Niall Sludden believes an injection of exciting young talent can help propel Tyrone back to the top. Success at U21 level has been a reliable barometer in the past.
The All-Ireland winning squads of 2000 and 2001 provided the nucleus of the team that won three Senior titles in the noughties.
And last year’s Sam Maguire Cup winning side was packed with players who won an U21 title in 2015.
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As reigning All-Ireland U20 champions, the future looks bright once again for the Red Hand county.
Four members of that successful team, Niall Devlin, Steve Donaghy, Michael McGleenan and Ruairi Canavan, were immediately fast-tracked into the senior squad following their triumph back in May, and more are expected to follow ahead of the 2023 season.
“They’re more than capable of coming in, you saw them throughout the season. It will be great, you need those younger boys to come in and add that bit of freshness to the whole thing,” said Sludden.
“The talent around the county is there to see. We saw it in the U20s team, and there’s many more players.
“That’s what it’s all about, it’s about competition, pushing everybody on. That’s the really important thing.
“If you even look at lower levels, the team that won the Buncrana Cup, the structures are brilliant in Tyrone and you can’t rest on your laurels ever.
“Paul Devlin (U20 manager) has always said, we’re preparing those boys to come into seniors.
“For a boy like me, who’s coming to the end of his career maybe, those boys are going to fight like mad for jerseys.”
And All-Star wing forward Sludden expects managers Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher to cast the net wide across the club scene in the search for new talent to fire Tyrone’s challenge following this year’s spectacular collapse.
“I’m sure Brian and Feargal have been around the games, and they’ll be around the Championship games as well, and it’s up to the likes of those boys to put up their hands.”
The Dromore clubman is confident that the Red Hands can bounce back and compete with the best, despite the failure of their defence of the All-Ireland title, which unravelled in heavy defeats to Derry in the Ulster Championship and Armagh in the Qualifiers.
“When you look at Tyrone teams in the past that won an All-Ireland, they maybe didn’t get it back the next year, but they came again," added Sludden.
“That’s very much our focus, and representing the county again in a much better way than we did last year.
“We were very inconsistent, and a lot of things just caught up on us as well.
“So we want to back and make a big difference, and get those Tyrone supporters, as Padraig Hampsey has said, get them back and get them cheering again.
“So that’s exciting as well, especially with the new players coming in.”
A long summer of inter-county inactivity gave the players an opportunity to extend their club involvement, with some opting to play their football in the USA.
But the lay-off will be good for renewal of mind and body, according to Sludden, who is looking forward to returning with a freshness to Tyrone’s Garvaghey training base later this year, along with a group of re-energised colleagues.
“Hopefully the rest will do is the world of good, and we’ll get back up around Garvaghey with a big buzz, get into doing the work, doing the pre-season. We’re not that bad a team, ever.”
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