Tyrone County Football and Hurling

[RedHand88]

Hang on a minute? Stumbled upon a new formation? Long ball into big target man has been used successfully by teams for over a hundred years. I wish Tyrone players would do less interviews.

I remember ricey saying in an interview that the harass system employed against Kerry in 2003 was unplanned and unprepared. Take what players say with a pinch of salt.

[tyrone08]

Hang on a minute? Stumbled upon a new formation? Long ball into big target man has been used successfully by teams for over a hundred years. I wish Tyrone players would do less interviews.

Lol to clarify I obviously meant new to Tyrone. Seems to be a lot of interviews recently. Ironically seems to be more now than in the lead up to the AI final

[BennyHarp]

There a fair bit of scrambling for something to criticise here. I wouldn't be reading too much into a few media quotes. This change of system has had quite a lot of media attention, teams will be focusing on it for the championship. To give out the idea that it was just stumbled upon by chance and not really something they have worked on smacks a little of diversion tactics. Reading a quote from a player (Tiernan McCann maybe) a few weeks ago about "unleashing attacking fury" before the Monaghan game and you might just come to the conclusion that this may just be a little bit more planned than Matty is suggesting. One thing I'm sure we can all agree about Mickey Harte regardless of what you think of him, he is meticulous in his preparation and is quite rigid in how he expects his teams to go about their business. The idea that he's letting them just crack on with their own idea of playing rails fairly heavily against that. My advice is to just relax and enjoy the championship lads....we don't always need to be criticising EVERYTHING.

[southtyronegael]

We don't have to gloss over everything either Benny. A bit of critique can keep things focussed. Like you say enjoy our new found football freedom and we will get harte out when the time comes.

[Jim Bob]

Hang on a minute? Stumbled upon a new formation? Long ball into big target man has been used successfully by teams for over a hundred years. I wish Tyrone players would do less interviews.

Lol to clarify I obviously meant new to Tyrone. Seems to be a lot of interviews recently. Ironically seems to be more now than in the lead up to the AI final

And another one in this mornings Irish News..... McGeary

[Redhand Santa]

I have no idea why people care if they are giving interviews or not. For as long as I remember players have given interviews. What's the big deal here? It's good to see our players having a bit of a profile. If they weren't allowed to give interviews people would be giving out about the closed camp and Harte being a dictator etc.

[southtyronegael]

Harte is a dictator but I'm not sure what that has to do with the interviews.

[Redhand Santa]

He's not a very good dictator if it's the players you are praising for the new tactics.

You jump on the bandwagon when things go well (and say it's all down to the players) and then when things go bad you turn on the team and blame Harte. You aren't a Tyrone supporter so no idea why you spend so much time on here.

[southtyronegael]

Will see how big a Tyrone supporter you are when your idol is no longer manager.

[trailer]

Of course Harte is a Dictator. Every manager is. It's when managers aren't dictators or their authority undermined the problems arise.

[Angelo]

Overall an encouraging league campaign and a renewed sense for optimism however it's only the league and we shouldn't get too carried away. I'm not sure how well the direct ball into Donnelly and McShane will work in the Championship as a) it's now well signposted what Tyrone will look to do and the opposition will adjust for that and b) the rules will revert back to the normal so defenders will be waiting to pounce on the guy who wins the ball.

I was delighted to see Cassidy get his opportunity and take it on Sunday, he is a fine player and has been knocking about the panel for 3 or 4 years now but injuries and the form of other players have limited his chances. He should retain his place for the Championship opener and hopefully maintains his form.

We've certainly added some good options this year, guys like McDonnell and Kennedy have came in and done reasonably well. Coney has been making an impact off the bench and his passing and football brain is something that stands out from some of the other players. Kieran McGeary has done brilliantly the last few games, Richie Donnelly was excellent against Dublin and again gives us a player who has the vision to kick early and accurately off both feet. There's certainly a nice balance developing and sometimes it can take players 3-4 years to get acclimatised to the level needed .

On the panel itself from my reckoning we currently have 8 players with us that were not there last year (McCurry, Coney, Grugan, Kennedy, Gallen, Rafferty, Canavan, Murnaghan). I would hope and expect Canavan and Murnaghan to drop down to the u20s in the coming months, it's good experience for them to be involved in the senior campaign but they can contribute much more to the u20s this year which should have a very good shot of provincial and national honours. That would leave us with 6 new additions.

From last year we have lost:

McCarron (retired)
Mickey O'Neill (retired)
McNulty (opted out/injury)
Bradley (opted out)
Ronan O'Neill (opted out)
Ruairi Sludden (cut)

Which would effectively leave us with the same size squad as last year but there are a number of players who we haven't seen at all from last year who I'm wondering if they are still involved? From those not named in the squad for Galway that were involved last year:

Ronan McNabb - he wasn't involved in any squad in the McKenna Cup or League and played very little last year. I'm presuming that he has left the squad or perhaps he is injured? He's been very unlucky with injury in the past and an ACL injury after a superb year for Tyrone in 2015 may have been the end of him.

Declan McClure - hasn't been involved in the last few league squads but did play in some of the early games and showed well in the McKenna Cup so I'm presuming it's an injury issue.

Conan Grugan - I presume it's an injury as he has not been involved since the Mayo game which was only our 2nd match of the league campaign

Ciaran McLaughlin - played quite a bit of the McKenna Cup and League but I thought he struggled so I'd presume it's an injury or form related and he is still involved.

Harry Loughran - think he has had one appearance in the league but don't think he featured in the McKenna Cup so presumably it's injury related and struggling to break into a team going well on his return to fitness

David Mulgrew - played the first half of the opening game against Kerry and hasn't been seen since. Again I would say this is an injury, he's a player with great potential but has seen his first few years on the Tyrone panel hampered with injuries. Could be hard for him to make an impact this year now.

Brendan Burns - did his ACL last year so would presume he should be on the way back shortly and the club month might help bring him on but again I would say he is unlikely to be pushing for a place this year.

Ronan McHugh - again hasn't featured this year and I think he suffered a bad injury near the end of last year so I'd presume he won't be involved this year but heard nothing otherwise

Am I forgetting anybody else?


Overall the squad is stronger than last year, particularly in a physical sense and I don't think we will be overawed physically by some of the top teams like we possibly have in the past 3/4 years. Hoping that we can keep all our key players fit and healthy and have a long summer ahead.

[skeog]

Thats serious injury list thats a team nearly on its own.

[GetOverTheBar]

Not one of them are starters. I don't mean to be rude. But Mulgrew....at a push. The rest are / will be panellists.

[Angelo]

Not one of them are starters. I don't mean to be rude. But Mulgrew....at a push. The rest are / will be panellists.

I was hoping Grugan could have made a big impact for us this year. Of that group I think Grugan and Mulgrew are probably the only ones capable of pushing into the starting lineup but it will be difficult for them now with a lot of players impressing over the last few weeks.

[Fuzzman]

Living in Dublin, I never get to see any club football so am always interested to hear people's opinion on club games involving county men.

Just wondering what are people's thoughts now of who has a chance of pushing their way into the starting 15 or 21 including subs?
Have we moved away from playing smaller players like Bradley(I know he's away) and say Lee Brennan or will these guys get their chance mid summer?

McShane has probably made the most progress this year so far and has proven a lot of doubters wrong about him. Of course some will say it was only league football and can he do it in the championship but I think he will prove to be a very important player in the years ahead.
Rotating Mattie and Peter Harte into that FF line too seems to be proving very beneficial but I'd still like to see a natural talented corner forward who excites us when he gets the ball.
Donegal will be pushing hard this year to make up for last year and you would imagine with a few of their big guns back they will like some revenge for last year. They do not have the same fear of Tyrone that they used to have pre McGuinness.