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Sadly folks the whole purpose of a union is to be able to cause disruption should their terms not be met. The inbuilt threat of a strike was actually enough in the GPA's case.

There's very little a CPA can do Seanie apart from go on strike.

It's for from impossible to get a motion to Congress either. The hardest part is getting it though your own county... for let's be honest, on the majority of issues, any given county is a pretty solid snapshot of how the overall organisation thinks.

County boards represent and are made up of their clubs. Which brings me back to how I started on this thread a few months ago.

If the clubs actually had a will to fulfil fixtures all summer long, a will "to get on with it", then much of the current malaise would go away.

i think this is an incredibly arrogant opinion. If your club had 4 or 5 county footballers would you be happy enough for your senior team "to just get on with it" as you put it. If you would be happy enough then helping your club footballers be successful doesn't seem to be a priority for you. If teams were made play away without their county men, how many fringe panellists would walk away from the county panel ?

Obviously hitting long high balls into Mark Bradley and Brennan/Ronan O'Neill would be a waste of time but as we no longer do that anyway as most teams play with sweepers in front of the full forward line so most forwards now tend to get the ball through fist passes, often off the shoulder or a burst into space for a fist over the top.
In these cases nippy fast forwards like Brennan and Bradley could be ideal as they can see the space and are quick and accurate when getting a shot off. I think McShane would struggle if played in at FF as he doesn't have that quick turn of pace as is better coming from deeper out.

A nippy fast forward  ? Someone like darren mc curry you mean.

Aye throw Lee Brennan in and then if he is ineffective because of the way Tyrone play, we can say he is a bottler and all rave about the next talented forward to come through the youth teams. Some of you should read some of the stuff you write.

Sean Mcmahon from Omagh is my name. I don't hide behind fake names like you

Sure you are 

McCarron looked like he enjoyed Christmas a little to much but id like to think he will soon be back best soon enough.  He was 2nd to every ball which isn't like Cathal.  He was promoting his book up and down the country as well.  Like him or loath him he probably still is our best defender.

Who of the new lads has impressed most?  McHugh for me, I cant see Niall McKenna making the cut Mickey has to cut maybe 6 players.  Any word on Harry Loughran?  He hasn't got any game time since his call up, is he injured? Will Mickey cut him without seeing him?

I am not really impressed with McHugh to be honest. Hasn't done anything for me to think wow! Maybe im being a bit hard but that's all i think. McCurry is playing well although its January i hope he keeps it up. Was at all the game myself, Thought McCarron was bit slow to get going against Donegal last week but had great second half. Tyrone don't seem to playing as defensive as last year so lots of space in front of the defense. He was marking Fermanagh's so called Talisman yesterday "Corrigan" and i didn't see him give him any bother. Don't think he scored from play or even had a shot. Good to see McNamee back also, game will bring him on.

Pretty optimistic about the new year

Aye cathal I thought you did ok

I wish southtyronegael and a few others who think that tyrone could be better than what they are currently would just stop posting here. The constant and immediate pro Mickey responses from the same group of posters is as tedious as the wind up merchant detractors. This thread is brutal

I would be suprised if East Tyrone and In Hiding were actually Shea McGuigan and Kyle Coney.

Ah Mark can't pull the wool over your eyes

I defended Harte in terms of the current situation regarding county players being available. I also said he missed the point in terms of the issues with club football which are there is no clear set of fixtures, there is too big a gaps between games at times and it drags out too long. Not sure if you missed that in my original post.

Even if the county season was shortened it will still take place in the middle of summer which will still effect the club season. Something needs to be done to provide regular games during that period so club players aren't training with no games. Even if they brought the All Ireland final forward to end of August things might not be that much better cause there was still big issues this year and Tyrone were out early August.

To me during that time you have to either play more starred games or have some separate summer competition. I've no idea what other solution there is. Some could argue a split season between club and county but is that practical?

Good post.
No need to always jump to Mickeys defence though. (Still think you might be him)

Why don't one of you two go and check how many games county players were available for in the other top counties between April and July and see what the results are. If you listen to some of you lads the problem is all with Harte. In reality the Tyrone boys were available more than in most other counties. The issue is with the current system. You'll find if there was a different county manager things certainly wouldn't be any different. Do you really believe it would?

Mickey you just don't get it. I don't care what county players missed what games for their clubs. My issue is that the county season must be shortened to give the vast majority of footballers in ireland some type of idea how their year will pan out. All you are worried about is the number of starred games there is

I'm pretty sure league games weren't cancelled last year due to training weekends and that Harte stuck to the 13 day rule. A quick check shows that from the leagues started on the 10th April the county players were available for 7 league games up to 24th July. They also would have played 4 ulster championship matches during this time. I'd be pretty confident that no other top counties club players were available for more games during this time.

That doesn't mean that everything is ok for club footballers and that is the point Harte missed. There is no schedule of games and they just seem to be thrown together with too many long delays in the season and the season running too long. Club players need to play regular games when the county players aren't available and clubs have to accept games without them. It seems that the first 7 or so games with county players get played ok but its the last 3 that holds everything up.

In some ways 12 team leagues would be better as you could play 7 matches with county men and 4 starred games and have the leagues wrapped up pre championship. But then this probably isn't enough games so you'd need some form of another competition during the summer when no county players but clubs don't seem to buy into them.

Ive always thought it and now i'm sure. Redhand Santa must be Mickey Harte. You solution to the problem is to shorten the club season. Not one mention of the county season just a bit to tell us that clubs must accept to play league games without their county men. Nobody with any interest whatsoever in club football would come up with this crap. The CPA can't come quick enough

Lads, firstly I thought it was nice of Irish News/mickey harte to allow aaron kernan a bit of space to squeeze his column in between the two page startling feature where mickey tells us that club players aren't really that hard done by and that county players don't actually miss too many club games. So what's the big issue ??
The big issue is that as long as mickey has practically full control over a county panel of approx 35 players for 9 or 10 months a year he is happy. He doesn't seem to know or want to know why the CPA has been set up.
Fix the fixtures !

you mean guys like sean cavanagh, mattie donnelly, kyle coney, conan grugan?

No I don't.

Coney and Grugan couldn't cut it. Donnelly and Cavanagh do their best work further out the field.

You're some piece of work. Without doubt a legend in your own mind as to your knowledge of football. I almost feel honoured to read your stuff

The football we're playing at the minute is suited to the players we have.

The team as a whole lacks physicality when you compare it to Dublin, Mayo and Kerry. Every serious team will crowd their defence with numbers. The two factors lacking with Tyrone at the minute is:
a) a reliable free taker
b) a top rate ball winner in the full forward line.

The likes of McCurry, Brennan, Bradley and O'Neill are all lovely footballers but I don't they're particularly great ball winners, especially in the air.

It's about getting the balance right, McAliskey is a big loss as he was a guy who could combine the inside and roving roll quite well, he had a great engine on him, good aggression and some class too. Bradley is a classy player but I'm unsure how effective a guy of his stature can be in the modern game when played in the full forward line. I think the reason he has been used out the pitch so far is that it allows him to get on the ball. Maybe he'll be given his chance this year in there to see how he gets on but I would have doubts, he has to be one of the smallest players playing county football at the minute.

Are cormac costello or paul mannion big physical men ?
If mark Bradley was playing for dublin he wouldn't be spending most of his time in the half back line

[quote author=gaafan2


At least our senior team plays with two men up front most of the time. I for one do not want Fergal Logan or Brian Dooher anywhere near the senior team playing this brand of football. We need a man that's going to start playing a more attacking brand of football.

Mickeys mafiat are worse than the dup. Your statement above is not true. Against the better teams we play one forward in the opposition half for large parts of the game.

It is true. I said at least our senior team plays with two men up front MOST OF THE TIME as opposed to 15 men in our own 45. I'm 100% correct in saying this. At what point did I say I supported the way Micky Harte has us playing football. We play an awful brand of football but it would get a whole lot worse under Logan and Dooher.
[/quote]
Were did i once talk about what Logan and Dooher would do. Although i do remember us winning an All Ireland U21 with Dan Mc Nulty and Lee Brennan playing close to the opposition goals

[quote author=gaafan2


At least our senior team plays with two men up front most of the time. I for one do not want Fergal Logan or Brian Dooher anywhere near the senior team playing this brand of football. We need a man that's going to start playing a more attacking brand of football.
[/quote]
Mickeys mafiat are worse than the dup. Your statement above is not true. Against the better teams we play one forward in the opposition half for large parts of the game.