Coney will relish his return to Red Hand
HE IS back from the wilderness a little bit wiser, a lot fitter and a more humble footballer after four years in exile, and Kyle Coney says he is determined to make the most of his second coming with Tyrone. It’s unusual in the extreme for Mickey Harte to change his mind about a player once his mind is made up so when the Ardboe playmaker was axed after the 2015 Dr McKenna Cup, it seems his would be a career of unfulfilled promise. As the undisputed star of Tyrone’s 2008 AllIreland minor-winning side, outshining even Mattie Donnelly and Peter Harte, Coney and Aidan O’Shea were the players everyone was talking about. Coney kicked five points from play in the All-Ireland final replay win over Mayo and had the footballing world at his feet. Even more so when, still aged 18, he turned his back on the Sydney Swans and a lucrative AFL contract after just a few months in Australia and went home to Tyrone. A glittering Gaelic football career beckoned, but apart from some brief flashes it never happened. ‘To be honest, back then I probably wasn’t working hard enough to warrant a place on the team, but as you get older you get a bit wiser,’ he says. ‘Now I know you need to work for 70-odd minutes. Ability alone isn’t going to get you there. ‘I never thought I’d be wearing a Tyrone jersey again, though Mickey always said the door was open for anyone who worked hard enough. ‘I just got the head down in the off-season and worked hard with the club and maybe I was a bit more conscious of being a team player rather than working for myself. ‘Mickey (Harte) must have seen something different in me if he thought he would take another look.’ Even allowing for the modest opposition in Thursday night’s McKenna Cup win over Derry, the vision, range and quality of his kickpassing in his comeback game at Celtic Park indicated there is something different about Coney part two. ‘We never doubted Kyle’s ability to play football and his skill is wonderful,’ said Harte. ‘I suppose the thing he had to work on was actually his work-rate and I think there was evidence there tonight that he understands that now, and we see a lot more work out of him.’ Coney says he has been ‘welcomed back with open arms’ by former players and coaches. Same too for Darren McCurry, who quit of his own accord in March, and Conan Grugan who hasn’t featured since 2014 after requesting a break which lasted a few years longer than he might have liked. They all know there are no guarantees beyond this pre-season competition. ‘This team got to an AllIreland final last year, so there’s a lot of work to be done,’ Coney states. ‘I’m not guaranteed a place on the panel, never mind the team. The target is to make the panel for the league and take it from there.’ So does he feel he’s a better player now than he was four years ago? ‘That’s a tough question. Better? I’m fitter, definitely. I’m fitter than I ever was. ‘I just have to keep the head down and keep working hard. There’s three or four McKenna Cup games left and I’ll just see where it takes me.’
Kyle Coney has spent four years in exile from the Tyrone team, but the Ardboe man is back