Ulster Football Championship/Anthony Tohill's new role: Seán Moran finds there are sound reasons for relocating Anthony Tohill to full forward

For his 13th Ulster championship season Anthony Tohill finds his fate inextricably bound up with Enda Muldoon's.

For some time it has been obvious to more than one Derry management that Muldoon is unable to bilocate. At his best he is a roving midfielder but the county's dearth of forwards led to him being positioned at full forward, where he has seldom been fully at ease.

During this season's National League, new manager Mickey Moran has kept Muldoon out the field. But then they miss him being inside. The seeds of a solution have been blowing around for a while. When rumour wasn't insisting that Anthony Tohill had retired, it diffused the notion that he would make a grand full forward for the championship.

Tohill, as most people know, has been a fixture at midfield for Derry since the county won the All-Ireland for the first time 10 years ago.

Brian McEniff has managed Donegal teams that had to cope with Tohill. He has managed Ulster Railway Cup teams that were driven by Tohill. And he made Tohill captain of his International Rules team in Australia two years ago.

"One of the most mobile midfielders," McEniff says of the player. "He's been around for 12 or 13 years and has been the outstanding midfielder of that period. No one else has lasted that long hitting such high standards. He's a very good pair of hands, can score and has a high level of fitness. He was a great leader on the pitch and off."

Coming back to the inter-county fold wouldn't have been an easy decision for Tohill, according to former Derry teammate, All-Ireland winner and, up to last year, county selector Damien Cassidy.

"He had to decide whether his knee would stand up to it without further damage. He's had four or five seasons of difficulty with the knee and it's been playing on his mind."

On his suitability to play full forward, there is consensus. It is a position he has frequently filled on the international stage. Opinions may differ on the relevance of International Rules but the ability to win ball and do something with it are common aspects of full forward play.

"He played there for the Ireland team on numerous occasions and was an exceptionally good full forward in the international game," says John O'Keeffe, current Ireland coach and a selector since the series was resumed in 1998.

"Actually he was the best we had because the Australians found it difficult to counter him overhead. What struck me was that for a big man his skill level was very high. He had great fielding ability and mobility, which in latter years has lessened maybe because of his knee injury."

According to Damien Cassidy: "It can help prolong Anthony's career because it's not as arduous there (at full forward). There will probably be some interchange because I couldn't see Enda Muldoon playing 70 minutes at midfield in a high-tempo inter-county match."

In last year's qualifiers, the then management team decided in the middle of a match that wasn't going terribly well to try out Tohill up front.

"We moved him there against Longford last year," says Cassidy. "It was quite a success both for him and Enda, who had been struggling at full forward in the championship. We switched the two and it had an immediate impact. Anthony got 2-2 and was a very effective full forward.

"He gained in confidence from that and in the next round gave a five-star display against Tyrone at midfield. Up until then his form reflected the entire team's. The majority had prioritised club football ahead of county and were struggling to find their form for Derry. He personified that."

Tomorrow at Clones, Derry again take on Tyrone, this year's Ulster favourites and National League winners. The counties have been sucking the oxygen out of each other's world for the past decade. After what happened All-Ireland champions Armagh last week, no one can be entirely sure about this. If Monaghan caused an earthquake, Derry need no more than a tremor.

But within the context of the match Anthony Tohill will be competing for a satisfying win, a new role and even the survival of his intercounty career.

"Anthony's a very natural footballer," says Cassidy, "but he's had no match practice so it leaves you wondering will it work out for him. If it goes a treat, that will be great news for Derry. If it doesn't, it could go badly wrong."