, its the stuff of dreams,” said Conor.

“I can’t put it into words to be honest, it’s unreal. There is a serious amount of work being done at clubs and schools in Tyrone and it came to fruition out there today. Conditions were very testing out there in the heat and in the first half I was probably feeling sorry for myself a little but the second half we got it together and played better.

“I don’t know how many times we hit the post in the first half it must have been 3 or 4. Paul just calmed us down in the second and told us to keep kicking the ball over the bar.”

Tyrone certainly did just that in the second half with man of the match Eoin McElholm hitting 0-7 and Ruairi McCullagh 0-5 each. Conor paid tribute to the team for their workrate.
“Rooster, Macca and Cass were just unbelievable when we got the ball up to them,” said Conor.

“To kick 17 points between them is unbelievable on any day but to do it in an All Ireland Final is unreal, they were just relentless. Having said that a lot of credit has to go to our defence. It all starts with the defence. Joey Clarke had a great block on Cormac Dillon while Callum Daly came up with serious blocks when it mattered most, while Mickey Rafferty led by example – and it takes that all to come through.

“We put in serious work with the management team for a number of months but it was well worth it to be standing here today as an All Ireland winner.”