Mulligan scoops Ulster award

Tyrone sharpshooter Owen Mulligan has won the Tennents Ulster GAA Writers monthly merit award for August.

The blonde-topped forward has been central to the Red Hands' rise to a place in the All-Ireland football final against Kerry on September 25 - especially in the last month.

Having bagged 1-1 in the drawn quarter-final game against Dublin on August 13, Cookstown native Mulligan returned to Croke Park, two weeks later, to run up a decisive 1-7 tally in Tyrone's replay win.

His wonder-goal in the drawn game against the Metropolitans particularly stood out and the 24-year-old joiner, an inclusion on Ireland's provisional panel for next month's International Rules Series, is sure to pose a threat for champions Kerry.

Mulligan edged out Armagh's Ronan Clarke and Down minor Martin Clarke for the award.

The third Tyrone player - after Stephen O'Neill and Peter Canavan - to receive the gong in 2005, he received a Tennents voucher, an engraved Belleek China vase, training gear from Pro Star Sports and specially designed silver cuff links from Gareth Mallon Jewellery in Omeath.