Tyrone v Monaghan the battle for Ulster’s heart aisf 2018

[WT4E]

Is it Saturday or Sunday that Monaghan are scheduled for their regular Croke Park shatting? They really enjoyed saying cheerio to the Tyrone wans in Omagh but theres very little county silverware given out in Healy Park!

[Main Street]

I say ol' chap, Tyrone are a wonderful team, Collie is an amazing leader of men, I have always admired Tyrone. Mickey H is pure genius, Tyrone fans are the best - at least 99% of them.

Tyrone retort "what do you mean only 99%? you fcking troll"

[BennyHarp]

I say ol' chap, Tyrone are a wonderful team, Collie is an amazing leader of men, I have always admired Tyrone. Mickey H is pure genius, Tyrone fans are the best - at least 99% of them.

Tyrone retort "what do you mean only 99%? you fcking troll"

I suspected you'd have a meltdown before this game. I didn't think it would happen by Monday.

[redhandefender]

I wouldn't change too much. I'd start Brennan for the frees. We were by far the better team 1st half v Donegal only for errors. Mc Shane works his add off but it's clear now he is never going to lose this hit and miss way of playing he has. Moment of sublime to the moment of madness

[trailer]

Don't know much about Skeet personally. but always struck me as a confidence player. I'd say if he gets his chance on Sunday he'll reward Mickey with a worthy performance. On his day he's a serious baller.

[trileacman]

There were several posters calmouring for Colm Cav to be dropped after the Dublin game and many expressed the opinion that he was done. Look how that turned out. Likewise I cold trawl through the posts and pick out a few examples of posters saying Matty wasn't putting in a big enough shift.I wouldn't be dropping McShane, skeet or Richie  yet.

Mc Shane got a bit of a run around in defence yesterday obviously not a role that suits him greatly but he did get himself in scoring positions for the goal and his point. Had he connected right with that Brennan cross he'd be hero of the hour and there'd be no talk of dropping him. Slim margins. He's played a lot of 70 min games this year and like Burns he could be reaching mental and physical burnout. Still I'd be slow to say "same old Cathal". He was one of our top 3 early championship performers and has definitely eradicated the majority of those errors that were once married to his game. May just need a rest to get himself back to his best.

Skeet- Jesus your awful sore on him for those frees. He missed a 45-yarder on the right that needed to be taken by a left footer, then a 45, then a difficult enough one on the right that was still the guts of 45m out. I never remember a time when we could count on those being scores, Canavan would have been going well to get 1 out of those 3. Ffs the great 08 team used to trundle joe Mc Mahon up from full back to take 45s such was the dearth of forwards fit to hit them. Since the 08 side Sean cav was equally inconsistent from distance. Murphy missed 2 easier kicks for a supposed long distance expert so I can't see how literally a couple of missed frees put Skeet into a "confidence crisis".

We actually need Skeet to play if we're playing Brennan  as Sod's law will dictate if we drop him all we'll win will be difficult left sided frees that suit a right booter. Standing Brennan over those frees wood put him under immense scrutiny from early in the game. Bar those chances Skeet did f**k all wrong, can't remneber him hitting a wide from play or wasting a possession all game. He wasn't as bad as people are making out and this "confidence crisis" stuff that brolly cape out with is complete bull shit.

[omagh_gael]

Fair enough point regarding the breakdown of Conor's performance. Whilst the later frees were tricky I'm almost certain either the first or second free kick was only a matter of metres outside the semi circle. Didn't it drop short as well? That ramps up the pressure hugely for the rest of the game from frees when we should be in a position to clip them over and keep the scoreboard ticking over. I'm no defender but if I knew a free kick taker was having a dodgy game you'd be far more confident to go into tackles harder knowing that you're almost certain not to get punished 80%> of the time.

This is not a McAliskey specific point btw, as it has been an enduring problem for us. As redhanddefender states above it only strengthens the case to have Lee in from the start, imo.

[Onthe40]

Any word on Meylers injury?

[tyrone08]

Mickey is in a difficult position regarding the forwards. Does he start Lee or hold him off until later in the game, this is the big question. Against Monaghan Tyrone can't afford to waste frees, this will be the winning or losing of the game.  Only scenarios as I see it are-

1) Start Mark and Conor as per the Donegal game. If they start scoring early well and good, keep Lee off until 2nd half.

2) Start Mark and Conor as per the Donegal game. If they are not preforming and are missing frees then bring Lee on early, say around the 25 min mark. The danger with this is that if we have missed 3-4 frees by then as per the Donegal game the heads will drop and will give Monaghan a massive boost. If Monaghan get a couple of points lead then Tyrone are in trouble as they would easily surrender it as other teams have.

2) Start Lee and leave either Mark or Conor on the bench. The danger with this is if Lee gets injured or is marked out of it you are then relying on Mark or Conor to come off the bench and change the game. I don't think Conor is that type of player but Mark may potentially be.

I would start Mark and Conor again and bring Lee on early in the first half only if needed. Its important that Mark and Conor run the Monaghan defence around Croke Park as much as possible. Then I would then bring Lee on in the 2nd half and let him torment the Monaghan defence when they are a bit tired.

I think there will only be a few points in it so as I said frees are vital and unfortunately for Tyrone, Monaghan have 2 of the best free takers out there.

[nrico2006]

On form, Bradley and Brennan should start ahead of Donnelly and McAliskey. Although Donnelly seems to other a more traditional option in at ff.

[omagh_gael]

The more I think about it the more I think we'll see Lee starting on Sunday. I just don't think we can afford to leave kickable free kicks behind.

[RedHand88]

Personally I'm on the side of keeping lee back until the game is in the melting pot, or sooner if monaghan start to pull away.
Yes this leaves us exposed with frees but this week should be used to boost skeets confidence as much as possible as he really needs to be on point on Sunday. Failing that Morgan is another option.

[Jayop]

Agreed. Lee doesn't look ready for sixty minutes yet. Tbh if we want Morgan to hit frees then let him hit everything but the 21 yard tap overs.

[omagh_gael]

Agreed. Lee doesn't look ready for sixty minutes yet. Tbh if we want Morgan to hit frees then let him hit everything but the 21 yard tap overs.

That's something I've always wondered, why wouldn't Morgan hit all frees from 35 yards plus? He only will hit ones outside the 45, but it's those ones out round the semi circle that we miss more than any other top teams that end up killing us. Think of the one RoN missed v Dublin or McAliskey's easy miss at the start of the Donegal match.

[omagh_gael]

Looks like Mickey will be sticking with roughly the same team on Sunday (barring Meyler not making it)...

https://www.irishnews.com/sport/gaafootball/2018/08/07/news/substitutes-making-a-major-impact-for-tyrone-mickey-harte-1401299/