By John Harrington

PwC GAA/GPA Footballer of the month for October, Conor McKenna, believes he still has a lot of room for improvement.

The former Essendon AFL star made a big impact for Tyrone in their final two matches of the Allianz Football league campaign, scoring 3-4 from play in their matches against Donegal and Mayo.

Usually it takes players returning from the AFL some time to adapt to Gaelic Football again, but McKenna made a seamless transition.

He feels himself though that there’s a lot more to come once he has even more game-time under his belt.

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” said McKenna. “I think the first while I was always going to be a bit up and down and not getting that consistent football when you're trying to get back to that high level.

“But as I adapt more I think there'll be more in me when I get a base of pre-season and actual club football before county I should be a better standard then.

“I think after a year or two of playing consistent Gaelic Football you should be able to see that I'm more consistent with my football. Performing week in, week out, that's what I want to be aiming for, definitely.”

McKenna will have to wait until 2021 to get back on a Gaelic Football pitch again after Tyrone were knocked out of the Championship last weekend by Donegal.

It was a game of fine margins, and the success Donegal had in curbing McKenna’s influence on the day was a factor in their two-point victory.

“On the day nothing seemed to fall right for us,” says McKenna. “They got the goal and everything they got seemed to happen easier and we were sort of struggling to get points. It was one of those days, a mucky old day and the pitch was a bit slippy.

“To be fair, they adapted to the conditions better and came out on top of the result.

“I suppose for me it was just sort of getting back into the swing of things. It was only my third game really in six years of competitive Gaelic. I was just getting back into the swing of things and I probably got a bit more attention after the first two games I had.

“I expect to have that. A few times the ball just didn't seem to come to me or fall right for me or I dropped it. It was just one of those games, you can't be perfect all the time. I'll just learn from it. It was probably the excitement of being back out there. I'll just keep working on it over the winter now and look forward to getting back into it next year.”

McKenna believes one area he needs to work on going forward is his awareness of Tyrone’s tactics and system of play as he gets used to how the game is now played at the highest level.

“Probably watching it over the last few years it did change a bit tactically,” he says. “Probably gone a big more defensive-minded.

“That's probably something I had seen a bit but probably not worked with much in Gaelic. So just getting used to the instructions and stuff and that's probably something I didn't have a lot of time to learn.

“That's probably the next phase of getting back into it and actually learning the ins and outs of the game rather than just playing off the cuff which I probably did this year.”

They might have fallen short against Donegal last weekend, but McKenna looks around the Tyrone dressing-room he is confident he can be part of a successful team in the years to come.

“Watching the last few years, you could see that Dublin were the team to beat. Tyrone haven't got to that stage yet. Just looking at the youth coming through, Darragh Canavan, the U21 team got to the All-Ireland semi-final this year, Cathal McShane coming back will be a massive asset.

“There are definitely a few avenues to go down there, different players that will be able to play different positions. I'm looking forward to the future. It should be good over the next few years.”