Mattie Donnelly admitted Tyrone will have their work cut out against Donegal in next weekend's Ulster SFC semi-final after squeezing past Cavan on Sunday.
The Red Hands were nine points up at half-time and eight ahead with 20 minutes remaining but Cavan fought back to force extra-time, with Tyrone eventually winning by the minimum - 1-23 to 3-16.
"(Donegal) have multiple threats and the way they were running last night [against Derry], the angles and the pace, we have a lot to do to be able to deal with it. We've a lot to work on from top to bottom and not a lot of time to do it.
"When Cavan brought a similar approach to the game today we struggled with it. They are going to give a lot of teams serious bother for the remainder of the year."
"There were probably a few boys that could have put their hands up to go off at the end but we ran out of subs"
Donnelly was playing his first full game since damaging his cruciate ligament and breaking his shin bone at the Kilmacud Sevens last July and wasn't even expecting to play 70 minutes, let alone 90.
"The body is certainly exhausted and will have to recover over the next few days," he said.
"In my own case, I went from not playing more than 30 (minutes) in the last nine months to having to get through that. I didn't know if I had 70 in me. I just said I’d go out and give what I had for as long as I had.
"Everyone was feeling it to some degree and running on empty but you have to find a way. There were probably a few boys that could have put their hands up to go off at the end but we ran out of subs."
The 33-year-old was one of the veterans on a youthful side featuring six championship debutants but he hailed the impact of their young guns in getting over the line.
"It was probably the younger brigade that were putting their hand up and showing for ball near the end and digging us out," he said.
"A lot of emphasis is put on the young boys but it's up to young and old to prove themselves every day they go out. The older boys probably need to step up a bit this week today."
Cavan's revival came after Tyrone full-back Padraig Hampsey was shown a black card for a tussle with Paddy Lynch, his side conceding 2-01 while the Coalisland man was off the pitch.
"Hampsey's black card was probably a big moment in the game," Lynch, who scored 0-05 (3f) agreed.
"Two of us were probably at it and I was the lucky one. We had a bit of a laugh after about it. No hard feelings there hopefully.
"Throughout the league we were probably a second-half team. It's a good and bad thing they we can only get going in the second half.
"We clawed it back, it was great to get it back but just a pity the result didn’t go our way."
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