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Will the Omagh pitch be fit to hold the U20 game tomorrow night? surely there must be some consideration to switching venue

Thats really really poor worksmanship - there must be no quality checks at all. Ive seen this before with embroidered school kit, but not as prevalaent as that. As you say its an irritant, drives kids mad. Its not good enough, id push on at them. Tell them you are putting the images up on social media as well, might add some weight to your argument

Buying a football kit nowadays is expensive for parents, but special for kids. They need to understand their market - its important they get this right.

[i dont recall another player who essentially skipped a year at u20 or u21 to go straight to senior.]

Didnt realise that Ben Cullen was still eligible to play for the U20s this year. Article in IN today. Thats incredible progress, as he didnt feature for the minors in the 2021 u17 final

I do feel however that those players eligble for underage sides, should play with their own age group first and then hook up with the seniors second - a la Ruairi Canavan last year. In the past we've always been very clear as a county on this - i dont recall another player who essentially skipped a year at u20 or u21 to go straight to senior.

Conor Clarke went from Minor to the Senior Squad before playing any U21 football.

Thats an interesting one. He played for the U21s in 2012, weeks after he made his first senior appearance.

My point stands though - underage coaches had first preference access to their players. Mickey Harte didnt select his U21s on the weekend before an U21 game

Sean Cavanagh was on Art and Eugeue's senior team but couldn't make Mickeys U21 squad

I dont recall that at all. He made his senior debut in the championship as a sub V Armagh but as far as i recall he played with the U21s every game as well. He certainly played in the U21 final that year, v Dublin.
The U21s always had first dibs on the players

Didnt realise that Ben Cullen was still eligible to play for the U20s this year. Article in IN today. Thats incredible progress, as he didnt feature for the minors in the 2021 u17 final

I do feel however that those players eligble for underage sides, should play with their own age group first and then hook up with the seniors second - a la Ruairi Canavan last year. In the past we've always been very clear as a county on this - i dont recall another player who essentially skipped a year at u20 or u21 to go straight to senior.

I enjoyed Top Gun as well. A guilty pleasure lol

The Irish News

Cahair O'Kane: Tyrone have the forwards to make a mark, but not the shape
Reliance on individual moments of brilliance undermines that when it comes to it, Tyrone simply don't score enough to win big games

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Darragh Canavan
Darragh Canavan has grown over the last year into Tyrone's key man, but his moments of brilliance are undermined by the way the Red Hands attack generally. Picture: Margaret McLaughlin
By Cahair O'Kane
March 04, 2024 at 10:01PM GMT
SO much of Peter Canavan's greatness was that, despite his size, he wasn't this wee dainty inside forward that could only deal with the ball fed in low into the space.

He was a ball-winner, fit to roll with the punches and throw a few back if needs be.

Growing up in the townland of Seskilgreen, he learned his trade the hard way that so many Irish siblings did.

Games in the garden with Steven and Pascal toughened him up no end. A fierce competitive streak ran through the lot of them.


Donegal have key players back for trip to Roscommon

Tyrone need win in London to keep promotion hopes alive
Nothing would be given easy to the wee brother.


It's very difficult to write about Darragh and Ruairi Canavan now and not compare them to what has gone before.Perhaps it's part of why Darragh in particular has actively shunned the limelight since breaking into the Tyrone team.

We know virtually nothing about him aside from what we see for 70 minutes on a weekend.

There are no feature pieces, no sit-downs, no podcasts.

Darragh's inter-county career spluttered through its first couple of seasons, interrupted by injuries as his body tried to adjust to what he needed it to be.

That part of his journey looks close to completion.Take the first score he got against Mayo last weekend. It was a ball kicked in when he was one-against-two, with no right to win it, go past Sam Callinan, steady up and kick from the wrong side with the right foot.


Forget the finish. It was the way he secured possession was so reminiscent of his father's best quality. That he didn't care for his own safety, that he was outnumbered and disadvantaged and not the biggest morsel on God's greenery.

That was his ball, and damned if you're taking it off him.

The goal he netted in the second half underlined everything that he and Tyrone are right now, the good and the bad.

That goals have become such a precious commodity gives a good indication of where things are going wrong.

In 28 league and championship games since they won the All-Ireland, Tyrone have failed to score a goal 17 times.


That's a worse record than anyone around them. Derry (7 blanks in 33 games), Kerry (8/33), Galway (10/33), Dublin (12/31), Armagh (14/30), Mayo (15/31) and Monaghan (16/30) all have better goalscoring records than Tyrone.

And it's not just goals.

Look at the points they kicked in Killarney on Sunday.

The only time you could say they really got in behind Kerry organically in the entire game was when Ben Cullen ghosted in to fire over from a tight angle.

Their goal came off a half-hit shot that fell nicely. Seanie O'Donnell hooked a first-half point in a similar scenario.


Tyrone's attacking play looks appears completely off-the-cuff.

They have an awful tendency to clog their own space.

In one first-half attack against Mayo, Conn Kilpatrick was inside and there was space until three different players made runs right across the inside of the 'D', just to get to the other side.

They had no eyes for the ball and all they succeeded in doing was cutting off the space. Support wasn't coming on the wings, the kick was cut off and inevitably, they were turned over.

Kilpatrick moving to full-forward is a regular feature of their play and yet you have to wonder why. The premise of it has merit, because he's a serious operator under a high ball and really direct, but they utilise him so seldom that it defeats its own purpose.


The Edendork man also happens to be their most explosive ball-carrier. When he runs at a team down the middle, they often have to foul him or let him go.

But by having him standing on the six-yard line waiting on a ball that they never kick in, they're robbing Peter and not even paying Paul with it.

Canavan has been playing closer to goal this spring but they look for him so early on the break.You can see they want to use the boot in transition but they're kicking low into space for him and by the time he's collected the ball, he's 40 yards out on the wing with four men to beat.

Contrast that with Shane McGuigan, who Derry almost never kick the ball to. He plays almost exclusively on the loop and it is devastatingly effective.

Tyrone don't get any depth into their attacking shape, they clog up the 'D' on themselves, they leave Conn Kilpatrick standing foundered and ultimately, if Darragh Canavan or Darren McCurry don't do something special, they don't really score.

Tyrone have just become hugely reliant on those moments of individual brilliance.

It may be a strategy that has worked for Kerry, but they have the boul' Clifford. Nobody else can afford that.

When the Red Hands came up against Kerry in last year's All-Ireland quarter-final, they had scored just six points after 52 minutes, two of them outstanding efforts from Darragh Canavan.

Diarmuid O'Connor's goal at that point brought Jack O'Connor's side on to 1-14.

Against Monaghan weeks previous, they surprised everyone by going man-to-man and creating a load of space.

By half-time, they had 1-10 on the board.

But Vinny Corey got it worked out at the break, clogged up the middle and Tyrone lost the second half 2-10 to 0-8 because they couldn't play through it.

With the quality of players they have, it is fixable.

Brian Dooher has decisions to make when he has his full hand available. The younger boys are learning the hard way – take Niall Devlin having to go toe-to-toe with Paudie Clifford – but they've also brought a bit of spark back.

It's been in the form of him and Aidan Clarke and Seanie O'Donnell and Ciaran Daly that they've made any fist of staying in Division One.

After almost three seasons of giving the 2021 team almost in its entirety chance after chance to redeem itself, they're about ready to move on with a crop that have All-Ireland U20 medals in their pocket from two years ago.

But they also need to give their brilliant forwards a chance by offering them some kind of structure and not leaving them to their own devices, hoping they beat three men and kick one over from the sideline.

Their league revival last year, where they won the last three to stay up against the odds, proved a false dawn.

The win over Mayo wasn't convincing enough to suggest anything had changed. They brought a bit of life to Kerry and then next thing, they're 0-17 to 0-9 down again and enduring the same struggle.

With Darragh Canavan developing into one of the country's best forwards, Darren McCurry showing signs, Cathal McShane and Mattie Donnelly on the way back, Tyrone have the attacking players to make a fist of summer.

They just don't have the attacking shape.

Cahair O'Kane
Cahair O'Kane
Cahair is a sports reporter and columnist with the Irish News specialising in Gaelic Games.

Seen Derry play Dublin last Sat at the Dub, there was some physical difference between the two, Haven't seen Tyrone but they would have to be pretty decent to beat that Dublin team if you are making them favourites for All Ireland

MR i take it Dublin won that then?

Derry struggled at u17 back in 2021, but as we all know, thats not always a good barometer. 

not disagreeing with either points

but in the case of Cookstown, is it not a case they have looked at neighbouring towns such as Dungannon, Magherafelt and Omagh - and made a bigger effort as a club to replicate the successful strategies employed there?

Id be passing magherafelt pitch quite alot, its on a busy road. The work going on in that club is fantastic, the pitch is stacked with young kids all the time. Its no surprise that they are bearing the fruit of that at senior level. Every Derry underage side, and the big schools are benefitting of the work Magherafelt are doing. Cookstown rightly should be trying to emulate that

Good article by Cahir OKane in todays Irish news about the problems with our attack. he's saying essentially the players are there its the shape thats wrong. i would strongly agree with him

He is basically saying Brian Dooher and his coaches aren't up to it.

That might well be the case.

Very good. Strange Cahir wasn't asked to take Derry when Rory Gallagher left

tetchy!

Cahir is a journalist, its his job to give insight and opinion. Do you disagree with his comments?

I think Dooher has done a great job this year - he has blooded 7 or 8 new players in. We will benefit massively from this process in the coming years. But the points on the structure & attacking shape of the team are valid. Such as persisting with our best midfielder & attacking runner at 14, despite seldom kicking the ball into him. Slow ponderous counter attacks. Clogging up our own attacking D. The reliance of individual brillance for scores...

Good article by Cahir OKane in todays Irish news about the problems with our attack. he's saying essentially the players are there its the shape thats wrong. i would strongly agree with him

He is basically saying Brian Dooher and his coaches aren't up to it.

That might well be the case.

Good article by Cahir OKane in todays Irish news about the problems with our attack. he's saying essentially the players are there its the shape thats wrong. i would strongly agree with him

[McKernan has the hand in plaster cast. Y]

McKernan, Meyler and Burns. Any word on fitness?

McKernan has the hand in plaster cast. You could rule him out of the remaining two league games.
 
Tarlac Quinn - any word on him?

Any idea how this was sustained?

hurt it in the first half against Mayo

McKernan, Meyler and Burns. Any word on fitness?

McKernan has the hand in plaster cast. You could rule him out of the remaining two league games.
 
Tarlac Quinn - any word on him?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-68332193.amp

Probs ahead for those of us with dbf filter removed and remapped??