RIAN O’NEILL will be hoping to emulate his uncle Oisin McConville by helping Armagh to the All-Ireland title for only the second time.
Judging from his semi-final performance vs Kerry, he’ll do whatever it takes as well as wherever it takes since he was deployed all over the pitch over the course of the 90 minutes.
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Despite having 14 on his back it was him who popped up with a vital catch under their own goalposts with one of the final plays of extra-time.
The Crossmaglen man explained afterwards that was partly due to his legs being so fatigued that he could no longer get up and down the pitch so he found a makeshift role to play.
Here’s a look at his life beyond Gaelic football ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Galway:
What is Rian O’Neill’s job?
Speaking on SportsJoe’s GAA Hour podcast in July 2023, he explained how he balances working as an electrician with his playing commitments.
He noted it’s an atypical job for modern inter-county stars since there’s no hint of having summers off.
He remarked: “That’s the line of work I went into.
“I suppose it’s not too common anymore to have people on site playing GAA.
“It’s more everyone’s going down the teaching route and that, and getting their summers off. But I like what I do so I’m happy to keep going.
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“I’ve a sound boss who lets me off for days when I need to get away for training weekends or whatever, he looks after me that way.
“The two Mackins do a bit of concreting as well, so they’re a bit more hands on than me I’d say.
“So they’d be more tired than me coming to training! Sunburned to death. So they’d be more full-on than me.”
Who is his girlfriend and how long have they been together?
The 25-year-old been in a relationship with Méabh McAleavey for at least four years judging from their respective Instagram accounts.
She’s also an Armagh native who is an avid GAA player too as she lines out for her club Ballymacnab’s camogie team.
She works as a mechanical engineer.
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Brother’s pedigree:
The whole family is steeped in GAA as his brother Oisin has also represented The Orchard at senior inter-county level.
Previously Rian told GAA.ie of how their match-ups in the back garden prepared each other to become elite footballers.
“Every game when we were young, myself and Oisin were around the same age, and my dad used to play for Cross and we’d be up every night kicking out ball.
“That went on, he became the manager then, and we were still kicking ball.
“My mother would be going mad that we weren’t in the house doing a bit of homework or something and he’d be dragging us out to training.
“That’s the way we grew up, we always had a ball in our hands and were kicking about. That’s all we wanted to do.”
“That drove us on too, that competitiveness between each other.
“When we’re on the field together we want each other to do the best.
“But when we’re in training…there was a time with Cross when we weren’t allowed mark each other because there would be a bit of a row going on.
“I suppose we just drive each other on.”
