March – Sports Personality

MARCH

ANTOIN FOX (GAELIC FOOTBALL)

Nineteen year-old Antoin led by example as Tyrone’s under-20 side overcame their Donegal counterparts 1-11 to 0-09 in the Ulster Championship final at Clones in March. The talented Loughmacrory man more than played his role in the Red Hand’s triumphant run to the showpiece, providing an assured and commanding presence down the spine of the team’s defence throughout. Fox, who is studying for a degree in Quantity Surveying at Ulster University, Jordanstown, helped Tyrone to an extra-time win over Armagh and a victory over Antrim before overcoming Donegal in the decider.

Voting Opens Tuesday 2nd March 

2020 Ulster Herald Sports Personality Awards in association with MFC Sports, LIVE winners reveal Wednesday 10th March, 7pm.

Antoin was featured in the Ulster Herald on Thursday, May 14, 2020

Captian Antoin leads by example in U20s success story

BY BARRY O’DONNELL

It seems a lifetime ago, before the ‘new normal’ took hold, but Antoin Fox might yet be right when he suggests the Tyrone Under-20s may well be the only winners of Ulster Football Championship medals in 2020.

It was back in early March that the Red Hands accounted for Donegal in the provincial decider at Clones 1-11 to 0-9, with Loughmacrory’s assured defender Fox captaining the side to victory. With the GAA soon after put into cold storage due to the outbreak of Covid-19, that remains one of the few competitions to successfully reach its conclusion.

Fox, who just recently turned nineteen, more than played his role in Tyrone’s triumphant run, providing an assured and commanding presence down the spine of the defence.

A worthy recipient of the UH Sports Personality of the Month Award for March, Antoin recalls a memorable afternoon, not just for himself, but for his St Teresa’s club as a whole, when he accepted the Ulster U20 winning trophy under the bowels of the Gerry Arthurs Stand.

“It was a proud day for myself, the first Loughmacrory clubman to lift a cup for Tyrone. It was definitely special the way it turned out for me. It was a great day for myself but more importantly the parish and community. They were all behind me and there was plenty in Clones to watch me lift the cup.”

During this prolonged period of lockdown Fox has sought to remain busy, chipping in with chores around his club to get their premises shipshape for when action hopefully does commence.

“We are powerwashing around the club. Myself and my father took on that role. Everyone is digging in to freshen the place up- there’s other boys doing painting and different things.

“We have been doing it for about a week now all the way round the pitch. It keeps the grounds tidy. It would be nice now to have a bit of football to look forward to playing at it. I suppose everybody is thinking that at the minute.”

This was to be a massive season for Loughmacrory, who have booked a long overdue return to top flight club football in Tyrone, after successfully coming through the league play-offs last November. Despite the evident frustrations Antoin, a first year Quantity Surveying Student at the University of Jordanstown, adopts a humorous slant on his club’s current predicament.

“We’d be well into our Division One matches at this stage which is a pity because we were all looking forward to it. “Hopefully there will probably be a Championship anyway, but it’s not looking likely for the League at this stage. Still at least we won’t get relegated if nothing is played which is a plus point I suppose”, he joked.

Reflecting back on the Tyrone U20s successful Ulster title defence, Fox acknowledges that the team evaded numerous pitfalls enroute to glory and said the first match set the pattern for a tough campaign.

“The first round against Armagh went to extra-time and that sort of set the tone for the whole Championship. We were pushed hard in all three games. “We just managed to grind out results when we needed to. The Antrim match was like a Christmas morning with the snow, conditions were that tough. Training in wintry conditions at Garvaghey prepares you for anything and that proved the case.

“You seen when the Seniors meet, Tyrone vs Donegal, it’s a dogfight, and that’s the way any Championship match between the counties is going to be, so we knew the final would be similar. It wasn’t one of our best performances but we did enough again to get over the line. In a final that is all that matters.”

While much was made of the switch of the Under-20 Championship from the summer to winter, resulting in the matches being played in some atrocious conditions in February, Fox feels that hindsight suggests it proved to be the correct move in 2020.

“I know they pushed it to the start of the season because of the demands on the players when club football starts but when you look back now it was a good thing it was played early in the season because it probably wouldn’t have gone ahead otherwise.

“We might be the only team to pick up an Ulster medal this year the way things could turn out.”

The postponement of all GAA activities kicked in just days before Tyrone were due to meet Dublin in the All-Ireland Under-20 semi-final at Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day. Fox agrees that the late call off was extremely disappointing for the Red Hand squad but he still holds out hope that the competition can be completed later in the year.

“We were training the Tuesday night before it and then the training on Thursday night was called off as we weren’t allowed to meet as a group and then the next night we knew the game was going to be called off.

“St Patrick’s Day at Croke Park would have been some occasion for all the players and that was helping to spur us on playing in the Ulster Championship. Playing Dublin there in the Championship is the spotlight anyone wants as a player.

You couldn’t have wished for better opposition to be meeting at Croke Park. “Hopefully if this thing pans out well we will get back to play them.

I think it (All-Ireland U20) will get finished. It’s the only competition which has progressed past the provincial stage, and you are only talking three more games- the two All-Ireland semis and then the final. “I would imagine it will be one of the first competitions run off to a finish because it will only take a week to get it read up.”