Tyrone v Down USFC Semi Final Sat 19th June

[thewobbler]

If you get two players to time their runs to be 5 yards directly infront and 5 yards directly behind the aerial contest when the ball hits the ground, and you'll win most of the broken ball.

and if it's broken long or sideways, or is clean caught, your two tenacious game readers miss the first phase of defence.

If only football really was this simple.

[Minder]

Some good but a lot of bad for Down today.

The full-back line was the real positive. Rafferty had his best Championship outing yet and probably still has blond hairs in his pocket. McArdle showed a bit of class and a bit of intelligence that has been so often lacking in our converted full-backs of recent years. Rooney had a decent game.

Beyond them, only Maginn threw in good solid hour.

The whole lot were excellent for those first 15 minutes, but there was a serious lack of character thereafter. King and Rogers blew up badly. Gordon was off the pace and ponderous. Clarke was miles off it, and for the first time watching him, he appeared confused by his role, and too frantic to force play when he did get involved. Ditto Coulter, except we've seen it before. Colgan disappeared. McKernan was shocking and Garvey had too much edge.

For me, McVeigh had an absolute stinker with his kickouts. It was so reminiscent of his predecessor and namesake (a keeper who I had so much time for) in that his answer to getting cleaned out by kicking the ball up the middle was to try kicking it longer up the middle. We had a height advantage in most areas of the field, had an athletic team, and were calling out for variation. I imagine though the statistics in the Irish News on Monday about our kickout retention will be horrifiic.

I did kind of feel sorry for our forwards in the second half. Midfield was destroyed which meant we never put back-to-back possession together, and when we did it almost invariably ended with a hoke rather than a pass. Maybe they weren't running the right lines, but I don't think so - instead I think it was a case of the midfield and half-backs trying to play Hollywood football.

Which, given the ease at which we opened Tyrone up in the first quarter with simple fist passes and short kickpasses, it is quite staggering that we reverted to this sort of game. Management aren't getting off with the blame. Pete Fitzpatrick is not a better answer than King with first phase possession, and that's where the game was lost. Jason Brown simply had no entitlement to come onto the field ahead of fellas who worked their bollocks off through the league campaign -  especially when we were crying out for full-forward ball-winners. And quite why they allowed McVeigh to continually kick long, and their attacking ploy to consist of booting the ball in aimlessly, is beyond me. Lastly, the constant roundabout going on between the forward line (plus Gordon) was bizarre. It's one thing to keep the opposition, but it's another when your players don't know if, why, how long and when they'll be in a certain position.


As for Tyrone, congratulations on another victory where experience, intelligence and no small amount of graft where the determining factors.

Packie McConnell was outstanding today, both for his saves and his kickouts. Justin Mc once again proved that full-back isn't that difficult if you're a natural. Peter Harte showed energy and commonsense throughout. Hub and Cavanagh both gave up playing football and just did the dirty work required, and then some. Penrose was outstanding, and never put a foot wrong. Dooher was
given largely a free role, and he punished Down for it. Cavanagh, as usual, did enough for most other players to win a man of the match award. Special praise though for Brian McGuigan. Before he arrived, Tyrone were aimless and unsure. Almost by virtue of his presence, they seemed to all understand their roles again. They were no longer hurried, but precise. And credit to Micky Harte too. When O'Neill went off, he made the big switch, and didn't f**k around with it.

So much wrong with this analysis it's impossible to know where to start.

Give it a rattle anyway ONeill

[DownFanatic]

Despite a woeful 2nd half, I think there are still a lot of positives from a Down point of view. Worringly though our fitness and sharpness in the 2nd half wilted. This is something that can be easily remedied.

A lot of interchanging of our forward positions happened today during the game. At times some of our boys looked to be confused as to where they should playing. Our attacking unit hasn't played enough football together yet to just naturally interchange and be comfortable with multiple roles and positions.

I thought McVeigh was generally sound in goals but his persistence in kicking the ball straight down the middle of the pitch in the 2nd half despite us being cleaned out around the middle was worrying. There were plenty of alternatives.

Clarke just didn't click today. There is no doubt he will soon deliver a big performance but his re-settlement may take longer than expected.

I felt our two best players were Dee Rafferty and Conor Maginn. Both were understated but carried their roles out to a tee. A lack of match fitness was evident at times with Dan and Ambrose. Colgan was all at sea at Number 6 while McKernan and Garvey busted themselves but struggled in general. McArdle stuck admirably to a difficult task for the duration.

A look at our bench shows that we are still lightyears behind the top sides in terms of squad depth. Tyrone had an embarassment of riches in this sector.

We are good enough to get to an All Ireland quarter final.

[Dubh driocht]

The difference today was between the Loughshore and Ballygawley.While it is hard on the eye, Harte has the composure to smother threats better than anyone.He also has to take responsibility for developing cynical tackling (different men targeting, falling on players after you foul them, holding up play when the opposition have frees, putting hands up pleading innocence) which has now spread to children, as seen in the minor game. Three All-Irelands is a great legacy but Mickey do you really want your grandchildren arguing over whose turn it is to take the opposition dangerman out ?

[Pangurban]

We were beat by a better team, and all the analysis in the world wont change that. Poor performances from our stars, but encouraging gutsy performances from some of our developing stars. Why oh why do we persist in playing a one man FF line especially when we are chasing the game

[020304 Tir Eoghain]

The difference today was between the Loughshore and Ballygawley.While it is hard on the eye, Harte has the composure to smother threats better than anyone.He also has to take responsibility for developing cynical tackling (different men targeting, falling on players after you foul them, holding up play when the opposition have frees, putting hands up pleading innocence) which has now spread to children, as seen in the minor game. Three All-Irelands is a great legacy but Mickey do you really want your grandchildren arguing over whose turn it is to take the opposition dangerman out ?

Who do you think took the Down dangermen out today? From what i seen at Casement, ye didnt have that many to be honest

[orangeman]

The difference today was between the Loughshore and Ballygawley.While it is hard on the eye, Harte has the composure to smother threats better than anyone.He also has to take responsibility for developing cynical tackling (different men targeting, falling on players after you foul them, holding up play when the opposition have frees, putting hands up pleading innocence) which has now spread to children, as seen in the minor game. Three All-Irelands is a great legacy but Mickey do you really want your grandchildren arguing over whose turn it is to take the opposition dangerman out ?

There are no buts - Mickey's place in history is assured no matter what and no matter how many buts you place after his name.

[Puckoon]

The difference today was between the Loughshore and Ballygawley.While it is hard on the eye, Harte has the composure to smother threats better than anyone.He also has to take responsibility for developing cynical tackling (different men targeting, falling on players after you foul them, holding up play when the opposition have frees, putting hands up pleading innocence) which has now spread to children, as seen in the minor game. Three All-Irelands is a great legacy but Mickey do you really want your grandchildren arguing over whose turn it is to take the opposition dangerman out ?

That seems quite laughable - how many down players were on yellow cards?

[new devil]

Who won the minor game?

[Carmen Stateside]

Tyrone by a goal.

[ONeill]

Give it a rattle anyway ONeill

Yea, can't remember this morning but on reflection he's 100% on the nose.

2 tactical adjustments changed the face of the game, one forced.
Using young Harte as a sweeper in the first half was the reason Down got off to the start they did. It was a big ask of a 19-year old and it failed, almost spectacularly. Tyrone defenders were running into each other, unable to lay a glove on the likes of Hughes, Maginn, Coulter, Clarke etc. I don't think Tyrone forced one turnover in those opening 15 mins. Harte was lost and creating confusion. It was when he was moved out of there into the HF line that the gulf in class was obvious. The McMahons began to lord it in the extra space. For me, although Joe did some job on 2-3 Down players at different times, Justin was MOTM.

O'Neill's injury worked out well for Tyrone. It took Cavanagh out of that conjestion as well and he won some ball he had no right to in the FF line. Mugsy wasn't in the game at all and had one of those days when his positioning was off kilter although credit to Rafferty. I wouldn't be as gushing about Penrose as others are. Mixed bag from him and wasted some good ball in the first half. He saw a lot of breaking ball in the second half when Down stood back and allowed Tyrone to basketball the game for as long as they wanted to, and used some of it well. His best moment though was that last point - his real strength is skinning corner backs.

Down were terrible. Clueless. Expected much more from McCartan, Tally and McIvor. Can McCartan only send his teams out to play the one way? You'd have thought it was Down defending a three-point lead. That was possibly the most comfortable second halfs Tyrone have played in recent years. Gordon, Coulter and Clarke didn't seem to have a notion of what their roles were. Gordon was remarkably easy to handle. Instead of bombing as a unit up field as they were in the first 20, they worked it to midfield and launched pitiful balls to either 2-3 spare Tyrone players or hopelessly aimed efforts on top of Gordon and even McComiskey. Then Down would retreat as a unit, allowing Tyrone to play 40 passes until Cavanagh got a bit of room. It really was clueless, brainless football against a Tyrone side there for the taking. Clarke seems seriously weighed down by expectation although it's too early to make a judgement on his potential. His freetaking with the wind was crap. Benny and Clarke seemed to want to take Tyrone on by themselves to the extent that Coulter once played a ridiculous ball from one wing to Clarke on the other and over the sideline when he had 2-3 other forwards running off him.

As for Tyrone, they might well be the best of a weakening province. I thought Carlin played one of his best games in a while as an attacking CB although he has little else to do after 25 mins. Swift was quietly solid after that opening 20, as were Gormley and Philly. The MF were non existent for the majority of the first half but both had their moments in the second. I'd like to have seen Harte on the ball more. He was pulled down on the edge of the box in the first half as he was about to pull the trigger and you got the impression he could torture the Down FB line. Still, a good performance from someone who'll hopefully start again.

Is O'Neill made of glass? And what can you say about Dooher that already hasn't been said? Some boy.

Overall, job done and plenty more to do. Down were crap.

[sandwiches_in_the_boot]

Some good analysis there O'Neill. Pretty much spot on.

Harte was away when he was pulled down just outside the box. Don't think there was even a yellow shown. Sort of sends the wrong message to defenders if you ask me.

...I'm in danger of echoing Heaney's praise of Sludden in the game two weeks ago, so i'll say no more.

[Any craic]

Yeah very impressive ONeill, a few pundits could do with your balance and insight... as regards reading the game, Tony Donnelly is very good too even tho he's rarely heard - Mickey's no 2 explains here how Tyrone turned the game round - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cJbLxwP2k8//

[omagh_gael]

On a side note, did anyone watch the game on BBC? Who the feck was directing the camera's for that game? It was criminal the amount of times they missed midfield contests and free kicks by repeatedly showing the previous point/wide/foul or simply a Tyrone/Down sub sitting on the bench. It really was terrible and so frustrating.

[thewobbler]

They mustve been sharing cameras and editing with RTE as they also had some dreadful production going on. The 2nd half was littered with unnecessarily prolonged crowd shots and managerial shots.