​By John Harrington

Rising Tyrone star Ronan O’Neill wants to emulate his legendary team-mate Sean Cavanagh and become a leading light for the Red Hand County.

O’Neill has brought his game to a new level this year and was Tyrone’s Man of the Match in their quarter-final victory over Derry when he scored two goals.

He’s now their main go-to guy in the attack which brings its own pressures and expectations. But as Tyrone prepare for Sunday’s Ulster semi-final against Cavan, that’s a burden O’Neill is happy to shoulder.

“I'm 23 now, so I am at that age where I am in the middle bracket of players,” he said. “I can't be looking to the older players now, I am probably one of those players myself. As the years go on, you have to take the mantle on yourself.

“Sean Cavanagh might be in his last year and we can't always look to Sean and the likes of Mattie Donnelly all the time. Others need to step up. It is good to have that mantle of always stepping up when you need to.”

O’Neill starred at minor level for Tyrone and even at that young age there was an expectation he would be a key player for the Tyrone seniors for years to come.

But his rise was halted by a torn cruciate ligament injury, and even when he returned to full fitness he struggled to rediscover his very best form. He was keenly aware that some doubted if he ever would, and it was frustrating experience.

“You can’t control what people say and I learned that over the years,” said O’Neill. “People are entitled to their own opinions but I try not to listen to those things and just play on your own instinct. It’s frustrating personally because you know you are better than what you are producing. It was hard at the time but sure that’s it.

“I suppose I got an injury at the wrong time of my career. It was just one of those things, some people come in and perform to their ability straight away, other people take time. I remember Bernard Brogan say that he did his cruciate when he was 20 and it was 24 by the time he started. I suppose it’s the same as mine as well, I did my cruciate at 19 and now I’m 23.

“I suppose it is physically and mentally a bad injury to get. I suppose anybody that has ever had it would probably say the same thing. I never really had a serious injury up until that. The year after I was probably waiting for things to click straight away and I found that very hard and very frustrating. I suppose when you have good people around you you get over it. Just gradually I’ve started to play a bit better than what I have been playing over the last few years. But I suppose it’s only a start too and there’s a long way to go yet.”

His desire for continued improvement is echoed by this entire Tyrone panel. They’re very much a team on the up, and O’Neill admits they are all driven to continue on that trajectory.

“I think it comes with us setting a mindset of going out every day to be better than what we were in the previous game,” he said. “We built in the League and have played one game in the Championship and it's just about getting consistency in our game and making sure we get better every time we go out. The last day against Derry we had a very good first half but a slack enough second-half and that's what we probably need to work on the next day against Cavan who are probably a better opposition and play a tighter game.

“I suppose it's just a sense of trying to get better every time we go out. To improve ourselves individually and collectively as a team. I think it comes from the training pitch where we work on different aspects of play where boys know when it goes onto the pitch that we've worked on it in training. Again, everybody has systems of play and everybody tries to install systems, but if you don't perform on the day individually then systems go out the window. As long as you perform on the day as an individual you'll go a long way to performing well in a system or well as a team.”