Tyrone captain Devlin drawing on three years of u-20 experience

By Michael McMullan

YOU don’t need to be talking to Conor Devlin before you realise why Paul Devlin made him the Tyrone u-20 captain.

Minutes after picking up his third consecutive Ulster u-20 medal, his words are delivered with precision.

Watching him play, his performances back up his measured responses.

When the chips were down against Derry and Donegal, his incisive runs made sure Tyrone were able to keep looking forward.

Alongside Conor O’Neill and Ruairi McCullagh, he is picking up a third Ulster medal.

Report: Three first half goals shoot champions Tyrone to a third successive Ulster title

“You gain a lot of experience from playing with boys like Michael Rafferty, Eoin McElholm and Ronan Cassidy,” the Ardboe man said of the learning curve.

“I could go through lists of names. You pick up a lot of experience from those lads and they’ve learned from boys before them.”

As he poses for photos and takes time with an array of interviews, his father Fay – himself a former Red Hands defender – has the match ball nestled under his arm.

Tyrone were also defending their back-to-back Ulster and All-Ireland titles but this year’s campaign has so far been far from routine.

Defeats to Cavan and Armagh left the champions in third place and they needed a quarter-final win over Derry to kickstart their assault on the Danny Murphy Cup again.

“We went to Derry and we were written off,” Devlin said. “We went to Donegal (in the semi-final) and we were written off, but we knew we had a plan and we knew how to execute.”

Conor O’Neill’s goal sunk Derry and O’Neill kicked a vital two pointer as they overturned a six-point deficit at the hands of Donegal on Convoy.

Devlin, while captain, was quick to point that he was surrounded by leaders.

Tyrone also had to do without injured forward Ruairi McCullagh and they lost Jamie Concannon in the first-half of the Derry game with an hamstring injury.

Wednesday’s final was the opposite of their last two games. Tyrone led 3-11 to 0-11 at half-time.

They were now the hunted. After trailing 0-6 to 0-1 early on, Shea McDermott, Aodhán Quinn and Conor Devlin bagged goals to put them in a strong position.

It was a mature Tyrone in the dressing room. They looked back three years ago when Monaghan reeled them back in before beating them at minor level.

“We went in at half-time, nine up but we remembered Roslea in 2023,” Devlin calmly recalled.

“Monaghan overturned us in extra time with two minutes left. We were five points up. We went to penalties and they beat us.”

Conor Devlin, centre, celebrates with team-mates

Max Maguire’s magic, combined with subs Tommy Mallen and Killian Kearns had Monaghan back to three points with five minutes to play.

There was a stoppage for a Tyrone injury. When play resumed, Tyrone built an attack with Conor Devlin racing throw with the point that finally tipped the game.

Darragh Donaghy added a fourth goal but Devlin’s point had all but decided the outcome.

“Killing a team’s momentum is the key to winning the game,” Devlin said. “If you can kill a team’s momentum, you’re going to go up, and you have a better chance of scoring yourself rather than them getting the kick out and going for another score.

“You have to try and kill that momentum. And whenever you have the momentum, you have to try and control it a lot as well.”

As Devlin carried the cup into a joyous Tyrone dressing room, it was celebration time before they’ll get their eyes on defending the All-Ireland.

The winners of Leinster – Louth or Kildare – are up next but Ulster title number 18 and a third in succession cemented Tyrone’s dominance of the u-20 grade in Ulster.

We have u-20 final reaction and analysis on out latest podcast.