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Mtown Gortin draw

Replay during week with quarter at the weekend?

Replay Thursday and Quarter Final Monday with the Semi final the following weekend.

Quarter-Final on Monday night? Are all Junior Quarter-Finals not to be played Friday 13th and Intermediate Quarter-Finals to be played on Sunday 15th? Greencastle wont like the waiting about

Well the Quarter Final with Greencastle will be Monday 16th, must be to allow an extra bit of rest.
Semi finals will still go ahead 20-22nd.

10 Championship games played now and we finally got one exciting game in Greencastle Clogher. 1 out 10. Not great.

Very poor first weekend, with a few hammerings dished out and a lot of poor team performances. Hopefully the second weekend is better, on paper there are certainly some decent match ups. So hopefully we can see better entertainment on show.
This weekend I predict; Greencastle, Loughmacrory, Gortin and Aghyaran and Trillick, Clonoe, Killyclogher and Coalisland.

Looking forward to the quarter finals then, the line could be very good at Senior and Intermediate. Some potentially tasty games if my predictions work out.

Urney V Owen Roes
Galbally V Aghyaran
Pomeroy V Loughmacrory
Greencastle V Gortin

Carrickmore V Edendork
Trillick V Clonoe
Killyclogher V Coalisland
Errigal V Omagh.

Carrickmore brilliant yesterday. All over the field they were on top. Makes for a potentially great game v Edendork. Penrose, who was outstanding, and Daly won't get that space inside again, so will be interesting to see how they cope with that. But the signs yesterday were very good. The young boys played well to, Murray be a big loss next day out though.
Dissapointed with Derrylaughan, offered very little resistance and left their full back line out to dry. Kennedy very very poor in the middle, no driving forward from him and no shift going the other way.

Thought McShane only got going when Owen Roes had already established a healthy lead heading towards half time. Looked very good after that then with the space.
Stewartstown were terrible, Dan Lowe has probably never played worse. Looked like a team that didn't want to be there. They could very well get relegated, signs there tonight didn't look good for them.
Eglish played well, but missed too much which ultimately meant that Errigals big lead at Half Time was enough. Canavan had a few brilliant moments.

With championship approaching you have to look at form - Kildress 6 wins in a row, Galbally - 10 wins in a row. my two picks for 3 and 2. Division 1 surely is set up for Errigal Ciaran this year especailly with a favourable draw

Word is that if Errigal don't win this O'Neill Cup this year the committee are going to try and acquire Augher, Clogher and Aghaloo to add to their collection of clubs.

Omagh have the parade around the town already organised, with Conor Clarke flying back home to play a part.

If Conor Clarke is going to play a part I think we can rule Omagh out now.

Club Championship may well unearth a few prospects for the senior panel.
But from the U20 panel the players who would be worth a look at for 2020, that aren't still available to U20 next year: Conor Quinn, Conall Grimes and Sean Og McAleer.
Think anyone still U20 like Murnaghan, Canavan, Tiarnan Quinn, Lorcan Quinn should remain on the U20 panel for the 2020 season.
Other club players who stand out from previous years would be, Emmet McNabb, Conn Kilpatrick and Daniel Kerr.

Any word of reserve championships?

Friday 2nd of August.

Big game against Roscommon coming up on Saturday. Win there and that's an All Ireland Semi Final place secured and you'd be quietly confident there. Tyrone put them to the sword at this stage last year in Croke Park, they have improved and have home advantage, but it's debatable if they have come that far as in to beat Tyrone at this stage, who are well seasoned and experienced.
In terms of changes, Hampsey is the only man to come in if hes fully up to speed, ideally he is the man to pick up Cox. Hopefully Harte is past the point of making rash changes like bringing Tiernan McCann, Ben McDonnell or a red herring like Rafferty in again at the expense of form players like Kennedy, Cassidy or Brennan.

1. Niall Morgan
2. Padraig Hampsey
3. Ronan McNammee
4. Rory Brennan
5. Michael Cassidy
6. Colm Cavanagh
7. Kieran McGeary
8. Richie Donnelly
9. Brian Kennedy
10. Conor Meyler
11. Niall Sludden
12. Tiernan McCann
13. Cathal McShane
14. Peter Harte
15. Mattie Donnelly

Numbers may not match up but thats the positions I expect Tyrone to line up in.
McKernan got an awful roasting by Mattie Donnelly in an inhouse game recently, so I would expect him to not get the start. So will come down to R Brennan or HP McGeary and hope to see Brennan establish himself.
Played McCann at wing forward because I think hes a weak link defensively but offers too much of an attacking option to leave out.
Hopefully we continue the tactics used towards the end of the league.

Division 2 Results

Moortown 2-10 Urney 2-06
Aghyaran 1-14 Cookstown 3-10
Beragh 0-16 Clogher 2-12
Gortin 1-8 Galbally 2-11
Loughmacrory 2-15 Owen Roes 3-10
Newtownstewart 0-13 Stewartstown 0-14
Pomeroy 2-14 Augher 0-08
Strabane 1-9 Greencastle 0-11

Some result for Cookstown. Don't think anyone would have seen that one coming.
Big win as well for Clogher, real 4 pointer there. Gives them a fighting chance. Long way back for Beragh.
Galbally and Pomeroy with big wins on their return to Div 2 against two of the stronger teams in the league.

I heard Gavin Devlin is over the coaching of all the development squads....

Big fallout at the country board meeting Monday night over this.
A lot of questions regarding how Gavin got this job asked that couldn't be answered.

What is this years u20 team like?

Young

Any squad list?

[What do people think of Ben O'Donnell then? Another big strong lad that can play anywhere from 5 to 12?]

Yeah it's certainly a lot easier to watch if you have men inside that can win the ball and bring others into play like the ball into Mattie that he turned back out, laid it off to Sludden for a nice finish from the angle.
We've got two winnable games at home v Cavan and Galway and then hopefully we dont need anything from our trip to Croker on Paddy's eve though Cavan will take heart with their good win over the Rossies and Galway are always hard to break down.

Has the squad been trimmed back then? Who has gone?
What do people think of Ben O'Donnell then? Another big strong lad that can play anywhere from 5 to 12?

Is Collie C gonna sit out the whole league? Is he injured or being rested?

Thought he was very solid on Saturday. Little raw with his decision making when through on goal - but very solid and strong coming out with the ball.

The thing is - we could field 15 of that type of player.

Did well on Saturday night but I don't think he's the best option available in the squad. Thought after his performances last year, Rory Brennan would be a certain starter in the team but unused sub again on Saturday.
Tiernan Mccann was worryingly off the pace against Monaghan as well, is he just undroppable?

Intermediate

Anyone want to fill in the gaps?

Loughmacrory - Gary Conway
Beragh - Ryan McCloskey
Gortin - Roger Keenan
Augher - Aghaloo manger from last year (from Truagh, can't remember his name)
Clogher - Anthony Treanor / Joe McMahon
Stewartstown -
Newtownstewart - Martin McNulty
Pomeroy -Brian McGuckin is joined by Enda Kilpatrick.
Aghyaran -
Galbally -
Owen Roes - Barry Tracey
Cookstown -
Greencastle - Sean Teague / Niall Colton
Moortown -
Urney -
Strabane - Eamon McGowan / Gerard Murray