Tyrone County Football and Hurling

Started by Fear ón Srath Bán, April 01, 2007, 05:58:31 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Redhand Santa

I've a feeling he'll try Sean in the forwards for a game or 2 so there may be at least one midfield position free for part of the league. From what I've seen so far in the McKenna cup grugan or Mcbride could be best to fill it. Definitely interested to see how Mcbride gets on tomorrow night.

EC Unique

McKenna was an extremely good minor. I would like to see him get a run of games now after is break to see how he goes.

washed_up

is the game being streamed anywhere tonight??

Fuzzman

Can anyone give me an update on the squad.
Which of the more experienced lads will be back for the league?

Who do you see as our corner backs this year?

Redhand Santa

Quote from: Fuzzman on January 29, 2014, 04:39:24 PM
Can anyone give me an update on the squad.
Which of the more experienced lads will be back for the league?

Who do you see as our corner backs this year?

News from the squad seems to be quiet enough. I suspect a one or two more experienced may be involved on Saturday and the rest eased back in as the league goes on.

There's no doubt that the full back line could be our biggest weakness and an area that we could struggle in. Looking at the squad and assuming given his age Gormley is only an option at half back the options for corner back seem to be:
McRory
PJ Quinn
Tierney
McKenna
McNamee
Carlin
We will miss McCarron this year as he was solid enough in one of the positions. Looking at the above I'm not totally convinced with the options. Carlin hasn't nailed down a place there previously so unlikey to now. PJ is a good option but struggles with injuries. McRory is quick and big and reasonably sticky but he has always just been to clean and stands off too much. I'm not sure if he can improve this at this stage of his career. I'd like to see Tierney get a few games. He stuck to Clarke rightly versus Armagh though Clarke always beat him to he ball and looked very dangerous. He seems sticky to stick to his man but could lack the power at the top level and could be easily turned when over commits.

Harte may need to think again about who to play here but there doesn't seem to be many options around the county. Looking at the squad there isn't a huge number of options that could be converted. McGinley is quick and big enough but could have the same problems as McRory in the postion.

Under Lights

Any word of how the Tyrone Under 21s are getting on? I believe that they are playing friendlies recently but haven't heard any reports.

Fuzzman

I thought Tierney did well on Sat. Was he marking Kielt for most of the game?
We looked very open but I wonder is Mickey purposely leaving it like that to get each man used to marking his own man again and not relying on a sweeper to give them cover. A sweeper can give defenders a false sense of security I suppose whereas if every man is responsible for his own man not getting scores from play then you can see who's doing their job and who isn't.

I'd expect McKenna to get back in to the corner this weekend and maybe Tierney keep his place.
I hope Grugan continues to play most games and maybe him and Colm can form a new partnership there. We all say it every year but I really would love to see Big Sean at the edge of the square this year. I know he gives so much more to the team with his direct strong running but with these new rules surely a full back would have a nightmare marking him without pulling him down. The FB would have to be very careful not to get a black card and so Sean could get space to make high. I expect a lot more kick passing into our FF line this year.

God14

Any of the Clonoe posters on here know whats happening with Daniel McNulty? Surprised how little game time he has seen so far, so I can only presume he is injured. Super prospect.

Club Rossa

I saw him at the McKenna cup game with Derry and he appeared to be limping.

Up The Middle

Quote from: God14 on February 05, 2014, 11:38:44 AM
Any of the Clonoe posters on here know whats happening with Daniel McNulty? Surprised how little game time he has seen so far, so I can only presume he is injured. Super prospect.

He has a back injury as far as im aware. Serious talent.
I'm very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.

Norf Tyrone

Quote from: Under Lights on February 04, 2014, 05:11:32 PM
Any word of how the Tyrone Under 21s are getting on? I believe that they are playing friendlies recently but haven't heard any reports.

They played Antrim in the Cremartin Cup last Sat in Glenmornan- the home of football- and won 1.10 to 0.4. However it was that wet I only watched 10 mins do hard to gauge anything.

I think they are away to Louth this Friday. 
Owen Roe O'Neills GAC, Leckpatrick, Tyrone

orangeman

The evolution of Tyrone

Saturday, February 08, 2014

ALLIANZ FL DIV 1:
Tyrone v Mayo

When the time comes to review this decade of football, and in turn the validity of Kerry's 10-point win over Tyrone in July 2012, just how dimly will history view that qualifier in Killarney?



By John Fogarty
Replaced by Donegal and Dublin at the top of the heap, was this merely a pair of has-beens slugging it out for pittance off the strip? A lot of Kerry supporters and a handful of their players convinced themselves it was a win more than its true worth as the Tyrone following strenuously played it down when their team's season had climaxed for Donegal and fell away thereafter.

Despite the billing, the game was less than it appeared, but then neither was it a false dawn for the hosts or a false dusk for the visitors. 13 months later and the headline pugilists of the 2000s had reached All-Ireland semi-finals off campaigns that could be believed in.

Fast forward to last week and the parallels between the counties continue. In their opener against Dublin, much was made of Kerry fielding a team without a player who started a winning All-Ireland final. That same evening in Derry, Mickey Harte did exactly the same as Eamonn Fitzmaurice.

Enda McGinley, one of only six men who began all three of Tyrone's September successes, watched on excitedly as much as with a sense of relief.

"I don't think until now there has been a proper wave of new players since the original group. Every year there has been a couple of new players coming through.

"The McKenna Cup this year was the first time a team has been fielded without a significant element of the main bunch, those that came through minor and U21s for the '03, '05 and '08 successes. I'd have seen that bunch as the same generation.

"There is a strong feelgood factor in the county. The injuries and unavailability of senior players, I think, has worked into Mickey's hands and in a way forced him to give the young players free reign and believe this is very much their team now.

"It's probably shown it's time now to put the faith in the new players. Rather than when it was a sprinkling of new players with a majority of senior players, we might now see it other way around — a team full of young players getting the best out of a sprinkling of senior players."

Club Tyrone's Mark Conway smiles when it's put to him the county's fourth coming is beckoning.

"To re-coin a phrase, 'we never went away'," he says tongue-in-cheek. "The greatest crop of minors we ever produced was in '97 and '98 and Tyrone arrogance would say no other county has produced a batch like that at the one time. Six years later the bulk of them won the first All-Ireland senior title.

"Time will tell but we thought our minor team of 2008 was an exceptional team. Out of that team now you have Niall McKenna, Paddy McNeice, Matthew Donnelly and Ronan McNabb. Of the 2010 minor team you have the likes of Ronan O'Neill and Conor Clarke. This team has won nothing yet but if they do it won't be much of a surprise because there is a bit of a pedigree there."

McGinley is concerned, though, by the size of the shadow cast by the teams he featured on. The constant harking back to what was achieved in that glittering six-year period, he warns, could debilitate the current crop.

"One nagging thing — and I think it's an Irish one — I'm hearing time and time again is that this group is not the same as the group I was part of. That's a very false comparison to make. When we were coming together in 2002 and '03 our group wasn't recognised as particularly special.

"People are believing we were something we weren't. We're becoming better footballers in retirement. It's an unfair comparison. The footballers now are expected to be the finished article at the start of their careers.

"The game has become youthful. The time to shine is from the ages of 21 to 24 but with that there has be to an element of patience too. I'd just like to see the idea that we were this out-of-this-world bunch of footballers knocked on the head."

What this Tyrone team can only beat is what is put in front of them. For the past three seasons, they have been presented with Donegal but found each time their eyes bigger than their bellies.

The possibility of an Ulster final date with their neighbours is one to relish, although it is a long way off, and Tyrone must make it there the long way with a preliminary round date with Down in mid-May.

"It's nearly like a tidal thing," argues McGinley. "One team, Donegal, has been on a high and the other on a low. Tyrone would be very confident that their lull will be relatively short. Even the year Donegal won the All-Ireland, Tyrone weren't that far off them.

"Last year in Ballybofey was tough to take but Tyrone would be happier with how the Championship went. Donegal peaked for the Tyrone match but Tyrone peaked later in the season.

"Donegal are approaching this year differently but Mickey has injected more pace and freshness into the team. There is still doubt about whether we can beat the top teams, but there is confidence in the camp that they can. The experience of losing close games and that wee bit of match management will help. Nothing's a done deal but it feels as if it's a new journey."

A new journey but with the same captain at the helm. Harte remains the one true constant, this his 23rd consecutive year involved with a Tyrone county team and 12th with the seniors.

Several managers with designs on succeeding him have been foiled by his enthusiasm to stay in the role, but then such is the good faith he has generated that nobody would dare raise their head above the parapet to question him.

Harte is no daw, either. If there is another golden generation to harvest, why vacate? Besides, few in the county would suggest there is anyone better positioned to do so.

"I'm very biased but I just think he's the man," says Conway. "Nobody, not even Mick O'Dwyer has a track record like him. He has All-Irelands and Ulster titles at senior, minor and U21. He's won the National League and the Ulster minor league. Every school team he took charge of won their Tyrone, Ulster and All-Ireland title.

"At club level he's won the Tyrone and Ulster championships and I think the only thing he hasn't won as a manager is the All-Ireland club title with Errigal Ciarán."

What's certain now is Tyrone, as they face a rematch with their 2013 semi-final victors Mayo tomorrow, are far removed from Killarney 2012. For one, just six of the team that took the field in Fitzgerald Stadium start in Omagh.

"It's something you always want to avoid but somewhere in your mind and heart, you know it's coming," recalls McGinley of the game. "It was perfectly set-up for Kerry, the cards were stacked up in their favour. These things happen.

"The most important thing now is there are plenty of good days and huge potential in the county and it's starting to gather momentum."

Fuzzman

Thanks for posting that Orangeman.
Interesting that for the second season in a row Kerry are off to a bad start with 2 defeats and Tyrone are off to a good start.
Kerry's new forward O'Donoghue seems a real gem and apparently has that arrogance that good forwards need to succeed.
I hope McCurry, Ron, McAliskey & Mattie can all stay fit for the summer as they need a good run to get them established. McCurry is on fire at the moment and seems to have that wee bit of arrogance also which keeps him sharp. He seems to be really enjoying his football and the exuberance of youth make a young player like that electric to watch.
Was delighted to see Mattie ramming my words down my throat yesterday as he looked much sharper around the square.

I for one am delighted with the way Mickey has the team playing again and hope he keeps it up for the whole season.

trileacman

You'd have to credit Harte for continually adapting and changing how his teams play, it's a rare enough thing among managers. If you look at Joe Kernan, Pete McGrath, even McGuinness, they all had their one style which didn't change much over their careers. The developed hugely successful styles but didn't upgrade it when they should have.
Fantasy Rugby World Cup Champion 2011,
Fantasy 6 Nations Champion 2014

nrico2006

It was a blessing in disuise to have SON, Gormley and Cavanagh etc injured this year.  Enda's article hit the spot when he said that over the past few years that youth was never really given a chance, that you had the odd newbie in here and there but this year has seen a complete shift in policy and irrelevant of what happens this year the Tyrone team of two or three years time will reap the rewards of the game time the younger players are getting now.  As I said lots of times before when people say that the new players arent up to the mark of the old ones, the Tyrone players from the golden age were not seen as potential triple sam winners in when they burst onto the scene from 2000- 2002.
'To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal, light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle.'