Sean Cavanagh has hailed Stephen O'Neill as the greatest scoring forward he has ever played with - and that includes Peter Canavan!

Speaking to the Irish Times after Ireland's facile practice victory over a Victorian Football League selection in Melbourne yesterday, Cavanagh said of his retiring Tyrone colleague: "He is probably the most natural scorer I have ever played with.

"I played with (Peter) Canavan and Canavan is probably the greatest player to have ever played the game. But in terms of natural scoring instinct, especially in '05, whenever he had a run of games for about a year he was one of those guys who could win a game on his own.

"He probably won us the All-Ireland. The injuries always seemed to catch up with Stevie and that is sad because we never really saw his true potential, barring that one year."

With Martin Penrose having also called time on his inter-county career, the Tyrone captain has called on the county's younger players to step up to the plate and show leadership.

"Stevie was always going to be a big leader and the guys are always going to look up to him. But we have to step up to the mark. Hopefully the likes of Joe (McMahon) and Conor (Gormley) will stay around.

"Some of the younger guys who have come through the ranks in the last few years haven't stepped up in terms of leadership in the way that they need to step up. It is their opportunity now to show what they can do. We can no longer rely on the guys who won us All-Irelands."

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