The green green grass of Tyrone

SO what exactly was the fuss all about then? The big guy with the buzz-cut is back, joshing with team mates, a huge smile plastered across his face as he and they passed the time before doing battle with the Kingdom in Edendork.

Not even the wind and rain seemed to dampen his spirits. Going from summer on the south coast of Australia to the depths of winter in Dungannon and its surrounds would probably be enough to send most of us the pits of despair, but not this guy. This guy looked like he was exactly where he wanted to be.

As a matter of fact we suspect Cathal McShane’s preference would always have been to stay put. It just didn’t necessarily make economic sense for him to do so... until the job offer from Keystone Group, which probably wouldn’t have come about had he not taken his chances Down Under in the first place.

The boy’s played a blinder and more luck to him. It’s a good news story for Tyrone and for the GAA more generally and serves to remind us that the level panic the AFL generates in GAA circles is massively overplayed.

We should never ever dismiss the eternal appeal of home and hearth. It’s not for everyone, of course, and some have that wanderlust and more power to them too, but more far people will stay than go and even for those who do go the lure of home will still remain strong.

Interestingly in the very same week that McShane made his return to the Red Hand county, another Tyrone man Down Under, Conor McKenna, has flown back home for an indefinite period with his club, Essendon, citing “homesickness and family-related reasons”.

McKenna has been hugely successful with Essendon, but sometimes there’s clearly more to it than that. It’s a hell of a long way away from family and friends. Were he to return full-time to Tyrone it’d be a huge boost to the county’s ambitions. We just hope that whatever decision he takes will be the right one for him.