Tyrone County Football and Hurling

[Norf Tyrone]

McNamee was excellent last year but he's been very poor this year.

Don't get some of the flak going McCarron's way, thought he had a good game and was one of the players who really tried to push us over the line near the end.

The weaknesses now are obvious, we lack a target man in the full forward line, Cavanagh is more comfortable out the pitch and does his best work there. I'd really like to Niall McKenna given an extended run there or Danny McNulty get a go.

The free taking issue is a serious on, teams know where they can foul us and get away lightly. Sadly I don't really see much of a solution here.

I can't think of many players who will add to the team now that aren't there. I'd imagine Joe McMahon is done now, would hope Justy and Sean Cavanagh give it another year.

Mark Kavanagh is a very classy player, think he will get a chance next year. How is Conan Grugan going for Omagh these days, would he warrant a recall?

I like Kavanagh. I think he's a class act. However is he not a bit more of what we have.

I think we've a lot of players that are same ish.

We do but he I think he is worth a try and might prove himself to have a bit more about him than some of them.

Sorry. Worded badly by me.

What I meant was, I'm sure he could take a place in the 15 but us he the scoring foward we crave. That man that can hit 1-3 or so every game. I think Lee Brennan can do this, Kavanagh can help but do we need another.

[Tyrone Gaa]

Oh stats....right.

That's just my presumption of what he means, that the physical fitness of this side is greater than he's ever previously worked with.  So they run faster, jump higher etc etc.  Obviously with the full time appointment of Peter Donnelly this should be expected.  However during that time other counties have upped their game.  These men are professional in all but name.

[Mikhailov]

McNamee was excellent last year but he's been very poor this year.

Don't get some of the flak going McCarron's way, thought he had a good game and was one of the players who really tried to push us over the line near the end.

The weaknesses now are obvious, we lack a target man in the full forward line, Cavanagh is more comfortable out the pitch and does his best work there. I'd really like to Niall McKenna given an extended run there or Danny McNulty get a go.

The free taking issue is a serious on, teams know where they can foul us and get away lightly. Sadly I don't really see much of a solution here.

I can't think of many players who will add to the team now that aren't there. I'd imagine Joe McMahon is done now, would hope Justy and Sean Cavanagh give it another year.

Mark Kavanagh is a very classy player, think he will get a chance next year. How is Conan Grugan going for Omagh these days, would he warrant a recall?

I like Kavanagh. I think he's a class act. However is he not a bit more of what we have.

I think we've a lot of players that are same ish.

We do but he I think he is worth a try and might prove himself to have a bit more about him than some of them.

Sorry. Worded badly by me.

What I meant was, I'm sure he could take a place in the 15 but us he the scoring foward we crave. That man that can hit 1-3 or so every game. I think Lee Brennan can do this, Kavanagh can help but do we need another.

We need 2 men who reliably can hit 0-4/0-5 EVERY game, same two players hit free kicks and be 95% hit rate - other teams have it. We don't !!!

When was the last time we had 2 men hitting free kicks that we could totally rely on - from inside 50 yards !!! Mayo have O Connor, Kerry have Sheehan and Keaney/Gooch/oDonoghue, Dubs have Rock/Cluxton - we have zilch .....

[The Trap]

Tyrone GAA, you know I think you just summed up modern gaelic football.......

[Il Bomber Destro]

McNamee was excellent last year but he's been very poor this year.

Don't get some of the flak going McCarron's way, thought he had a good game and was one of the players who really tried to push us over the line near the end.

The weaknesses now are obvious, we lack a target man in the full forward line, Cavanagh is more comfortable out the pitch and does his best work there. I'd really like to Niall McKenna given an extended run there or Danny McNulty get a go.

The free taking issue is a serious on, teams know where they can foul us and get away lightly. Sadly I don't really see much of a solution here.

I can't think of many players who will add to the team now that aren't there. I'd imagine Joe McMahon is done now, would hope Justy and Sean Cavanagh give it another year.

Mark Kavanagh is a very classy player, think he will get a chance next year. How is Conan Grugan going for Omagh these days, would he warrant a recall?

I like Kavanagh. I think he's a class act. However is he not a bit more of what we have.

I think we've a lot of players that are same ish.

We do but he I think he is worth a try and might prove himself to have a bit more about him than some of them.

Sorry. Worded badly by me.

What I meant was, I'm sure he could take a place in the 15 but us he the scoring foward we crave. That man that can hit 1-3 or so every game. I think Lee Brennan can do this, Kavanagh can help but do we need another.

We need 2 men who reliably can hit 0-4/0-5 EVERY game, same two players hit free kicks and be 95% hit rate - other teams have it. We don't !!!

When was the last time we had 2 men hitting free kicks that we could totally rely on - from inside 50 yards !!! Mayo have O Connor, Kerry have Sheehan and Keaney/Gooch/oDonoghue, Dubs have Rock/Cluxton - we have zilch .....

The free taking is a major issue, agreed.

The top forward one I don't know if it is that much an issue for us. I think what we could do is with a bit of variety in the full forward line, don't think Cavanagh is at home on the edge of the square and we certainly lack a big physical presence in there so we can mix it up and go long and direct from time to time with a natural ball winner.

I'd like to see us try some options in here during the league and I think it would benefit the likes of McAliskey, McCurry, O'Neill, Brennan etc.

Whether we have a player good enough in the county to carry out this role is a bigger question but I'd like us to look at our options here.

[Fuzzman]

Folks it's far too easy to say we need to find a few better forwards to kick 3 or 4 scores a game but in reality with the style of football we are playing it's nearly impossible against well organised teams that you find in Div 1.
Tyrone put up big scores v Derry & Cavan and Tipperary put up big score against Galway who are all Div 2 teams who tended to get caught on the break.
Ronan O'Neill and McAliskey really struggle to get scores as they get very little support and are often shooting under immense pressure. You saw the same with McBrearty at the weekend where he hardly got a touch as did Bernard Brogan so I don't think it's going to matter what forwards you have there if a team will surround them with extra men.

I think Mickey needs to revise our approach to how we attack and whilst we have got some level of success with playing such a defensive style game, I think you can see that Mayo, Dublin and Kerry all vary it a lot more and do sometimes kick the ball in over the blanket. Quite often Sludden broke through tackles on Saturday into a wee bit of space but when he looked up there was nobody in front of him to pass it to and so he had to come back and recyle which is very frustrating. Sean doesn't seem to like to stay in at FF but I think we do need a big strong player in there to win ball and shoot or feed others like AOS brought Cillian O'Connor and Moran into it on Saturday despite us having loads of men back.

In my eyes we already have a lot of talented players including forwards but we are coaching them all to think defensively first and that is why you often see them look backwards as soon as they get the ball rather than look up for runs ahead of them. IMHO our forward play is being hugely sacrificed because of the rigid system we have signed up to.

As Paul Galvin said recently about Michael Murphy, that he lost the instinct to shoot. We can see how talented a kicker he is from the ground but how many shots does he have from play during a game this year. He often wins a ball and lays it off. If Donegal and Tyrone committed more bodies forward then it would give the other teams swarm defence more men to worry about. You rarely see Dublin only having 1 or 2 forwards up on their own.
I'd love to know what our forwards themselves think.

Re. Morgan and missing the frees. I'd love to see his success rate over the years now. He must be very good in training and at club games. I know he's a nice enough lad off the pitch but I wonder is he over confident in himself and so doesn't know his limits. He knows he has got a long range shot in him but as we saw from M.Murphy, it's when it gets that far out you tend to try too hard and so lose accuracy. I often wonder would it be better landing those ones in around the square instead?

[BennyHarp]

Fuzz, the style of play created plenty of chances to win that game. Would a Steven O'Neill have missed that last shot by McCurry? Would Mugsy have missed the goal chance by Skeet? That's before we even get to mention the free kicking. Is there anyone on the current team who you would back to score the free Canavan scored v Armagh to win the semi final in 2005? There's a lot of emphasis put on systems etc and I think Mickey has created a style of play that does match with the skill set he has available to him but ultimately if we don't have the players who can kick the ball over the bar or into the net when the big moments arrive then you will never succeed. Is the money invested in our developing squads producing these types of players? If not why not? I've been saying for years they we are churning out identikit, excellent ball players and runners but no specialists. I.e. Man markers, mid fielders, forwards who can regularly score and free takers. Until we do then we will struggle in the tightest of games against the top teams like Sunday!

[vallankumous]

Folks it's far too easy to say we need to find a few better forwards to kick 3 or 4 scores a game but in reality with the style of football we are playing it's nearly impossible against well organised teams that you find in Div 1.
Tyrone put up big scores v Derry & Cavan and Tipperary put up big score against Galway who are all Div 2 teams who tended to get caught on the break.
Ronan O'Neill and McAliskey really struggle to get scores as they get very little support and are often shooting under immense pressure. You saw the same with McBrearty at the weekend where he hardly got a touch as did Bernard Brogan so I don't think it's going to matter what forwards you have there if a team will surround them with extra men.

I think Mickey needs to revise our approach to how we attack and whilst we have got some level of success with playing such a defensive style game, I think you can see that Mayo, Dublin and Kerry all vary it a lot more and do sometimes kick the ball in over the blanket. Quite often Sludden broke through tackles on Saturday into a wee bit of space but when he looked up there was nobody in front of him to pass it to and so he had to come back and recyle which is very frustrating. Sean doesn't seem to like to stay in at FF but I think we do need a big strong player in there to win ball and shoot or feed others like AOS brought Cillian O'Connor and Moran into it on Saturday despite us having loads of men back.

In my eyes we already have a lot of talented players including forwards but we are coaching them all to think defensively first and that is why you often see them look backwards as soon as they get the ball rather than look up for runs ahead of them. IMHO our forward play is being hugely sacrificed because of the rigid system we have signed up to.

As Paul Galvin said recently about Michael Murphy, that he lost the instinct to shoot. We can see how talented a kicker he is from the ground but how many shots does he have from play during a game this year. He often wins a ball and lays it off. If Donegal and Tyrone committed more bodies forward then it would give the other teams swarm defence more men to worry about. You rarely see Dublin only having 1 or 2 forwards up on their own.
I'd love to know what our forwards themselves think.

Re. Morgan and missing the frees. I'd love to see his success rate over the years now. He must be very good in training and at club games. I know he's a nice enough lad off the pitch but I wonder is he over confident in himself and so doesn't know his limits. He knows he has got a long range shot in him but as we saw from M.Murphy, it's when it gets that far out you tend to try too hard and so lose accuracy. I often wonder would it be better landing those ones in around the square instead?

Last year everyone thought Tyrone over achieved by running Kerrry close in a semi-final after relegation.

Ths year everyone thinks Tyrone underachieved by gaining promotion (similar to last years position), winning Ulster and narrowly losing to Mayo in a QF after meeting Monaghan at the same stage last year.

Maybe the best thing for Tyrone suporters to do is recognise where tyrone are, tweak what needs to be tweaked in the style of play and try to get better at it with a team that have a few years ahead of them.

If that can be done perhaps we can defend Ulster and progress futher in the AI.
It's early yet but the real target should be to get a good position in the league, defend Ulster and compete again in the AI.
For me that would be 3 years solid improvement and the style of play and individual players involved might get more credit than a one point loss to Mayo has given.

[longballin]

Police hunt for linesman attacker. Boys oh!! http://ulsterherald.com/2016/08/09/linesman-hospitalised-after-gaa-match-attack-in-tyrone/

[Tyrone Gaa]

Police hunt for linesman attacker. Boys oh!! http://ulsterherald.com/2016/08/09/linesman-hospitalised-after-gaa-match-attack-in-tyrone/

Pomeroy Boys 

I see nothing

[square_ball]

I know it's not going to help things for the next few years but I noticed the tyrone academy have been holding free kick coaching sessions with canavan and cush with the various age groups. Good idea imo at least trying something.

[rrhf]

How can Mickey Harte and Sean Cavanagh say this is the best group of players they have ever worked with? How are they even close to the team of the noughties??
And they talk about the squad strength......well if that's true then how come the same team started 3 games in a row? Has nobody else put their hand up in training and said I want on this team? In A V B in house games have the 15 players on the A team been better than their opponents?
How can there be a real competition for places if the same team gets picked no matter what. Need to learn from Kilkenny who reward training performances.....

I don't find it strange for Mickey to say that he rates this team as his best.  I'm presuming that means in the 13 years of his leadership, this current team is probably the fittest, strongest and raising the bar of what he seen in 03, 05 and 08 by there stats.  The problem is that other counties have raised the bar higher again.

The Tyrone team of the noughties were the standard of that time, if that makes sense.  Mickey also had his tactics spot on.

Agree what your saying about the training.  I thought this would have been a big year for Lee Brennan and Conor Meyler.  Not to be, next year maybe.

Im sure Mickey or Sean didn't say that, as its dosent make any sense. 
I do think it is fair enough to say that Tyrone looked rusty/stale/no pace/ in comparison to 3 weeks ago.  Maybe the in house games are not working as well anymore and need looked at.  Then again if we look at Saturdays lesson and the 2014 all ireland final as well, unbalanced ultra defensive teams do not win all irelands any more so perhaps some more thinking needed as well. 
 
it will be interesting to see who will be there the next time we make Croke Park.  Croke Park rarely returns the chance, if you struggle there as a player you rarely come back from it.   These guys are great guys and have done their best and we are all thrilled with their Ulster this year.   Generally what people are accepting these are the best footballers we have, Without changes after Saturday I think it would be difficult to predict an  all Ireland title with this group so a huge reality check for us all.  Frees are a major problem, points from play under pressure - another one.   Comparisons with the Tyrone team of the noughties cannot be made in any sense and is unfair to the greatest group of footballers to have ever worn the red hand.  This group are an honest and talented group but the exhausting game plan isnt working beyond Donegal when it worked a treat.  There are too many variables in Gaelic Football such as red cards, wides from good positions/players etc that make absolute rigidity in tactics and performance an impossibility.  Without the promotion of individual creativity,leadership and flair the game is going nowhere.       

[Tyroneforsam]

Police hunt for linesman attacker. Boys oh!! http://ulsterherald.com/2016/08/09/linesman-hospitalised-after-gaa-match-attack-in-tyrone/

Nice of our derrytresk friends to get the Brits involved

[Club boi]

Police hunt for linesman attacker. Boys oh!! http://ulsterherald.com/2016/08/09/linesman-hospitalised-after-gaa-match-attack-in-tyrone/

Nice of our derrytresk friends to get the Brits involved

So Tyroneforsam if your walking down the street and some fella belts you one from behind, leaves you having to attend hospital would you let him away with it???

Street/Bar/Gaa Pitch. Assault is Assault and the culprit should be brought to justice. If anything Pomeroy should be to blame here for not giving up the fella's name and therefore it wouldn't have made it to the papers this way

[BennyHarp]

A potential forward line for next year doesn't look too bad, assuming Sean isn't around or could be used as an impact sub...
10. Richie Donnelly
11 Niall Sludden
12. Conor Meyler
13. Lee Brennan
14. Cathal McShane
15. Mark Bradley (I think he could do more damage inside and is more accurate than he has shown so far)