BY BARRY O'DONNELL
EVEN at the relatively young age of twenty-three Dermot Carlin felt like one of the elder statesmen in Tyrone's mainly youthful line-up last Sunday at Healy Park.
With Mickey Harte handing competitive debuts to seven players, the battling Killyclogher defender was one of the more experienced heads named in the starting fifteen.
Not that the young guns froze on the big stage. A convincing 1-15 to 0-9 romp past the Oak Leafers was testimony to their quality and underlined the strength in depth of the Red Hand panel facing into another long, arduous campaign.
Selected at centre-half back rather than his customary corner back slot, Carlin produced a typically energetic and composed showing and put the cap on an impressive performance by raiding up the field to score the last point of the contest.
After a typically cagey start the rampant Red Hands left Derry trailing in their wake, constructing some fluent passages of vibrant attacking football to forge ahead 1-11 to 0-3 by the interval. The outcome was effectively sealed there and then as Dermot acknowledged.
" In the first half we played very well, everything clicked into place for us. We supported each other well going forward and the likes of Tommy McGuigan was flying. They just couldn't contain him. By half-time we had built up a good lead and it was asking too much for Derry to come back from that."
Indeed aside from a brief scoring spurt of four points in five minutes during the early phase of the second half, the Derry forward unit, including the dynamic Bradley brothers, was held comfortably in check.
"In the second half they came to life for a while, they must have got a bit of a talking to in the dressing room, but we came on strong again towards the end which was good to see. Last week we did just enough against Queen's but it wasn't a performance that we were overly pleased with. We definitely picked it up for the Derry match."
While the appearances of several rookies including Colm Cavanagh, Cathal McCarron, Brenda Boggs and Damien McCaul have created headlines due to the ongoing County vs University row, Carlin believed that the quartet more than justified their inclusion for Tyrone.
"All the new boys fared very well.I think there was only four players starting from the previous week against Queen's so they'd be forgiven for taking time to settle and getting used to each other.
"That wasn't the case though, they linked up really well and they all looked right at home which is good news for us looking ahead. There's going to be plenty of competition for places especially in the forward line, so everyone will have to continue to work hard. There can be no room for complacency."
While pleased to be figuring at any position on the field with his county team, Carlin admitted that he enjoyed the opportunity to don the Number 6 jersey and play a more central role in proceedings.
" I liked being out around there, you get a bit more freedom and opportunity to play football than is the case much of the time in the corner when you're more preoccupied with marking your man. But given the strength of our panel I'm happy enough to be playing in any position to be honest."
And looking ahead the inspiring St Mary's back expects another considerable test against revitalised Cavan this weekend as they seek to nail down a last four berth in the McKenna Cup and so keep intact their hopes of retaining their trophy.
" They'll be on a high after their two earlier victories and should have a large crowd supporting them under the lights at Breffni. There should be a good atmosphere and we will expect them to be really up for it, but in saying that we are keen to defend the McKenna Cup as well, so it should make for a good match."
