Malachy O’Rourke’s side host Offaly in Dungannon this weekend seeking to pick up just their second Division Two victory and one which would ease their relegation concerns
Tyrone’s Eoin McElholm pictured at the launch of the Dalata Hotel Group U20 Football Championship (Image: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan)
Eoin McElholm insists Tyrone won’t panic over their Division 2 difficulties and says poor results have even been a valuable ‘eye-opener’.
Red Hands goalkeeper Niall Morgan warned last week that slipping down to the Tailteann Cup is a possibility.
And when Tyrone followed up by losing to Louth in Round 4 of the National League on Sunday, it underlined their difficulties.
Last season’s All-Ireland semi-finalists should still have enough to stay up as they’ve posted three points and have three games to go.
Two of those fixtures will be at home and they will welcome rock bottom Offaly to Dungannon this Saturday evening.
Speaking at the launch of the Dalata Hotel Group All-Ireland U-20 football championship, attacker McElholm said he’s confident things will improve.
“Obviously results-wise, it hasn’t been great,” said McElholm. “Performance-wise, we haven’t played to the potential that we know we can.
“But it’s early doors yet, we’re only four games into the League. There’s plenty more games to be played. We just need to tighten up. It’s on us, start performing well, getting wins, getting results.”
Tyrone started the season as favourites to win Division 2 but immediately dropped a point when they drew with Kildare. They’ve lost to Derry and Louth since. But panic isn’t an option for McElholm.
“Definitely not,” he nodded. “There’s been a lot of injuries and stuff, it’s been a tough pre-season for Tyrone because of the amount of injuries that there was. Boys are just coming back in and trying to get match fit.
“Yeah, no panic stations at all. I feel like this could nearly help us and give us an eye-opener, in terms of what standards we need to achieve and what performance levels we need to get to basically.”
Joint Offaly manager Mickey Harte won’t have any trouble finding O’Neill Park when he arrives with his adopted Faithful County in Dungannon this weekend.
“Obviously I didn’t really get to experience Mickey Harte when he was managing Tyrone,” said McElholm, the reigning Dalata Hotel Group U-20 Footballer of the Year.
“I remember being on an U-14 development squad and Mickey and Gavin Devlin took it. That was my first experience of Mickey. What a man he is to Tyrone football, he’s a legend in Tyrone.
“Obviously he’s been very unfortunate with Offaly this season, they have a lot of injuries. I think they have something like nine injuries from the starting team last year. It doesn’t matter if he’s with any team in the country, if you’ve nine of your starters injured, it’s not going to be easy. But he’ll still be coming down looking to get a result out of it.”
McElholm lit up last year’s U-20 championship, blasting 2-4 in the final defeat of Louth. Remarkably, it was only marginally better than the seven points from play that he shot in the 2024 final win over Kerry. Throw in Tyrone’s win at the same grade in 2022 and that’s a lot of rising star talent for senior manager Malachy O’Rourke to assess.
“I think there’s maybe 11 from the last two U-20 years in the panel at the moment,” said McElholm. “It’s not easy, it’s a big step up. It’s something that we as players are going to have to develop over the next few years, getting to that level and the standard that’s needed at senior inter-county level.”
Darragh Canavan’s absence for the next month could at least provide an opportunity for some of the younger brigade to step up.
“He’s been unreal for us, nine points against Cavan, six at the weekend against Louth,” said McElholm of Canavan. “He’s a special player. He had a long year with Errigal Ciarán and didn’t get much of a break in 2025 and obviously had a few niggles so I feel like this month away will be the world of good for him, it’s going to benefit him in so many ways.
“Just get his head away from football for a while and get his body in proper condition. And you know he’s going to come home as fit as he left because that’s just the way Darragh is, he has that work ethic in him.”
* Dalata Hotel Group is entering the second year of its title sponsorship of the All-Ireland U-20 football championship.
