Football

Ronan O'Neill hoping for red letter day ahead of NFL final

Pictured alongside March Merit Award winner Ronan O’Neill of Tyrone are (l-r) John Campbell, Ulster GAA Writers; Roisin Jordan, Tyrone county chairperson and Terry Fay, Quinn Building Products                     Picture by Peadar McMahon
Pictured alongside March Merit Award winner Ronan O’Neill of Tyrone are (l-r) John Campbell, Ulster GAA Writers; Roisin Jordan, Tyrone county chairperson and Terry Fay, Quinn Building Products                 Pictured alongside March Merit Award winner Ronan O’Neill of Tyrone are (l-r) John Campbell, Ulster GAA Writers; Roisin Jordan, Tyrone county chairperson and Terry Fay, Quinn Building Products                     Picture by Peadar McMahon

A LETTER in the post before the Allianz National Football League Division Two final against Cavan could send Ronan O’Neill to Croke Park in high spirits.

The envelope will hopefully contain the news the Tyrone man has been accepted into the University of Ulster at Coleraine for a 12-month teaching course: “I’d an interview up there this week and I think it went pretty well. To get the news that I was accepted for the course would be a great boost before the league final,” O'Neill said. 

“Since last September, I have been working in Holy Trinity College, Cookstown as a PE assistant and I love the work. To be accepted into Coleraine would be great and to get the news before we play Cavan would surely give me a great lift. Cavan will be tough to overcome. At home, we beat them by a few points, but they will be hard to deal with again.”

Immediately after his Coleraine interview, O’Neill set off down country to attend another appointment at Quinn’s Corner, Dungannon. He was there to collect the Quinn Building Products Ulster GAA Writers’ Merit Award for March after storming back into the Tyrone team and helping the Red Hands on their way to the Croke Park date with Cavan on April 24.

After finding himself benched for a time, he had to fight hard to battle back into the team but, when he managed to do so, he grabbed his chance by the scruff. March was a busy month in various grades of the GAA but, from the web of action,  23-year-old O’Neill emerged to win the monthly honour.

“I was playing catch-up and had to prove myself again. I got a few starts in the McKenna Cup and I worked hard to get back into favour,” says the Omagh St Enda’s player. 

“Tyrone have a quality squad just now and it is difficult to hold one’s place in the team, so I was glad to get the call again from Mickey [Harte] and I aimed to make the best of it. Hopefully, I can carry on from here and maintain my form. I’m working very hard to keep pace with the rest of the squad.”

Working hard includes lots of personal practice at free-taking and that showed during his National League appearances. In that competition, he scored 1-23. Awards are nothing new to O’Neill. He won the UGAAWA Merit Award for August 2010 as well after a great performance in the All-Ireland MFC semi-final, and he won every underage medal in Tyrone twice.

He also won Ulster MFC and U21 medals with St Enda’s plus a Tyrone SFC award and he won Ulster and All-Ireland MFC trophies with Tyrone - as he says, “a big selection of awards”.

O'Neill saw off challenges from Cavan captain Gearoid McKiernan and Armagh score-snatcher Stefan Campbell to win the award, which earns him an engraved Belleek Living vase, engraved silver cuff-links from Carlingford Design House, training gear from O’Neill’s International Sports and a medical kit bag from 3FiveTwo on behalf of Kingsbridge Private Hospital.

He will also get two tickets plus overnight accommodation for the next Quinn Building Products UGAAWA banquet, which will take place in January 2017.