Tyrone minor captain Conor O’Neill believes his team is beginning to click, following a slow start to the season. O’Neill was one of a sizeable number of players who missed out on most of the League campaign due to their involvement in schools' competitions.
He won an All-Ireland Colleges B title with St Joseph’s, Donaghmore, while other squad members savoured Hogan Cup success with Omagh CBS.
And B feels the Red Hands have now had enough time together to hit top form in Saturday’s Ulster MFC quarter-final against Fermanagh.
“We were a bit later starting this year than we were last year, because of all the schools competitions,” he said.
“So we’re taking it game by game and we’re just trying to build every week through the training and the matches, and we’re growing as the weeks go on.”
After carving out a nervous one point win over Cavan in their opening round robin game, an improving Tyrone side saw off Armagh, and in the second half of their concluding tie, it all came together as they routed Antrim to finish as Section B winners.
“That was the goal at the start, just to get through the group games, and now we go through in first place,” said O’Neill.
“We’re just taking it one game at a time, to see how it goes.”
Centre back O’Neill, a member of last year’s provincial title winning side, wants to see the defending champions take command of this weekend’s Healy Park tie from the beginning.
Reflecting on a shaky first half against Antrim, he said: “We were saying at half-time that we were a bit slack in the press, but second half we went out and we showed a lot more heart and desire, and we put it on the scoreboard.
“You have to keep pushing to the final whistle, and we did that.
“We pressed the kick-outs and kept our foot on the throttle, and kept going until the end.”
Hitting 5-13 in that second half while hitting just one wide, the Red Hands were supremely efficient in their finishing, an aspect which pleased coach Gary Hetherington.
“That’s probably the best we’ve been this year, but the intensity and pressure coming from the opposition probably wasn’t the greatest,” he said.
“It’s good to get them, but under pressure, we need to be converting as well.”
Hetherington warned that the knock-out phase brings a new type of challenge to a Tyrone side chasing a third successive Ulster title.
“That’s when nerves kick in, and anything can happen. We have Fermanagh now at home, so we’ll work hard and get ready for that and put as good a performance in as
we can.”
