Trio step aside from Tyrone squad

WHILE the Tyrone squad is still being finalised by Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher, we now know of at least three players from last year’s panel who won’t be available in 2022 – Ronan O’Neill, Hugh Pat McGeary and Michael Cassidy.

It emerged last week that the three players have opted out this year, but they’ve all given great service to the county and deserve credit for the role they have played in Tyrone’s success in recent times, both at underage and senior level.

Opportunities were limited for all three men in last year’s run to the All-Ireland title, so it’s possibly no major surprise that they have decided to step aside to focus on club and personal commitments. O’Neill made a substitute appearance against Monaghan in the Ulster Final, and McGeary and Cassidy didn’t pick up any game-time in the Championship. However, comments from starting players like newly crowned Footballer of the Year Kieran McGeary suggest that the wider panel played a massive part behind the scenes in ensuring there was a good atmosphere in the squad throughout the season.

Ronan O’Neill made a name for himself as a scintillating forward player as a youngster, and he scored the insurance point in Tyrone’s All-Ireland minor final triumph over Cork in 2010. It wasn’t long after that he was drafted into the senior set-up, but his progress was curtailed when he sustained an ACL injury in 2012.

He recovered to play a massive role in Omagh’s Senior Championship triumph in 2014, scoring the winning goal against Carrickmore in the final. O’Neill also scored a sublime goal in county colours against Down in the 2017 Ulster final, and while he took he quit the Tyrone panel in 2019, he returned to the fold and added an All-Ireland senior medal to his hefty collection of medals.

Pomeroy defender Hugh Pat McGeary has also departed. Like O’Neill, he was a starter on Tyrone’s All-Ireland minor winning team in 2010, but he had to wait until 2016 to make his senior intercounty debut. A tenacious defender, he made 47 appearances in total for the Tyrone senior team, and was particularly prominent in 2017, when the Red Hands reached the All-Ireland final but lost to Dublin.

Rampaging wing-back Michael Cassidy has also informed the Tyrone management team that he won’t be available this year. Cassidy was one of the key men on the Tyrone U21 team which won the All-Ireland title in 2015 under Feargal Logan, Brian Dooher and Peter Canavan, but he had to bide his time before being drafted onto the senior panel. However, he made a particularly positive impact in 2019, when Tyrone reached an ill-fated All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry.