After Tyrone's win over Cavan in the National League Division 2 Final a few weeks ago, we highlighted a flamboyance about Mickey Harte's men that has rarely been seen in Croke Park since the days of Conor Mortimer's bleached hair-white boot combo. One example of such flair was Tyrone goalscorer Ronan O'Neill's use of 'the dab' to celebrate his stunning three-pointer.
O'Neill was back amongst the goals in Tyrone's opening Ulster Championship clash against Derry, but he elected not to illustrate 'the dab' on that occasion, perhaps wisely-the Tyrone faithful might not be so forgiving of such extravagances in the cut-and-thrust of Championship action.
O'Neill was speaking at AIB’s launch of the GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Championship this we and we asked him why, out of all the celebrations he could have chosen, from the famous Emile Heskey 'DJ' to the Robbie Keane cartwheel, he picked 'the dab', a technique pioneered by NFL star Cam Newton and performed by Romelu Lukaku, Jesse Lingard and Paul Pogba in the Premiership and Serie A respectively. The Omagh man doesn't seem bothered by any feathers his moves might ruffle among GAA fans:
Well, if you can't celebrate scoring a goal, what are you meant to celebrate? It was just a bit of craic. Some of the boys from Omagh asked me to do it if I scored a goal on TV and just came into my head. Caused a bit of controversy, but sure what doesn't in Tyrone?
With such a celebration it is obvious that O'Neill plays with a refreshing freedom of spirit, and he seems to agree that perhaps there is a lack of such individuality in the modern game:
Listen, I think the game's got quite serious over the last four or five years...if you want to celebrate a goal you should celebrate a goal. Every person is their own person, and if they want to do it they should do it.
Hopefully we haven't seen the last of 'the dab' from O'Neill this summer. Who knows, we may be seeing the start of a country-wide 'disco celebration' trend. Though one can't imagine it extending to hurling-Brian Cody probably wouldn't approve of Walter Walsh nae nae-ing after splitting the posts.
