By Shaun Casey

Ronan O’Neill retired from inter-county duty after last years All-Ireland triumph and months later, he’s still content with his decision. Playing ball with St Enda’s Omagh and stepping into coaching are his main footballing focuses now.

And even with the brighter evenings, the dryer sod and the championship buzz in the air, O’Neill has no regrets. “I’m content with my decision but championship’s different.

“Whether it’s a potential game against Fermanagh this Saturday or if they get through that, it’s a home game against Derry in Healy Park or if it’s going to Croke Park to play an Ulster final or an All-Ireland semi-final, it might be different.

“But I don’t know until I cross that bridge. I do feel at the moment that I made the right decision and I’m happy with it at the moment.

“Ultimately if Tyrone do go forward, obviously there will still be a wee bit of me wishing I was still there because you’ve been part of it for so long. It’s just getting use to this different way of life, but such is life and I’m happy with it at the moment.”

O’Neill was one of several Tyrone players that left the squad following last year’s success and the narrative pointed to an unhappy camp.

The Omagh man believes however the lack of squad depth had been overused to excuse Tyrone’s poor form in the early stages of the league and it was a hangover from 2021 was the real reason. Their final round wins against Mayo and Kerry showed that you should never doubt the Red Hands.

“I think it was just playing a bit of catch up. Teams were probably a wee bit further on, a couple of weeks further down the line and they maybe hadn’t really focused on, from a defensive or an attacking point of view, in terms of training, really working on those scenarios and those situations.

“Maybe they were targeting on getting up a level of fitness to try and catch other teams. They were playing teams that were on form or that just caught them on the hop that day.

“I still thought there were signs where they improved massively. I thought the first half of the Donegal game they were excellent, bar the goal. And that was after a couple of defeats as well and they scraped a win against Kildare as well in dreadful conditions in Omagh.

“The Donegal game, the second half maybe knocked the stuffing out of them a wee bit but when their backs are against the wall, there’s no better team to come out fighting than Tyrone.

“They went and they beat Mayo and they beat Kerry and I’m not sure many people tipped them to beat those two teams. It just shows you when you back against Tyrone, there’s only going to be one winner.”

The 2022 Ulster championship is set to be fiercely contested with resurgent Armagh and Derry sides along the 2020 winners Cavan all ready to compete against the big three of Tyrone, Donegal and Monaghan. For the Anglo Celt.

Despite the competition, O’Neill feels Fergal Logan and Brian Dooher’s men are still the team to beat. “I do think so, closely followed by Monaghan I would say.

“It’s wide open, you never know what will happen and there will be an upset. That’s the way championship football goes. Somebody will beat somebody that they’re probably not expected to, I just hope it’s not Tyrone and they get to an Ulster final again. But I do think they’ll be the team to beat.”