THERE WERE NOT many dissenting voices last Sunday in Croke Park when it came to praising the contribution of Tyrone’s Stephen O’Neill.
The attacker demonstrated his class towards the end of their Division 1 football league semi-final against Kildare with a pair of stunning points.
Team-mate Sean Cavanagh was not surprised by the quality of scores that O’Neill served up to confirm their passage to Sunday week’s league decider against Dublin.
And Cavanagh has revealed that he has not seen a better player in his career.
“He’s just got a gift of being able to score from outrageous angles. I think if you asked any Tyrone player, he does that in training all the time. If you watch back on any of the tapes or DVDs from 2005, it got to the stage by then that you’d almost expect him to score any time he got the ball on the sideline.
“He’s just got those sort of things in his locker. In terms of pure, raw talent and ability to score, I haven’t seen a better player. I haven’t played with a better player or against a better player.
“(Peter) Canavan was unbelievable, Canavan was probably a completely different player but he would be the first to admit that some of those points that Stevie put over from acute angles, there’s no better man in the business.
“He just produces magic. Unfortunately he picked up different knocks through the last number of years and that hasn’t let him get a full year injury-free. So we will wrap him up in cotton wool for a few months and hopefully he’ll be in good shape.”
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