In fact, he was the quickest in the region, Swain said on Friday when asked about that statement, adding that Moree brothers, teens Jack and Paddy Montgomery, were up there pace wise.

At an age when most pacemen are accessing their memory bank, or a video, to glimpse their menacing best, O’Neill, on the cusp of his 35th birthday, is at the peak of his powers – a fact illustrated by his selection this week in the NSW Country side for the national country championships in Shepparton in January. He debuted for the Bush Blues last season.

“He's been a good cricketer for a lot of years,” said Swain, the Gunnedah captain. “And he's probably playing his best cricket the last couple of years that he has in a long time. 

That enhanced fitness was on full display on day one of South Tamworth’s match against North Tamworth at Riverside 2 last Saturday, when O’Neill, a towering man who elicits sharp bounce, bowled 23 straight overs, and then came back for five more, as he claimed 5-64. 

The previous round, he bagged 6-70 from 22 overs, in Souths’ win over Old Boys. 

After Souths captain Mitch Smith dropped O’Neill down the bowling order last season, when he struggled to take wickets (he responded by capturing nine wickets in the grand final defeat of Old Boys), the big man is back in his customary position at the vanguard of the attack.

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“Now he's very fit,” Swain said. “So his weapon now is he is bowling the same pace for an extended period. He can bowl 20 overs at a time, and it's all pretty quick, because he's so fit.

“In the past he used to bowl three overs that were very quick. But because he lacked fitness, the overs after that used to get a bit slower.

“At 35, he's probably as fit as he's ever been, or thereabouts, and he comes in and bowls a consistently good pace, and is there or thereabout in the right area.”

The question now is this: Can O’Neill make the Australian country side, like his Souths teammate and the new NSW Country captain, Tom Groth, has done three times.

“That would be a massive step up,” Swain said. “It's a high level that he's playing at now. To take the next step, he’s really got to be bowling consistently. It's about taking wickets.”

O’Neill does not feel out of place among Australia’s best country cricketers. Being selected in the national side would, he said, “be the great cherry on top of the cake”.

Making the NSW Country side again, he added, was extra special. “To make it a second year in a row, it’s always harder to back up, I think,” he said.