Donegal v Tyrone Sun 29 March

[ONeill]

Tyrone side fairly settled this year, compared to 2014. Can't see too many changes before the big one in a couple of months.

[Redhand Santa]

A fit Clark could potentially take Ryan McKennas place. Mcaliskey still has to keep delivering to secure his place. Other than that couldn't see any changes come first championship game. Seem to be in a better position than last year but early days.

Strange peter Hughes hasn't got much time from mayo game and Niall McKenna must still be struggling.

[twohands!!!]

I wasn't sure at the start of the league how competitive Sunday's clash would be given the upcoming championship game. However, given the position both teams are in in the league its fair to say thoughts of the championship clash will be put to one side and all the focus will be on this one. That should set up a hard hitting tight game.

Its hard to imagine it will be high scoring and hope it doesnt turn into an overly defensive dour contest. I've a feeling it'll be a better game than many suspect. Its important that Tyrone focus on on upping their scoring ratio. Currently we're defending well enough and creating enough chances to compete with anyone but we're missing to many changes. Maybe this will be the day that Morgan will return to form with the frees. Looking at the team on paper it looks fairly strong.

Tyrone's top scorer from play is McAliskey with 1-4 ; McCurry is next with 0-5, McCrory next with 1-1 then Donnelly, McNabb and Hughes are all joint next with 0-2. Tyrone's total from play is a feeble 2-25 which is even lower than Derry have scored from play. Possibly the most worrying factor is that Sean Cavanagh has one single point from play despite playing every single minute of every match in the league.

Overall that is seriously grim stuff in terms of attacking threat and I find it very hard to imagine that a game against Donegal is going to be one where a misfiring attack starts to fire.

[rrhf]

A fit Clark could potentially take Ryan McKennas place. Mcaliskey still has to keep delivering to secure his place. Other than that couldn't see any changes come first championship game. Seem to be in a better position than last year but early days.

Strange peter Hughes hasn't got much time from mayo game and Niall McKenna must still be struggling.

I think we are missing mc Kenna and whatever injury he has needs sorted   Started the season so well. In a Tyrone jersey himself and cavanagh can be a terrific partnership

[tyroneman]

I think the problem with Sean is that he hasn't really been allowed to play a true FF role. He is typically found in and around MF after 10 min.

That being said he used to score plenty from MF........

[Fuzzman]

With so little scores coming from play and no big score takers on the dubs bench, we are therefore very dependent on our free taker.
I have some sympathy for him as I said before he never gets to take any easy close in ones.
However, how long do we persist with him hitting sides? We could have beaten Derry, Dublin and maybe Cork had we been scoring those frees. We could be sitting top of the table rather than looking at the bottom.
Donegal fans in Ballybofey are vociferous and will gladly give Morgan a hard time again as they have history now.
In fairness to Niall he doesn't hide from hitting them but he's not showing much sign of recovery in my eyes. Does Mattie hit frees?

[twohands!!!]

I think the problem with Sean is that he hasn't really been allowed to play a true FF role. He is typically found in and around MF after 10 min.

That being said he used to score plenty from MF........

Yeah you're right about him not playing that much in near goals. The point I was trying to make about Sean was that he was in poor form in terms of his contribution from play- However as you said he used to be pretty consistently good for a good few points from play when he wasn't spending any time near goal - really can't help but think it's a sign he's up against it in terms of battling father time

[Main Street]

If Tyrone leave Ballybofey with anything less than a win.  It's division 2 for us.

Mutual assured destruction would be preferable  but it is so that only one of you will be relegated, in a duel to the drop.

[on the sideline]

A fit Clark could potentially take Ryan McKennas place. Mcaliskey still has to keep delivering to secure his place. Other than that couldn't see any changes come first championship game. Seem to be in a better position than last year but early days.

Strange peter Hughes hasn't got much time from mayo game and Niall McKenna must still be struggling.

Has Hughes had any since? He was going well too

[twohands!!!]

Donegal Team

Paul Durcan
Paddy McGrath
Neil McGee
Eamonn McGee
Frank McGlynn
Karl Lacey
Eamonn Doherty
Neil Gallagher
Christy Toye
Martin O'Reilly
Odhrán Mac Niallais
Ryan McHugh
Patrick McBrearty
Michael Murphy
Hugh McFadden

Michael Boyle
Ciaran McGinley
Anthony Thompson
Mark McHugh
Martin McElhinney
Colm McFadden
Daniel McLaughlin
David Walsh
Gary McFadden
Eoin McHugh
Stephen Griffen

Mark McHugh dropped to the bench

[JoG2]

So according to Micky H in today's Irish News we're like blind sheep who can't think for ourselves. He is of course talking about people's perception of the new improved 15 man defence. You know the Tyrone team with only 2 actual forwards named in the starting 15?
Seems we're not actually witnessing 15 defenders inside the 45 and uncontested kick outs! It's actually a myth perpetuated by men with some kind of agenda.

[ose 14]

still think tyrone are evolving and the ultra defensive set up is harte trying to keep tyrone up, we will be better for championship. however he desperately needs a ball player or too in the team. big joe coming back to do the tiernan mccann role will be vital as he has the ability to do things that no one else can hit a ball 40/50 yards out of defence and into space. mccann can run and handpass but not much else, when paul kerrigan just ran at him in the last league game he was woefully exposed. i still have my doubts on mccaliskey looks good for 15 mins then disappears, big sean has been very poor and his lack of pace/legs has finally caught up with him mccurry has been very good but against an ultra defensive system where he will be living on crumbs on sunday he wont count. so as someone else has alluded too we have very little striking options especially from play which has put added pressure on a goalkeeper who plays midfield for his club (by my reckoning plays 7-10 competitive games a year in his position only, a joke)to hit wonder frees. the lack of scoring power is the big problem and harte cannot be blamed for that its 10 years of producing midget corner forwards at underage level and the ever decreasing gene pool in the east and town areas of tyrone. however as regards sunday if tyrone can turn over a few lineouts kick their penaltys and dont commit too many indiscretions at the breakdown we should be able to unhinge the bigger donegal pack. 

[Fuzzman]

Very true Ose.
Big Finbarr played MF for Newton.
Personally I think Morgan is a fine keeper but Mickey needs to make a call on wasting all these frees.

[BennyHarp]

Very true Ose.
Big Finbarr played MF for Newton.
Personally I think Morgan is a fine keeper but Mickey needs to make a call on wasting all these frees.

As far as I can see, Mickey has made a call, Morgan is still kicking the frees. He has proven he can kick long range frees no bother. He's going through a bad patch, leave him at it, he's the best long range kicker we have, he'll come good. It's obvious why some of you lads aren't managers, first sign of trouble you abandon game plans, players, free kickers etc. some things just have to be battled out and I'd say Niall is working hard in the background to get his kicking back to where it was. I think having a player who can kick you points from the guts of 60 yards (especially when your forward line isn't scoring heavily) is a great asset and worth persevering with.

[Redhand Santa]

Anybody with any sense can see why he has played Morgan every game and given him the frees the last few years. He is a good keeper and composed on the ball although confidence seems a bit shaken recently. Pre Morgan coming on the scene we were already struggling with any kind of long range frees and conversion was poor. Harte new this needed addressed.

Morgan is undoutbly the best striker of a dead ball from the ground in the Tyrone team and is capable of hitting frees from up to 60 yards out. He proved against Dublin in the league final just how could good he can be with them even in a big game. Quite often is free conversion in the past 2 years was only around 50% but I suspect Harte's opinion was that if he stuck with him he'd grow into a top free taker as he was new to the role and young. This season for some reason he has gone backwards a little and confidence is low. I'm sure it is a little more difficult on bad pitches at this time of year (croke park aside) and big winds  to judge so I for one wouldn't be totally giving up on the experiment yet.

I don't want to be too harsh but I do wonder if some of this talk trying to undermine him is coming from a Clonoe direction intent on seeing Mickey O'Neill on the team. In previous years a lot of harsh comments were made at other players like Peter Harte were they felt their club players were better. Players like Morgan deserve a chance to develop - he is a top talent and I believe still has the ability to go on and become a top keeper and free taker over the next few years. A decision may have to be made as the season goes on to move him of frees but I'd still give him some tomorrow to see if we can get him back on form.

We have struggled for scores this season but its not totally unexpected given we've been in the middle of trying to implement a new defensive system. I've been impressed at how quickly we changed the game plan from Monaghan and now seem to have got a settled team which has led us to a draw and win against 2 of the top 4 teams in Ireland. We only lost by a point last day out to the best team in the league and that did seem to be as a result of running out of steam.

Harte now needs to get a bit more focus on the forward play, free taking and contesting kick outs where we have to kick it out or against other teams kickouts. If we can improve these areas and everyone stays fit we'll give most teams a game. Would be great to see Mattie D hitting a bit of form as he could really transfer this team into a top team if started taking scores. With him, Cavanagh, McCurry, Harte, McAliskey etc we have plenty of players capable of getting scores.