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[Don't understand why we don't work to our players strengths]

Not a McCurry fan by any stretch but the man proved in the Championship that when he is allowed to play up the field and not waste energy and speed defending (which he's not great at) he is a very dangerous player up front. Id have McCurry over Bradley or Brennan any day of the week if he is able to stay inside/close to the goals.. or even inside the oppositions have.

Don't understand why we don't work to our players strengths

that would be too easy, dont kid yourself.
Mattie Donnelly unmarkable close to the sticks, keep him up there is my opinion

I think when we are struggling to get ball inside or struggling to make it stick, he should definitely be put into the inside line. but if the lads inside are doing damage, he can be left out around the middle and be a further benefit out the pitch with his running game, passing and vision. So I would say his position should be based on the situation we are in at the time, if you get what i mean, hes an incredibly versatile player. Not sure if many would agree with his position being 'situational' as opposed to playing a standard position all game, as it can be difficult for management to prepare for.

Donnelly unmarkable in the club scene, joy to watch.

A few obervations,
Munroe won't be playing under Harte
McNulty Clonoe probably wouldn't play county
Canavan is probably a year too young
McShane thrived this year because Stevie ONeill was there
Lee Brennan should be starting

Munroe couldn't make the u20 team this year so he's not a viable option in the immeadiate term.
Dan McNulty has played very little football in recent years and I'm not sure if he's motivated to play or whether his body would be able to withstand it.
Agreed on Canavan, he should see his time out with the u20s. I don't think he has the physique to be making a worthwhile impact at present.
McShane may have picked a lot off O'Neill but it's not as if he was being operated by him on remote control.
I wouldn't have Lee Brennan on a matchday 26 for Tyrone at present, I don't think he offers anything above what the likes of Bradley, McAliskey and McCurry do and at present it's a struggle to get two of them into the starting side.

Tyrone need to be playing 2 forwards upfront next year. I would have mcshane and bradley as they each offer something different. Lee would be a good option of the bench. If he is constant with frees he worth starting as Tyrone have lacked a reliable free taker for years. Still not convinced with mc curry but I appreciate its difficult to impress if you are getting limited game time. Think it was against Cork that he started to impress

McCurry had a couple of very good games against Cavan and Kildare in the qualifiers but I thought he was quite poor against Roscommon and Cork. I really like McCurry as a footballer, he has a lovely style about him and is a smashing player, he gets his shots off very quickly and when he has the bit between his teeth he can do serious damage. The problem is he is very much a confidence player and when things aren't going well he hides and the past 4 or so seasons from him have been far more miss than hit. I hope he can get some consistent form and make himself undroppable because Mickey Harte definitely rates him.

McAliskey and Bradley have a little bit of that inconsistency about them too but not to the same degree as McCurry. Apart from his size what goes against Bradley is that he can be a little wasteful in front of the posts but he's an extremely honest player and will work his socks off and never stop looking for the ball even when things aren't going well for him. Skeet is the most powerful of the 3 and like McCurry is a real confidence player, when things are going well he is lethal but a few misses can damage his confidence. I wouldn't accuse him of hiding like McCurry can though.

Brennan for me just seems too lazy, he doesn't put in the same work rate on and off the ball that the other three do. He's great talent but a lot of things he does are far too indulgent. In the semi final he started against Monaghan in 2018 he kicked some amount of stupid shots away when they weren't on and there were far better options on.

I agree we need to be playing someone inside with McShane, personally I think the best option is Donnelly up there with Harte and Bradley operating a little bit behind them. I think we need to make more of an effort to keep more players pushed up this year and take a little bit of the pressure off McShane.

We need a few more players to step up to the mantle this year, McShane did last year and for that reason I am a little more optiimistic about our chances next year in contrast to this time last year.

Our biggest issue for me is no 6, we have been moving a little more away from a sweeper in the past two seasons and you look at some of the soft goals we've coughed up when teams run through the middle of us, the two goals against Cork, the one Derry got against us, O'Brien's goal, the goal Kildare got, Brennan's goal for Donegal. All carbon copies of each other. Hampsey is probably our best option there but when we play the big teams we will likely need to get him to do a marking job. Guys like Burns and McKernan consistently get suckered  into the ball and are oblivious to what danger in behind. We've tried a few there in recent years - Burns, Brennan, McGeary, Sludden, McDonnell, Hampsey. I think Brennan has proven with his form that he is great asset to us at corner back, Hampsey will always be swapping about as he is our go to man marker. The rest of those mentioned just don't seem to have the nose for danger to stop us.

Imo a complete clear out in that panel is needed going by recent club championship games certain lads deserve a chance and are every bit as good as lads on that squad.
Time for conal mc cann, brendan burns, mc hugh, mc donnell,  mc Laughlin, maybe even tiarnan mc cann awful season at club and county to go and freshen up again at club level.

Give Ryan Gray, niall kelly, Kilpatrick from pomeroy, dan mc nulty, conor quinn galbally. Also get bradley back in their.

Leave canavan and Grimes with 20s until their championship is over.

I would agree with two of these call ups. Bradley and maybe Gray back in

Omagh v Clonoe reserve semi final on before the senior semi final on Sunday in Dungannon by the looks of it.

Christ that means the pitch will be in awful shape.. How o'Neil park gets big games is a mystery.. you think they would of did something with their pitch.. easily worst pitch in tyrone throw in they have a few black hole pot holes up the lane to pitch.

Which ever team makes it to the final will be guaranteed to get an injury or two in this game due to the condition of the pitch. Terrible.

This board use to be great.... Pure shite now with the idiots on posting.

I agree! becoming like twitter

Only recently made an account but i was viewer for years. People coming on now and using it as platform to spread completely untrue rumors and take the piss out of other people. It has just become another Hoganstand, sad to see

Eskra v Errigal - Eskra
Drumragh v Kildress - Kildress
Killeeshil v Brockagh - Killeeshil
Glenelly v Rock - Rock

Be extremely surprised if the above doesnt happen tonight

topofthesoil my man, you know the championship can always fire up a few shocks. I give Drumragh and Brocagh the most likely to cause the upset

A lot of talk in the club thread about potential players for next year, might be more suited here.

The u20s and u17s had some really good forwards this year but it's likely going to be another 3/4 years before they can impact at senior level and are up to the right physical levels. Was very surprised Mark Devlin didn't get named in the u17 team of the year, Donaghy of Carrickmore did but I thought Devlin was by far Tyrone's best player at that level.

Personally I'd wait for players to serve their time at u20 before bringing them into the senior fold, fair enough involving them for the McKenna Cup and maybe in the league until such time as the u20s get together but I think bar a Conor McKenna type talent we are not going to have any player under the age of 20 making a telling impact with us in the Championship.

Kilpatrick should be a shoe in for a call up this year, he would have got one last year only for the serious injury.

Other than that, we need to look at what areas we are lacking and what players we need to cut. From the cut perspective I think the following are on borrowed time:

- C McCann
- D McClure
- A McCrory
- R McHugh
- B Burns
- H Loughran


Possibly a few more I missed off the top of my head. All these lads are mid 20s or over now and haven't really made much of a contribution in the last two seasons, even including injuries.

I think we could do with another option or two in the full back line, Eoghan Murray definitely worth a shot in the McKenna Cup. Not aware of many other standouts there at the minute, I think Quinn on the u20s is too light yet. I'd like to see Rafferty and McLaughlin get a lot of time in the McKenna Cup in the full back line. Michael O'Neill is definitely worth a look in a half back line where we are reasonably well served. McNally is a good club player but that ship has sailed. How is Ruairi Mullan playing for Cookstown these days? Looked like a great talent on the u21 winning side but dropped off when he got the senior callup.

Harkin seems to be rated by Harte and I suspect he'll get a callup but I'm not sure he is much of an improvement on the likes of McCann and McClure. I like Nathan Donnelly of Killyclogher and think he is definitely worth a look, good engine a very similar type of player to Meyler with probably a better scoring return.

I think Paul Donaghy has a bit of size and scoring ability about him and is worth a look at in the McKenna Cup. Ryan Coleman also worth a look as well.

Bradley and McNulty will probably return to the squad next year, I wouldn't really bother with Lee Brennan, I don't think he gets in ahead of Bradley, McCurry or McAliskey.

Ruairi Mullan, great player and could nail down a spot on that tyrone team but he wants to play football regularly and there is no guarantee of regular game time with Tyrone, the team is changed nearly every game. Cookstown would also be in serious bother with starred games if he was to go to tyrone

New here.. just looking the opinion on something I was thinking about. I believe Galbally will win an O'Neill cup in the next 6/7 years. (From an outside man)

surprised by that, assumed the only people that thought galbally would win a championship would be galbally people themselves.

Next bunch of players that will be looked at will be the Tyrone U20s this year, likes of Conal Grimes, Canavan, Conor Quinn, Antoin Fox someone like Joe Oguz might even get a look

Oguz didn't make the Errigal team v Eglish. Suppose it wouldn't be the first time an Errigal sub made the county panel

In fairness Errigal subs are other better footballers than the starting 15 in most other clubs!

Aww get over yourself, why has errigal got a reputation to always be above and beyond every other team in Tyrone, they scrapped through Eglish, looked very poor and now one of their subs is better than most of the other 15 players in every other team..

have to agree here, just because someone pulls on an errigal senior jersey it does not mean they can walk into any other 15 in D1. I have seen many a bag of shite pull on a senior jersey for their club and errigal is no different.

Next bunch of players that will be looked at will be the Tyrone U20s this year, likes of Conal Grimes, Canavan, Conor Quinn, Antoin Fox someone like Joe Oguz might even get a look

Darragh Canavan, Conor Quinn, Antoin Fox and Joe Oguz are all still U20 next year.

this will be the u17 allireland wining team? so Lorcan Quinn, Matthew Murnaghan, Micheal Conroy and Ethan Jordan (v.impressive against errigal) all also available. Could be another ulster and all-ireland on the way. Apologies that ive included this on the wrong thread.

Early days in the championship yet to be declaring players for Tyrone call ups.
Conn Kilpatrick will likely receive a call up.
After that Michael O'neill and Daniel Kerr be worth a look at. Another player worth a look would be Conor Shields from Clogher.
After that it will be the Tyrone U20s that will be looked at and considered.
That others mentioned I would very much doubt, Emmet McNabb very light and not an improvement on McCurry, Canavan or Bradley if he returns.

Since MH will undoubtedly be calling more people up, will there be a few men dropped from the panel this time? he doesn't seem to ever drop too many players based on ability, the players usually leave of their own accord or break some rules etc. and get dropped for that

Won't be much standing room round killyclogher though... By half time in the first game be some crowd in id say. Thought at this stage championship would be taking preference to league games??

Last time i was in killyclogher they had the stand extended, no cover though. Would imagine it will be packed yes, would have thought carmen would have been the better option but sure the county board know best...

All teams still in the championship will be likely to field weaker teams this weekend and some teams that are safe may also field some weaker teams to give a few fringe/reserve players senior game time, so there might be some 'shock' results coming up

Who yous think gonna get the wins in the intermediate double header at the weekend? The talk was it was in Omagh but seems to be changed to killyclogher now for some reason 

Omagh have a league game at home on the sunday, dont think Healy Park could handle three games in the one day. It would also be a complete disaster trying to organise everything logistically id assume

Any further views on tonights game? majority going for Trillick to shade it. I can see a Dromore knocking them off their high horse with the sluddens being the heros for dromore

Essendon out of the AFL this morning, McKenna back to help Eglish survival bid?

I can remember him playing in the first relegation game for them a few years back in D1, which they won. Then when they had to play the winners of the D2 play-offs, he was already away back and they lost.

It would be interesting to see if he does decide to play in a game or two, he's become a big player for Essendon in recent years though, so surely there would be something in his AFL contract now that would mean he can't participate in other sports? similar to the some of the soccer contracts. If he did play a game or two for Eglish, it's not like it wouldn't be plastered over social media or in the news in ireland

Mark Kavanagh, former county minor and u21, couldn't make Errigal bench Friday night. Either he's went badly backwards or nothing will stand in the way of this errigal team with the strength and depth. I checked before posting if he was injured.

Wasn't a county minor but did play two years of u21. I believe he has only recovered from an injury and isn't back to full fitness yet with a lack of game time due to the injury obviously. It would be a big ask of a player to through him straight into a championship game when they haven't played in a while.