Tyrone County Football and Hurling

[Eastie]

I mean when club action starts will we not see plenty of free scoring forwards? I think its hard for a player like Lee Brennan who's expected to get back and help but be mainly attacking minded. For Trillick, get the ball to Lee and he'll score. Not for Tyrone, its far too slow in the middle of the field and lets teams swarm behind the ball, I think Harte much change the way we play.

[southtyronegael]

Anyway - well done Mayo and here's to another relegation battle - as Enda McGinley (I think) pointed out on the radio yesterday - even the great noughties Tyrone team got relegated....

The great Tyrone team didn't get relegated until 2010 when they were coming near the end.
think it was 2011 when they got relegated. 2015 too.

[southtyronegael]

McCurry and Coney were not good enough 3/4 years ago. What makes anyone think they are going to be good enough now.

Hate to say it but Tyrone are not good enough and unless I am missing someone I think the best players in the county are in the squad.

mc curry had a great year in 2015 so he very much is good enough. his confidence has been slowly eroded since then because of our gameplan.

[southtyronegael]

How can players improve if they are hamstrung by the system of play? No point blaming individual forwards when they clearly aren't coached right. Lads lose confidence. How come James Horan can put together a ramshackle forward line of young lads and a 35 Ur old and still be so slick? All down to coaching and practice on the training field.

In fairness Andy Moran is a rolls royce of a Gaelic Footballer. He was unbelievable yesturday, 1 / 2 sec take and layoffs. So intelligent.

I wasn't having a go at moran for being 35, he is a marvellous footballer. its just mayo management know how to get the best out of him. he same age as sean Cavanagh and look how his last couple of years panned out.

[twenty one yard free]

Some one earlier asked the question "how long Harte has left?"

How long are the good people of Tyrone gonna stand back and let one man dictate to the rest of the county?

Harte has lost the run of himself and has stayed on far too long,Harte has been a great ambassador to the county but every dog has his day

We need to freshen things up starting with management

[southtyronegael]

Well the good people of Tyrone voted to give harte 3 years so we are stuck with him. I've a feeling he will be there alot longer than the 3 years. He has the whole thing sewn up.

[tyrone08]

Beginning to think your right. Even if Tyrone won the AI last year still would have wanted Harte to go. 16 years is too long for any manager especially one as stubborn as harte

quote author=southtyronegael link=topic=2312.msg1877566#msg1877566 date=1549309112]
Well the good people of Tyrone voted to give harte 3 years so we are stuck with him. I've a feeling he will be there alot longer than the 3 years. He has the whole thing sewn up.
[/quote]

[Localexpert]

Well the good people of Tyrone voted to give harte 3 years so we are stuck with him. I've a feeling he will be there alot longer than the 3 years. He has the whole thing sewn up.

He'll absolutely be there for longer!  He will never leave of his own decision he will need to be pushed.

[southtyronegael]

Well the good people of Tyrone voted to give harte 3 years so we are stuck with him. I've a feeling he will be there alot longer than the 3 years. He has the whole thing sewn up.

He'll absolutely be there for longer!  He will never leave of his own decision he will need to be pushed.

cant think of anyone with the balls to push him. only person to stand up to him was roisin Jordan and look what happened her.

[NotedObserver]

Well the good people of Tyrone voted to give harte 3 years so we are stuck with him. I've a feeling he will be there alot longer than the 3 years. He has the whole thing sewn up.

He'll absolutely be there for longer!  He will never leave of his own decision he will need to be pushed.

cant think of anyone with the balls to push him. only person to stand up to him was roisin Jordan and look what happened her.

Only the players but that will never happen

[Redhand Santa]

The first week in February and the usual over the top hysterical negative heads are out in full force. I love the fact that someone actually said Harte should be sacked even if we had won the All Ireland last year. I think that sums up the kind of mentality you are up against. It's been a very poor start to the league just like last year. Like last year I will be judging the team in the summer not now.

One thing I will say is Harte is an easy target for our lack of forwards. Given the lack of transfers in the gaa it's not something that can be easy fixed. Some people try to say McCurry and Brennan etc would be world beaters if they didn't have to track back. The two problems with this is neither have proven to be great ball winners yet - they both lack either great strength to win the ball or blistering pace to get away from a man. You certainly cant get away with both of them in the team. The other problem is that in nearly all teams including Dublin have forwards such as Mannion who are tracking back to help out and still athletic enough to get back up and support the attack. So it's not as if Harte is the only manager asking his forwards to do this.

My problem with the setup is that weaknesses with our forward play don't seem to be addressed. Two of my issues with our forward play is as follows:

1) Once we get a score in a game we are letting the opposition out far too easy which means we aren't building up any kind of momentum. I'm not saying we aren't pushing up on the kickout but we aren't doing it with enough men or genuine aggression to win the ball - the players almost seem to be ticking a box by getting up the field but quite happily let their opponent win the ball then drift back to defence. Also we always seem to allow someone free on the kickout. There is no point in marking 5 men and leaving a 6th free and an easy way out for the opposition. You'd nearly be as safe dropping everyone back to cover defence because when the free man gets it we don't have the numbers back.

2) We are kicking more ball into the full forward line and Harte on Sunday was actually fairly effective at winning it (despite being picked out as an easy target by some above). But when we get it in the full forward line there is usually an extra defender or two back. What Dublin and Mayo do better than us is getting support runners coming through to support the forward. Not one or two men but 4 or 5 men bursting through following the kick in to take the return pass. They come at different angles pulling the defence apart. We tend to kick it in and not have the support runners. Or when we choose not to kick it and run from deep instead we aren't direct enough with enough men coming through.

I'm sure both points above aren't helped if we are below some other teams in terms of fitness currently. But they are two areas we should be putting a lot of emphasis on as are scoring has let us down badly at times in big games.

Unlike some who give out about us dropping men back I have no problem with that as long as it's following the ball. Players are fit enough now to go back and help out. But are primary aim when losing the ball should be to win it back as opposed to players drifting back and covering spaces. That oftens lead to a lack of responsibility and the opposition will eventually break you down. At times including Sunday we have abandoned the sweeper but it hasn't been followed up with enough aggression in terms of winning possession which is the key to unsettling the likes of Dublin who dominate when given the ball.

Hopefully we start to see some major improvements from this weekend as the first two performances have been very disappointing and we don't want to be back playing division two football.

[ONeill]

1. I don't think we have the players with that aggression.
2. Harte won a few. But he's definitely not a natural in that position. To receive the ball, turn and stick it over. Unfortunately, he's our best outlet in terms of intelligence in that position. Secondly, as regards runners, who is willing to kick a point from 30-40? Countless times players did break the 40 but turned back to feed Donnelly or whoever. And then pointed to go back further.

But it is only Feb. You just hoped to see something different.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

The first week in February and the usual over the top hysterical negative heads are out in full force...

Good post RHS, and yes, a bit too early with the obituaries. Though we would want to be showing something of the necessary fitness levels soon.

[southtyronegael]

The first week in February and the usual over the top hysterical negative heads are out in full force...

Good post RHS, and yes, a bit too early with the obituaries. Though we would want to be showing something of the necessary fitness levels soon.

what I  seen on Sunday was not down to a lack of fitness. More like a lack of ideas or any kind of attacking game plan. Of course we will get fitter but that's not enough, we have to get smarter too.

[TwoUpTwoDown]

The first week in February and the usual over the top hysterical negative heads are out in full force...

Good post RHS, and yes, a bit too early with the obituaries. Though we would want to be showing something of the necessary fitness levels soon.

what I  seen on Sunday was not down to a lack of fitness. More like a lack of ideas or any kind of attacking game plan. Of course we will get fitter but that's not enough, we have to get smarter too.

God you seen a lot from your armchair.