Messages

It's a bit disingenuous to say that the forward or 'star player' would never instigate these type of off the ball tussles. Loads of times through the years I have heard people encouraging forwards who are being closely marked to start a wrestling match which will result in the forward and defender being booked, and the defender subsequently has to take a slight step off.

This doesn't apply to the Clifford case yesterday as he was already on a yellow, but my point is the referee shouldn't just automatically assume that the defender always instigates this stuff

The referee might have got us out of jail yesterday with that second yellow for Clifford. Not a yellow or in that case second yellow for me.

Big win - D1 is cut throat this year.

You can laugh now but McGeary had an absolute shocker when he came on. One to forget for him.

Hugh Pat has been a steady performer for us now for the past year, just a bad day at the office yesterday. Michael Cassidy also had a rush of blood to the head when he came on, ploughing into Tommy Walsh after he'd caught a mark. Walsh would have struggled to score that himself but Cassidy turned it into a handy free for O'Shea. It can't be easy getting to the pitch of a game like that when coming on after sitting around in the freezing cold and wet for an hour.

Frank Burns was great yesterday, he's far more suited to playing further back the field than in the inside line. Niall Sludden had a good game also and the second half was the best I've seen Tiernan McCann play for some time. Seemed to be some good team spirit on show from Tyrone as well, all the subs and injured men on the sideline up out of the dugout urging the team on.

I was delighted for McCurry yesterday. He's had his critics within Tyrone but really stood up yesterday, he's playing great stuff at the moment. Lovely interview with him on BBC NI as well for anyone interested.

We have a good two week break now where we can get McShane and Harte another couple of weeks training under the belt and then a big game v Galway.

I've no idea but he'll be there next year.

Partly as there is no outstanding candidate to actually take the job / Partly as he's there, as is my understanding until the day he wants to leave.

Injuries not helping at the minute that is for sure....

Yeah there's a fair few mitigating factors. In the past 3 or 4 years we have had 6 players receive allstars.

Peter Harte: Sunday was his first game back after an extended honeymoon and he was taken off during the second half. Will need time to get up to full fitness and form
Mattie Donnelly: Injured, not expected back until first round of the Ulster Championship at the earliest
Colm Cavanagh: Played most of the game on Sunday but is beginning to show his age especially when required to play as an orthodox midfielder (although was very good in the second half against Meath). Was moved into full forward in the second half on Sunday as he was on a yellow card
Padraig Hampsey: Injured, unsure of return date
Cathal McShane: Unavailable, move to the AFL on the cards
Ronan McNamee: Played the first half on Sunday. Came off after a head clash at the start of the second half when Tyrone were  1 point down.

These are our 6 main men, none of whom were firing on full cylinders on Sunday. Any team would struggle in these circumstances but we need other men to stand up, and quickly

What do you all think of Mulgrew??

Not at the required standard unfortunately.

Decent Club footballer. But not up to County level.

Ben Mc Donnell the same.

But they always seem to feature for some reason. Strange

Mulgrew falls into the growing category of someone who's been knocking around the Tyrone panel for 3 or 4 years now and doesn't seem to have improved any. Obviously injury hasn't helped in his case but what is he supposed to be? He's been tried out in the full forward line in a few games without ever giving the impression he can win his own ball and beat his man. And he doesn't seem to have the legs to be a wing forward working up and down.

On Ben, this is now his third year on the panel and I actually think he's an example of someone who has improved. He's carved out a niche for himself within the panel as a spoiler around the middle third, and he tends to keep it simple giving the impression he knows his limitations. He's never going to be a superstar but he's a solid squad player.

Where is Brian Kennedy at the minute? I was hoping this would be a big year for him where he would establish himself as our first choice midfielder ahead of Colm Cavanagh. Last year was his break out year at the age of 21 and he got plenty of game time and showed promise. We should be looking for him to kick on this season

I think there are better players in the county than Ben Mc Donnell and David Mulgrew who are not on the panel.

Yet they are consistently featuring in games for our county team.

Like who?

What do you all think of Mulgrew??

Not at the required standard unfortunately.

Decent Club footballer. But not up to County level.

Ben Mc Donnell the same.

But they always seem to feature for some reason. Strange

Mulgrew falls into the growing category of someone who's been knocking around the Tyrone panel for 3 or 4 years now and doesn't seem to have improved any. Obviously injury hasn't helped in his case but what is he supposed to be? He's been tried out in the full forward line in a few games without ever giving the impression he can win his own ball and beat his man. And he doesn't seem to have the legs to be a wing forward working up and down.

On Ben, this is now his third year on the panel and I actually think he's an example of someone who has improved. He's carved out a niche for himself within the panel as a spoiler around the middle third, and he tends to keep it simple giving the impression he knows his limitations. He's never going to be a superstar but he's a solid squad player.

Where is Brian Kennedy at the minute? I was hoping this would be a big year for him where he would establish himself as our first choice midfielder ahead of Colm Cavanagh. Last year was his break out year at the age of 21 and he got plenty of game time and showed promise. We should be looking for him to kick on this season

Is there any word of what Richard Donnelly and Hampsey's situation is? We could do with both of them back asap.

He described it on his gym page as a 'health and fitness column', whereas the Irish News announced on Tuesday that it would be 'a page laced with his own inimitable take on sporting happenings, a splash of personal fitness and a dash now and again of his views on wider current affairs.'

So I'd tend to expect something more in line with Paddy's own description, and not necessarily in depth analysis of the games that took place the previous weekend. I think it will be a good read, it will be something different and will be better than the crap that Danny Hughes and Kenny Archer serve up. I also enjoyed yesterday's article, it was a nice introduction to where Paddy is at with his life at the minute and sets the column up well going forward

[I thought RON had a deadly game, too]

He was there, I saw him. Looked to be there as a regular punter.

Decent enough performance today. McCurry has started the year really well. His work rate was excellent today I thought, was always on the go. I thought RON had a deadly game, too. The vision and pass for our goal was deadly. Was very unlucky not to set up a goal chance a few minutes beforehand and his own lob of the keeper was inches away from going. In fact, it hit post bounced out and hit keepers head before just trickling wide. Mark Bradley was very lively when he came on, used ball really well and scored and absolute peach.

Last word for big Colly Cavanagh, the man is some warrior. Some great fetches around the middle as well as saving points over the crossbar at the back.

It was the same old RON yesterday. Deadly when he gets the ball in his hands in a bit of space and he picked out a couple of lovely passes. But he still has serious problems winning his own ball and lacks pace. There was a time in the first half when McCurry took a quick free and sent O'Neill through on goal, but he was too slow and his marker caught up and easily stripped him. I'd also be uncomfortable with him hitting our right footed frees going forward as I don't think he is good enough at them. Although I can't really think of any other options for these in the absence of McShane, unless you want to drag Morgan up for every one.

Frank Burns was very poor yesterday at full forward although he was admittedly up against a very good full back. Coney looked sharper when he came in and more comfortable in the role. I'm a bit surprised he wasn't given a game at full forward during the McKenna Cup

[70% of the responses received by the CCC from Clubs were against change to the Reserve competition.]

The outcome of discussions on reserve competitions from last nights meeting is very disappointing. For years now reserve football has been on its knees. My club discussed this at length and whilst we could see some flaws in decoupling the games we felt it had to be worth a shot in order to try to breathe some new life into the reserve competitions. I am astounded this was defeated by a vote and would love to see a club breakdown. I can see no sense in not trying this approach for at least 1 year. Yes it would take some fine tuning and imagination from clubs with regards to training/picking squads on a weekly basis, but surely it was better than the status quo.

There was no vote but from the discussions last night the following Clubs were very vocally against it - Carrickmore, Tattyreagh, Loughmacrory, Clann na nGael, Glenelly, Trillick, Stewartstown, Castlederg etc.

I was hoping the changes would go through but as you can see both small and large Clubs were against it. 70% of the responses received by the CCC from Clubs were against change to the Reserve competition.

Outrageous decision last night regarding reserve football. As stated already, clubs had to look at this as a positive for Tyrone football not their club, unfortunately too many clubs can't/aren't prepared to do this. From a quick search of last years conceded reserves matches a few of the clubs listed above featured heavily, the others, although may not have conceded, were still affected by opposition conceding. The mind boggles as to how these teams think next season will play out. Dinosaurs!! What harm could it have done to try this for a year??

Ok so we've heard some smaller clubs didn't want the change because they are working with small numbers. What was the reason Carrickmore, Trillick and other bigger clubs voted against it?

What he said on otb was great.He said the inter county season should be 3 or 4 months and that would give the chance for country players to play for their clubs.

Gilroy and that other clown were fawning over Brolly on OTB. It was embarrassing. Joe might want to play a character and entertain the masses from his pulpit in the TV studio but he doesn't appreciate that what he says has real life consequences. For all his ranting about RTE wanting to place more emphasis on statistics that isn't why he's no longer working there.

He got the sack because of repeated personal attacks, such as the Cavanagh incident or his comments about David Gough at half time of the final. Joe might think that these are a bit of fun but it can't be nice for these guys having to go to work the following day after comments like those on national TV. RTE were correct to clamp down on it and I thought it was embarrassing that the OTB guys failed to challenge him on his rhetoric

Should Reserve Football  be scrapped.

no

[12. I reckon 13 inter-county football managers are getting paid at the moment – which is a relatively low figure.]

12. I reckon 13 inter-county football managers are getting paid at the moment – which is a relatively low figure.

Personally would have thought it was closer to at least double that.

How would Pat Spillane know this? Given the majority of club managers are getting paid these days (at least in Tyrone) i'd have assumed 90+% of county managers would be also

I have to say. Fair play to these lads and management for putting these results together. We know where we probably are and may struggle, but anybody that went to some awful div 3 games with Tyrone in the 80s would know that there is still a bating of any county team and Tyrone are trying hard and at this stage of the season progressing fine. Fair play to the Conall Mc Cann's and the Ben o Donnells. Reading on here ye would wonder why they bother sometimes. Give credit to the effort.

Conall McCann had a fine game yesterday I thought. Scored 1-2 from play, provided a few assists and showed he is well capable of winning ball at full forward. He was unlucky in the second half too with confusion around an attacking mark that he thought he took.

All I can tell you is what the lad himself is telling the rest of us. It's done, he's with Dungannon. Edendork did not contest the transfer. I'd imagine if you really want to know go to the top pitch at Dungannon tomorrow night....I'll have a private wager with you he's there.

Why is he transferring from Edendork to Dungannon?

[good]

Teamtalk only put a story together based on half truths of rumours circulating round the county over the Christmas period. The only people that know the full picture are the player himself and those closest to him which probably includes Mickey Harte as he was the first one to mention a 2 week trial period. There's a good chance he'll be back in the Tyrone squad for the national league which can only be good news for Gaels in the county

Good chance ?
Honestly?

Tadgh Kennelly seems to think so too but we'll all just have to wait and see boss

If he signs to either club as an international rookie category B he can be registered mid season. I don't know if either of these clubs already have someone signed in that category but I think you lose a place in the next draft as a result. It's something like that, but AFAIK he would be free to play AFL footy midseason and what's more likely, immediately ready to play VFL - Which itself, can be brutal.

https://www.offtheball.com/football/cathal-mcshane-tadhg-kennelly-946144

Kennelly says the deadline has passed for them to register him before the season starts and that its extremely unlikely they would register him mid-season. I know nothing about the ins and outs of the AFL transfer or draft system but if what Kennelly says is true there has been a crazy about of nonsense spouted in the media over the past week, with nobody having a clue about what's going on