Give Stevie a break

By Jerome Quinn

Stephen O'Neill comes up against Marc O Se in the All-Ireland final

So it's all over, Tyrone did it with Stephen O'Neill on board, Mickey Harte is vindicated and everybody's happy.

Well, not quite. Stevie himself was very emotional at the end and seemed to want to leave the celebrations before the presentation of the cup.

He was heading down the tunnel when team-mates hauled him back.

The Tyrone number 31 was heard to say "I'm not in it for the glory", which tallies with my information that Stevie insisted privately before Sunday that he didn't want to collect a medal, no matter what the outcome was.

I gather he was offended by adverse comments in some quarters about his much-publicised return just weeks before.

The begrudgers said he would be taking the place of another lad who had trained all year for the right to be in the squad on the big day.

It's a fair point but Stevie's not like that. He offered his services on the condition that the players would make the call. He just wanted to help get Tyrone over the line, in any way he could.

As for the timing, it wasn't great. Stevie could have come back earlier and I hear that he wished he had returned before the Wexford game or even the Quarter-final with Dublin. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

606: DEBATE Your views on Tyrone's triumph?

Back in January, the fella made a brave decision to opt out of the panel.

Some supporters couldn't understand or accept it at face value, but the simple fact is that O'Neill made the right move for himself and for Tyrone.

The fans remembered him as the dazzling forward who won Player of the Year in 2005 but the truth is that injuries restricted O'Neill to just one championship start in the three years since then.

It was a nightmare time and the man needed a break.

His return was a massive gamble but it worked because Tyrone won and because Stevie played his part.

Overall, he was poor enough, but Harte can justly point to one flash of brilliance when O'Neill played a Canavan-like pass for the crucial Tyrone goal.

Furthermore, his entrance provided a lift and distracted attention from the potentially lethal blow of Colm McCullagh's departure.

For those of you who might debate this point, I refer you to the 1986 All Ireland final when injuries to key players coincided with Tyrone's collapse against Kerry.

He put himself on the line for his county when it would have easier to stay away. Jerome Quinn

I felt sorry for O'Neill at the end because he was obviously distressed. He's an intensely sincere lad and I think the pressure of the last few weeks finally told.

Mind you, some of that pressure could have been lifted if Stevie had given just one interview.

He doesn't like doing them and he preferred to keep his head down and answer the sceptics on the pitch, but that brought even more pressure onto his shoulders.

If he'd declared that he was simply back to help and that he didn't want to deny anyone a medal, then things might have been slightly easier on himself.

As it was, Stevie avoided the media in the build-up to the game and must have had a torrid time with all the talk about his return, which was fuelled by the confusion over the squad given to the media last Thursday.

That didn't help, and then he found himself off the pace in the game itself.

So give Stevie a break. He put himself on the line for his county when it would have easier to stay away.

The man is a legend in Tyrone, and even better, he's back for next season.