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I would probably see it from the players point of view. How is sitting on the bench going to improve you as a player when you cant get on for your county and you are not allowed to play for your club.

Forwards especially strive on confidence, but bringing on a forward at say the 50 minute mark who hasn't played much football all season and expecting him to turn the game around is naive at best. Why would a talented player like Lee waste a full year to sit on the tyrone bench when he could be playing for his club every week and getting sharper with each game.

The issue is that Mickey has chopped and changed and neglected the forwards for far too long. Wouldn't listen to Owen talking about staying to fight for a place when him Peter and Steve were guaranteed game time every game. Tyrone need to pick a system and stick with it so players know where they stand.

This does not happen in Mayo, Kerry or Dublin for the simple reason these teams know their system of play inside out and players know they will get a chance. Whereas in Tyrone a forward does not know if they will be playing attacking football one week or 15 men behind the ball the next.

[There's something not quite right in the Tyrone set-up]

Well SS,  after the last showing, esp. from the line; I'll not be going and probably won't even listen to it. There's something not quite right in the Tyrone set-up, and maybe the qualifer route will sort out some of the issues.  But overall,  too many good players are not playing for Tyrone at the minute,  for whatever reasons.  Good luck to Longford;  wouldn't be overly surprised if they sneeked it

All went pear shaped after the trip to Thailand

This must be fake news by  now. Have heard it referenced since Jan but  no details were ever given

Under the rules as they stand the most he could get for the finger in the mouth was one game. Two games for a stamp. Done for both. Concurrent punishments. There was never any chance of him getting any more.

Agreed. People shouting about life time bans are a joke. I ask anyone which is a more severe incident. Philly McMahon viciously poking the star in the eye or McCann trying to remove a player gun shield?

Also if you watch the video at normal speed it was hard man Ryan McHugh who pushed McCann which caused him to stand on the donegal player

So he has in effect just a one match ban?

Going by previous punishments for more serious incidents a one match ban was all he could have received but somehow he got a 2 match man. Regardless of the fact that he is injured it is still a 2 match ban.   

Serious Rumours floating about already....Hope panel sticks together for the immediate future at least!! Has the team holiday caused more problems than we care to admit???

What happened at the team holiday? Have heard this discussed before but no one said what the issue was

[Wonder why donegal posters are so confident.]

Wonder why donegal posters are so confident. I am not confident for Tyrone but I do expect Tyrone to have a little bit too much for donegal. I looked at the donegal page on another forum and by the sounds of it Tyrone are in for a hammering. Apparently donegal are larger and more physical and have better players in nearly every position.

V. Confident for a team who have lost 2 years in a row to Tyrone, who came 2nd in division 2 and who found it difficult for large parts of the game against fermanagh

What have we got, three Donegal supporters on this thread?
Not one of us has Tyrone as anything other than favourites.
Or was my fearing you much less than Dublin too much for you to handle?

As for the Fermanagh game, I don't think I felt we wouldn't win that at any stage in that match.

If you would please re read my comment I said donegal posters in another forum where mutilple people have donegal as hot favourites. I think the match will be very close with only a few points in it. Not sure why you brought the dubs into it.

One poster on the Donegal forum on Hogan Stand happened to mention Donegal's admirable physique/athleticism  and the superior prowess of their forwards blowing Tyrone away, the rest of the posters were measured in their expectations.

I assume you missed the post about donegal having the 6 best forwards in the country. Hmmm sounds measured to be

[Wonder why donegal posters are so confident.]

Wonder why donegal posters are so confident. I am not confident for Tyrone but I do expect Tyrone to have a little bit too much for donegal. I looked at the donegal page on another forum and by the sounds of it Tyrone are in for a hammering. Apparently donegal are larger and more physical and have better players in nearly every position.

V. Confident for a team who have lost 2 years in a row to Tyrone, who came 2nd in division 2 and who found it difficult for large parts of the game against fermanagh

What have we got, three Donegal supporters on this thread?

Not one of us has Tyrone as anything other than favourites.

Or was my fearing you much less than Dublin too much for you to handle?

As for the Fermanagh game, I don't think I felt we wouldn't win that at any stage in that match.

If you would please re read my comment I said donegal posters in another forum where mutilple people have donegal as hot favourites. I think the match will be very close with only a few points in it. Not sure why you brought the dubs into it.

Wonder why donegal posters are so confident. I am not confident for Tyrone but I do expect Tyrone to have a little bit too much for donegal. I looked at the donegal page on another forum and by the sounds of it Tyrone are in for a hammering. Apparently donegal are larger and more physical and have better players in nearly every position.

V. Confident for a team who have lost 2 years in a row to Tyrone, who came 2nd in division 2 and who found it difficult for large parts of the game against fermanagh

http://hoganstand.com/Article/Index/299835

Wouldn't surprise me if donegal beat Tyrone but still can't explain how he's so very very confident

[Fermanagh held this Donegal firepower to 15 points]

Slightly different as Tyrone had 3 of their first team players taken off with injury inside the first half. Also the same Tyrone team that knocked monaghan out later on
Fermanagh held this Donegal firepower to 15 points, 3 of which were in added time at the end of the game when Fermanagh were chasing scores.

Donegal have attacking threats, so do Tyrone. Donegal played 2 out and out defenders against Fermanagh, namely McMenamin and McGee, otherwise they had 4 attack minded 'defenders' in McLoone, McHugh, Gallagher and McGrath, knowing they didn't need to be overly defensive against Fermanagh. I predict their personnel will change next day out to leave more protection for Magee and McMenamin, otherwise Tyrone's running game will hurt them. Both keepers will have a big influence, Donegal didn't lose a kickout the last day out, Tyrone will exert more pressure on them hopefully.

Both teams will fancy their chances in this one, going with Tyrone by a small margin with the players coming in from bench making a difference on the day.

The same Fermanagh that held Monaghan to 10 points last year. The same Monaghan that put 19 odd scores on Tyrone in Rd 1.

[Donegal probably have better players all over the park and certainly have better firepower]

This has a Donegal win written all over it for me. Donegal probably have better players all over the park and certainly have better firepower. Tyrone will struggle to shut down Murphy, McBrearty, Brennan et al. I think Tyrone are very decent but compare their attacking threats and how they are depending on for scores, McShane and Donnelly who are probably midfielders more than attackers. Tyrones trump card is their sideline and their ability to make changes to win the game. I don't think Donegal possess that craft in Bonner. If it's tight Mickey Harte will come to the fore.. but I think Donegal will overpower them with their attack.

Donegal by 5

Couldn't agree with that at all. Tyrone have beaten Donegal 3 times in a row in the championship with a lot of the better players involved in both sides. Two of those victories where comfortable. Tyrone also operated in division 1 beating Dublin and Galway whereas Donegal struggled to get out division 2. If Donegal had better players all over the park I don't think these things would have happened.

I'd be happy enough now with the way we're playing that we've as much firepower if not more than Donegal. Murphy and McBreaty can both be hit and miss in big games.

I would agree with this both McBreaty and Murphy have been marked out of it in numerous past games. Seem to be  lot of confidence in Donegal which should help Tyrone.

So Peter harte can't be subbed no matter how bad he plays? Wise up man.

I think I can recall 1 game when Peter was subbed. Its a bit unreal to be honest. One major fault of mickeys is his loyalty to certain players. Top managers have no issue with subbing poor performing players.

Lee didn't really get a run of games to impress. He got a few sub appearances and had a poor game when he did start but thought the promise he showed that he deserved a run of games

Lee Brennan played for Trillick this evening! Dropped out of Tyrone panel this morning!

Was wondering what was the story with Lee. Thought he played well last year at times and with Tyrone playing more direct football I thought it would suit a player like Lee or Bradley feeding off mcshane or mattie.

He's behind McCurry and McAliskey in the bench options now so I can understand his frustration at not getting minutes but at the same time I don't think he has proven enough to get in ahead of any of these players at the minute. Was it a case of him dropping himself off the panel or being dropped for playing with Trillick?

With Ronan O'Neill off the panel as well as Bradley taking the year out, it does make us a little lighter up top. Will Mickey think about adding another attacking option to the squad?

Surely these lads should have been given at least some game time in the league. Not to be disrespectful but the game against antrim would be perfect for them to show their worth.

The very real danger is that injuries to mcshane will cause major problems. Mcaliskey can be a threat but still not impressed with mccurry. In a tight game I don't think he can do it. Hopefully he will prove me wrong as he is very skillful but always struck me as a player who needs a bit of space which you won't get against the top teams.

Lee Brennan played for Trillick this evening! Dropped out of Tyrone panel this morning!

Was wondering what was the story with Lee. Thought he played well last year at times and with Tyrone playing more direct football I thought it would suit a player like Lee or Bradley feeding off mcshane or mattie.

Continuing a worrying trend from the league is that Tiernan McCann was badly off the pace.
His defensive abilities were always very questionable but his attacking output always seemed to make up for it to justify him being on the team. But hes not offering anything at all at the moment. Somehow he lasted the 70 minutes, which is obviously down to reputation. Tyrone can't be expecting a long summer with him in this form.

Thought mccann and harte were poor today. They seem to be impossible to sub thought no matter how they play. Mickey would need to be more ruthless in this regard, jim gavin wouldn't hesitate to sub a poor performing player.

Overall it never looked like a game we would lose even when derry got the goal. Bigger battles ahead and i suspect mickey is playing his cards to his chest.