WHEN Eddie O’Sullivan was coaching the US Eagles in the late ‘90s, a holidaying young Ronan O’Gara met him for a meal in San Francisco.
At the time, O’Gara was Ireland’s third choice out-half.
He had been capped by the ‘A’ team in April ‘99 and added to the preliminary training squad for that autumn’s Rugby World Cup. But they went with Eric Elwood as back-up to David Humphreys and chose to bring a third prop instead of O’Gara.
O’Sullivan floated the idea of O’Gara coming to play in America.
That would have ruled him out of contention with Ireland.
It was loose talk that never amounted to anything but it spoke to his need for patience, which wasn’t exactly his strong suit.
The shoe was on the other foot by the time Declan Kidney gave Johnny Sexton the nod against South Africa in 2009.
O’Gara was glued to his seat as Sexton kicked all 15 points and Ireland beat the world champions.
In between times, O’Gara had become an Irish legend, the all-time leading points scorer and the man who kicked that drop goal to end the 63-year wait for a Grand Slam.
Sexton was the one biding his time then. He was 24 by the time he got that breakthrough against South Africa.
Johnny Sexton was named World Rugby Player of the Year in 2018.
He became the generational player, surpassed O’Gara’s achievements.
But because two pegs didn’t fit in the hole, he couldn’t get a game until he was 24.
When he was England manager, the late Sven Goran Eriksson tried a different approach with the Scholes-Lampard-Gerrard conundrum.
He played all three. Shunted Scholes on the left wing. A waste of an international career for someone Eriksson later conceded he thought was the best of the three.
Scholes got stuck on the wing because he felt the other two just couldn’t have played there.
Malachy O’Rourke’s first few months of being the Tyrone manager ought to be pretty enjoyable.
But come summer, the noted reader might look to the books of Sexton, O’Gara, Kidney and Eriksson for advice.
For my money, Tyrone are perfectly placed going into 2025.
Since winning the All-Ireland in 2021, they have been significantly less than the sum of their parts.
With a new manager whose services they have courted in a bid to revive their fortunes and a group of players crying out just to be shown the right path, Tyrone are exactly where Donegal were this time last year.
They have the potential for a 2025 that matches and even surpasses the 2024 Donegal had.
For one, O’Rourke was McGuinness’s kryptonite the first time around. Monaghan not only beat Donegal in two Ulster finals, but they completely outflanked the favourites with the manner in which they did it both times.
O’Rourke’s style of play, fostered on the training field by Ryan Porter, will need an upgrade.
But as a member of the Football Review Committee, he has had a considerable head-start on the new rules.
While other coaches are trying to wrap their heads around them since November, O’Rourke has been thinking about them for the guts of a year.
That, combined with the new manager bounce, ought to see them through the League with a bit of comfort.
He has a challenge in organising and motivating a group of players who might have their Celtic Cross but would also feel that they’ve had a lot of lost years playing with Tyrone.
Alongside that knockout All-Ireland of 2021, the Ulster title that came with it is the only silverware they’ve won since 2017.
It’s also the only time they’ve reached an Ulster final in that time, although there was the run to the 2018 All-Ireland final.
But O’Rourke’s biggest challenge for the next four months is figuring out what his best team is and how to keep the rest of them happy.
If you’re any way knowledgeable about Tyrone football, entertain yourself with this test.
Ranked from 1-10, put these top players in order.
Niall Morgan. Peter Harte. Mattie Donnelly. Darragh Canavan. Ruairi Canavan. Mark Bradley. Darren McCurry. Conn Kilpatrick. Padraig Hampsey. Eoin McElholm. Seanie O’Donnell.
You might ask where Michael McKernan is on that list but for the purposes of this exercise, just go with it and be quiet.
How did you get on?
It doesn’t matter.
The real challenge is to see whether you argued that they should all be in or around a Tyrone top 10.
Top 10, top 15, it’s all the same.
Because Malachy O’Rourke’s biggest problem is that there are five, possibly even six, names on that list that he cannot all have in the one team.
There are differences between Darragh Canavan, Ruairi Canavan, Darren McCurry, Mark Bradley and Eoin McElholm.
But they are also all very similar, in that they’re all finishers, they’re all relatively small, they’re all fast and they’re all at their best inside.
Seanie O’Donnell plays a very different role for Trillick than he did for Tyrone last year, but he’s of similar stature and played up top for Tyrone at times last year.
He could find himself in that conversation as well, but of the six, he’s the one that’s most moveable.
Tyrone have five or six really good round pegs but what, two, maybe three round holes at best?
They cannot play all of them. They just can’t.
A forward line containing the two Canavans, McCurry, Bradley, McElholm and O’Donnell would have obvious strengths.
If there is to be more kicking, they’ll love it.
But as a unit of six, the defensive and physical deficiencies would be far too glaring.
Eoin McElholm has the potential to be a generational forward.
The Australians have tracked his movements for a long time. That move didn’t materialise this autumn but it’s never dead.
Darragh Canavan is already a generational player.
Ruairi was the best forward and top scorer in the Tyrone club championship this year, followed closely by Mark Bradley.
When Darren McCurry is at his best, as he was in 2021, he is borderline unmarkable.
But it will not work.
Mark Bradley and Darren McCurry are the eldest of the group but with both just turned in their 30s, they’ll be in no hurry off.
So like early-20s Johnny Sexton, a couple of potentially top-class forwards are going to have to bite down hard.
That will be a serious test of O’Rourke’s unquestionable man-management skills.
Darragh Canavan is nailed on.
The others are vying for whatever spots remain.
Just keeping players who aren’t getting game time about the place, never mind happy, was one of the issues that brought down Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher’s reign.
It will be easier for O’Rourke in the early weeks of the League, when giving Darragh and Ruairi Canavan a rest after Errigal’s elongated campaign will make sense.
But by springtime it will be an itch he’ll have to scratch right.
It will get tough.
If Tyrone lose a big game where a player as good as Ruairi Canavan or Mark Bradley is getting 15 minutes at best, it will become a stick to beat them with.
But no matter how good they are, no matter that they are among Tyrone’s best players, O’Rourke is going to have to choose between them and leave some out.
The joys.
If he gets it right, there’s potentially a really big summer in store for Tyrone.