McKenna Cup 2024

[haranguerer]

From what I saw (on the streaming which kept freezing) the referee was very bad, and seemed to have been particularly hard on Tyrone on a number of occasions, didnt give at least one certain (supported by the two armagh commentators) penalty, and one certain 14 yd free (at least) when the cavan lad jumped on the ball.

Ok, they won anyway, and when that happens theres a tendency to say 'No big deal, made no difference', but it does matter. The only way confidence can be built in reffing is through consistency, that means from the first challenge game of the year right through to the AI final. In Gaelic, refs have much too great an influence on games (letting say a losing team back into it), given just how subjective some of their decisions seem to be. I'd love to hear their explanations for some of their decisions.

[God14]

Tyrone team v Cavan last night: N Morgan (0-03, 3f), PJ Quinn, D McBride, R McKenna, R McNabb, D Carlin, T McCann, N McKenna (0-01), S Cavanagh (0-01), PJ Lavery, C Cavanagh, P Kane (1-00), P McNeice (0-03), M Donnelly (0-01), K Coney (0-05, 2f).

Tyrone team v Mayo NFL 9th Feb: N Morgan (0-01,f), A McCrory, C Clarke, B Tierney, C McGinley (0-02), P Harte (00-01), T McCann, C Cavanagh, C Grugan, E McKenna, S McGuigan, P Hughes, D McCurry (2-04, 0-1f), M Donnelly (0-05), R O'Neill (0-01,f).

So only Niall Morgan, Tiernan McCann & Colm Cavanagh retained their places from the last game. To make 12 changes and still come out 7 point winners against an emerging Cavan team is very impressive.
Add in to that the likes of Aidan Cassidy, Joe McMahon, Conor Gormley, Stevie O'Neill & Justin McMahon to come back into contention - competition for places is serious.
I thought after 20 minutes it was going to be a real struggle. Cavan were up for a scrap, well organised defensively whilst Keating, Dunne & Mackey were looking lively and Keating in particular was winning his battle with McBride. The referee was biased too in favour of the underdogs, so to turn that around was very pleasing.

Plenty to work on - Niall Morgan missed a few kicks that were within his range. I thought PJ looked the best of the full back line. McBride seemed to stand off Keating too much. Maybe the black card he picked up against Derry was still on his mind.
Niall McKenna doesn't seem suited to Midfield, lacks physicality and im not sure where he would fit into our first 15. Paddy McNiece spurned a few goal chances that others (McCurry, McAliskey or RON)  wouldn't & PJ Lavery hasn't really come to terms with intercounty yet - its early days for him. It looks like it might take a year.
Kyle Coney served a reminder of his talents, if only he could get a good run injury free. That was a very encouraging performance as he has only had a few weeks training. Sean Cavanagh took a few great catches in the middle of the park & you could see why Mickey likes him there as opposed to the FF line. Tiernan McCann played well I thought & seems to be pushing on now and improving with every game.

[nrico2006]

Unbelievable to see basically a completely different team turn out and beat Cavan well.  Glad to see Coney do well, hopefully he gets back to his league for of two years ago when he was top scorer before injuries took over.  What did Keating score of McBride?  He is in a rich vein of form at the minute and I think he scored 6 or 7 points from play off the Leinster full back at the weekend so maybe wouldn't be too hard on McBride who has probably only played a game or two at full back for Tyrone before.

[sam03/05]

The ref was shocking, gave Tyrone nothing. There were two clear penalities (one a stonewaller)
Overall he was shocking.

[EC Unique]

Tyrone squad to be cut now. Won't be an easy job.

[Onthe40]

Will any of the lads that were brought in this year be kept?
Apart from fleeting appearances early on they havent really been seen since... How did Plunkett Kane play last night?...thought he may have kicked on this year but doesnt really seem to have

[Fuzzman]

Yeah we all know it's early days but I feel really excited again about Tyrone and how they've progressed with the new lads. We've got that zip in the squad again with playing incisive attacking football with a few great prospects for the future.
Despite all the aggro, Mickey sure does his job well and knows what is best for Tyrone and is single minded enough to stay focused on the job in hand.
I think players like Coney, RoN and McCurry will really benefit from the new rules as they could have struggled playing against DOnegal's old defensive system all year
Hopefully Donegal and others don't resort back to that style of football but we all know Ulster football is highly competitive and I won't be surprised if teams like Monaghan & Cavan play that way.

[packiedevlin]

Interesting to see ye giving out about the ref so much when ye won but from a Cavan point of view we thought he gave us practically nothing either and was very much biased towards Tyrone so I suppose all in all we'll just agree he's not a county standard referee! I thought the goal and point in injury time really deflated us, we should've been 3 or 4 up and half time. We really struggled in the second half against the wind and when Brady got sent off, there was no way back. Still it was a good test for us and shows where we are in development.

[Knock Yer Mucker In]

Tyrone team v Cavan last night: N Morgan (0-03, 3f), PJ Quinn, D McBride, R McKenna, R McNabb, D Carlin, T McCann, N McKenna (0-01), S Cavanagh (0-01), PJ Lavery, C Cavanagh, P Kane (1-00), P McNeice (0-03), M Donnelly (0-01), K Coney (0-05, 2f).

Tyrone team v Mayo NFL 9th Feb: N Morgan (0-01,f), A McCrory, C Clarke, B Tierney, C McGinley (0-02), P Harte (00-01), T McCann, C Cavanagh, C Grugan, E McKenna, S McGuigan, P Hughes, D McCurry (2-04, 0-1f), M Donnelly (0-05), R O'Neill (0-01,f).

So only Niall Morgan, Tiernan McCann & Colm Cavanagh retained their places from the last game. To make 12 changes and still come out 7 point winners against an emerging Cavan team is very impressive.
Add in to that the likes of Aidan Cassidy, Joe McMahon, Conor Gormley, Stevie O'Neill & Justin McMahon to come back into contention - competition for places is serious.
I thought after 20 minutes it was going to be a real struggle. Cavan were up for a scrap, well organised defensively whilst Keating, Dunne & Mackey were looking lively and Keating in particular was winning his battle with McBride. The referee was biased too in favour of the underdogs, so to turn that around was very pleasing.

Plenty to work on - Niall Morgan missed a few kicks that were within his range. I thought PJ looked the best of the full back line. McBride seemed to stand off Keating too much. Maybe the black card he picked up against Derry was still on his mind.
Niall McKenna doesn't seem suited to Midfield, lacks physicality and im not sure where he would fit into our first 15. Paddy McNiece spurned a few goal chances that others (McCurry, McAliskey or RON)  wouldn't & PJ Lavery hasn't really come to terms with intercounty yet - its early days for him. It looks like it might take a year.
Kyle Coney served a reminder of his talents, if only he could get a good run injury free. That was a very encouraging performance as he has only had a few weeks training. Sean Cavanagh took a few great catches in the middle of the park & you could see why Mickey likes him there as opposed to the FF line. Tiernan McCann played well I thought & seems to be pushing on now and improving with every game.

It might help if he was played in the position that brought him to Harte's attention in the first place at WHB.

[Redhand Santa]

Tyrone team v Cavan last night: N Morgan (0-03, 3f), PJ Quinn, D McBride, R McKenna, R McNabb, D Carlin, T McCann, N McKenna (0-01), S Cavanagh (0-01), PJ Lavery, C Cavanagh, P Kane (1-00), P McNeice (0-03), M Donnelly (0-01), K Coney (0-05, 2f).

Tyrone team v Mayo NFL 9th Feb: N Morgan (0-01,f), A McCrory, C Clarke, B Tierney, C McGinley (0-02), P Harte (00-01), T McCann, C Cavanagh, C Grugan, E McKenna, S McGuigan, P Hughes, D McCurry (2-04, 0-1f), M Donnelly (0-05), R O'Neill (0-01,f).

So only Niall Morgan, Tiernan McCann & Colm Cavanagh retained their places from the last game. To make 12 changes and still come out 7 point winners against an emerging Cavan team is very impressive.
Add in to that the likes of Aidan Cassidy, Joe McMahon, Conor Gormley, Stevie O'Neill & Justin McMahon to come back into contention - competition for places is serious.
I thought after 20 minutes it was going to be a real struggle. Cavan were up for a scrap, well organised defensively whilst Keating, Dunne & Mackey were looking lively and Keating in particular was winning his battle with McBride. The referee was biased too in favour of the underdogs, so to turn that around was very pleasing.

Plenty to work on - Niall Morgan missed a few kicks that were within his range. I thought PJ looked the best of the full back line. McBride seemed to stand off Keating too much. Maybe the black card he picked up against Derry was still on his mind.
Niall McKenna doesn't seem suited to Midfield, lacks physicality and im not sure where he would fit into our first 15. Paddy McNiece spurned a few goal chances that others (McCurry, McAliskey or RON)  wouldn't & PJ Lavery hasn't really come to terms with intercounty yet - its early days for him. It looks like it might take a year.
Kyle Coney served a reminder of his talents, if only he could get a good run injury free. That was a very encouraging performance as he has only had a few weeks training. Sean Cavanagh took a few great catches in the middle of the park & you could see why Mickey likes him there as opposed to the FF line. Tiernan McCann played well I thought & seems to be pushing on now and improving with every game.

It might help if he was played in the position that brought him to Harte's attention in the first place at WHB.

Given his lack of size I suspect that Harte thinks he could be a liability defensively if played in the half back line at county level. He is a good player but currently may not be physically strong enough for county football. That may come over the next year or 2.

[Knock Yer Mucker In]

Strength is not an issue, he is as tall as Peter. Being played in the wrong position is the issue

[From the Bunker]

As much as it must be uplifting for Tyrone to beat Cavan with 12 changes from their league match against Mayo. It must be a bit of a wake up call for Cavan! Surely they were taking this competition seriously and wanted to start the year with silverware? I thought Cavans championship year was over rated last year and there is a bit of unreal expectation in their squad (at the moment)!

[rodney trotter]

As much as it must be uplifting for Tyrone to beat Cavan with 12 changes from their league match against Mayo. It must be a bit of a wake up call for Cavan! Surely they were taking this competition seriously and wanted to start the year with silverware? I thought Cavans championship year was over rated last year and there is a bit of unreal expectation in their squad (at the moment)!

What are you on about? See that Cavan lost by 7, and presume didnt take the competition seriously? 7 points wasnt a fair reflection of the game. Cavan played well, gave away a very slopy goal at the end of the first half which brought Tyrone level at haf time. Cavan lost the Killian Brady 5 minutes into the second half to a black card following a yellow,and were up against it being down to 14 men for most of the second half. Nether side was at full strenght.

I dont know what the Cavan Squad have been saying that you think they have "unreal expectation* None of them said they would win the All Ireland this year

[Redhand Santa]

Strength is not an issue, he is as tall as Peter. Being played in the wrong position is the issue

I'm not sure if he's as tall as Peter but he certainly wouldn't be as strong. Harte was excellent for Ulster last Sunday from half back and I don't think Lavery is near his level yet. Its very early days for him and hopefully he can push on but at this stage I'd be surprised to see him feature come championship.

[J OGorman]

JoG, I suppose you'll be calling now for the cup to be taken off Tyrone and given to Cavan because of the students.

I hope you enjoy your year supporting Derry again and like Brolly whinging about us red arses. Oh yeah we're not red arses any more.

re the cup, absolutely not. First blood to the red arses !

Lord Joseph Brollsworth still isnt the flavour of the month 'round these parts.

We'll approach another year as the mighty Oaks with the gay abandon of a spring lamb only to be served in a platter after a few months :-)

Up Derry