Newcomer Cush happy to be in Tyrone senior fold

JOINING an experienced senior intercounty panel sounds like a daunting enough experience, but young Tyrone forward Conor Cush seems like a natural fit for the jersey.

Cush, who made his debut in Tyrone’s McKenna Cup opener against Fermanagh, comes from good stock – he’s the son of Adrian, a celebrated forward in his day – but it’s fair to say that he’s already forging his own path on the football pitch.

He’s enjoyed a great deal of success with Donaghmore at underage level and is already a key part of their senior team, he starred for Tyrone in their memorable run to All-Ireland U20 honours, and he’s vice-captain on Ulster University’s Sigerson Cup team.

He’s linked up with the Tyrone senior panel alongside a number of others on that All-Ireland winning U20 team including Ruairi Canavan, Niall Devlin and Michael McGleenan, and he’s finding the transition to senior county football enjoyable. It’s early days, and it sometimes takes young lads a few seasons to get up to scratch on the strength and conditioning front, but everything we’ve seen from Cush suggests he could definitely be one for the future.

“I’ve just been there for a few months at this stage. There’s been plenty of running, we’re trying to bank up a good bit of fitness. All the older lads have eased me into it and have made me feel comfortable.”

Asked if it’s surreal being part of the same team as players he grew up watching and idolising as a youngster, Cush said: “It’s different but when I was at Primary School in Donaghmore, Peter Harte was actually one of my teachers. It’s cool playing alongside him now, he’s been a great player for Tyrone for as long as I can nearly remember. He was very involved in coaching when I was at school, he’s made a great impression in Donaghmore.”

Cush is still part of the Tyrone U-20 set up, who get their Ulster League campaign up and running in the middle of February. Manager Paul Devlin and his assistants Dermot Carlin and Owen Mulligan are also back for another year, and Cush says ‘Mugsy’ deserves credit for their sensational forward play last year, culminating in a deserved All-Ireland final victory over Kildare.

“Mugsy was top class. He taught us so many wee tricks that made it so much easier for us – stuff about movement off the shoulder and making the right runs. If you take Ruairi Canavan’s goal in the All-Ireland final, that all came from him, we’d been practising it all along and it finally worked in the final. I remember Ciaran Bogue kicked it into me, I won the ball, slipped it to Ruairi and he did the rest, and that all came from Mulligan’s coaching. It’s the same management team this year which is brilliant and hopefully there’ll be the same outcome at the end of the season”

As for what to expect from the Tyrone U-20s this year, don’t be surprised if they produce a strong showing on the provincial stage and possibly beyond.

This year’s crop lost out by a point to eventual All-Ireland Champions Derry in a delayed Ulster Championship clash two years ago, and when you consider some of the names involved, they should be confident of making their mark.

“I remember that game well, it was the Covid season and we had to wait ages to play them, they beat us with a last-minute free.

“Seanie O’Donnell was injured for that game and Ruairi was only able to play for a half, so we definitely could’ve beaten them.

“We’ve a good amount of lads still available from the U-20 team last year and there’s strong minor players coming through like Ronan Cassidy, Ronan Donnelly and Ben Hughes from Donaghmore and Eoin McElholm from Loughmacrory so we’re feeling positive about the season ahead.”