Tyrone v Westmeath

[Mike Sheehy]

...a lot of cocky comments about meeting us in the next round.........I see through the false bravado lads. Ye are shitting ye'reselves.

[Mike Sheehy]

oh, and I never again want to be lectured about Kerry fans by Tyrone folk.  An attendance of 7700 for a home , do-or-die, game is a disgrace. The place looked empty and most of the cheering seemed to come from Westmeath fans.  Have Tyrone fans got so complacent after 2 AI that they wont travel 30 miles down the road to support the team ?

[orangeman]

...a lot of cocky comments about meeting us in the next round.........I see through the false bravado lads. Ye are shitting ye'reselves.

We already have ! 

[full back]

Was thinking that myself ms.
The attendance yesterday was ridiculous - slightly embarassing in fact....
Imagine if Kerry were to draw Tyrone? Would we even get 5000 at it???

[Mike Sheehy]

Not sure if its neutral venue or not. If it was in Killarney then I'd say you'd get a good crowd as all the Tyrone people would flock to the most beautiful county in Ireland whereas if its in Omagh (christ..it even sounds depressing..) then the crowd will probably be low. We wouldnt be seen dead in the place and, as evidenced by todays crowd, the Tyrone wans wouldnt be seen dead there either.

[redcard]

Big seans fall captured by Jim Dunne. There looked to be far more than 7500 at the match.

[bridgegael]

any word on how cavanagh is??

[phpearse]

Thought there was a lot more at that game last night that 7700. The stand had 2 completely empty sections, a silly decision to make the stand all ticket but the steps were packed. Given that Omagh's capacity is 25000, I would say 7,000 for the stand and 19,000 for the rest of the ground - last night's attendance would have had about 5,000 in the stand and 10,000 on the steps, so a figure of 15,000 would have been more realistic. Given that when you paid into the steps there was NO ticket given out, there could be a bit of understating of the crowd for revenue purposes!!

[ONeill]

Like last week, unconvincing, but a win's a win. Tommy's in the form of his life a the minute and is helping to ease the scoring burden in O'Neill's absence. Dooher's an amazing athlete and bombed over a couple of specials too. Sean's injury was unfortunate. Although he was playing well, Westmeath were keeping him out of range. The fact that he got injured whilst competing for a ball at corner back speaks volumes for his unsettled role in the team at the minute. With Mellon and McGinley performing well around the middle it looks like Sean is in for a an extended stay elsewhere. Mellon, again, caught a few humdingers - have we seen such fielding in a Tyrone midfield since Plunkett and Harry?

What to do with Davy Crockett? Scored a fine point, missed a sitter, bombed forward at the right times, but, but, the turnovers are costing us. It's a tough call for Mickey. I'd hold out on him. He still gets through a lot of positive work. Justin had the odd hairy moment but did well on a very dangerous man. Ricey was buzzing again and Quinn had mostly a good day. Gormley is also improving and put in a couple of good hits. Brian wasn't as involved as against Louth but was linking well with Sean when Cavanagh was at FF. He's forming a decent partnership with the brother too. McCullagh and Penrose didn't offer enough after the first 10 minutes, although Tommy seemed to be prepared to go it alone.

A word on the officiating - the marginal calls seemed to go against us early on and the more the crowd and players complained, the worse it seemed to get. However, after the crazy 45 decision (absolute bonkers) we started to get those calls in our favour. The ref had a bad, bad day at the office. I don't think he was biased - he simply lost the run of himself and the game early on and seemed to be reacting to the crowd. A bad advert for young referees.

[navaniarmhi]

So that's it. Couple of things about yesterday.

Very disappointing to have got such a tough away draw in the first place. 5 matches played in the championship this year and all away if you count the Dublin match. Worst of all no kudos gained with respect to the qualifiers by having won two championship matches ---- we were in the pot with those we beat ( Kerry, on the other hand, get into the last round of the qualifiers as a reward for beating Clare)

Westmeath have shown that they are competitive generally and I suppose have the consolation of promotion to a 'real' Div.1 and those Div 2 medals as a consolation.

The choice of an Armagh man to referee was a bit odd. It clearly enraged the crowd and was an unnecessary added factor in an already tense game. The level of abuse doled out to him in the first half was huge and I am sure from looking at his demeanor that he was under pressure. Certainly his umpires and linesmen were and they received multiple threats of grievous harm that I heard. After the 45 incident two bottles were thrown at the umpire involved and you could see he was greatly unnerved. When the referee made the error about which way the free was going we heard the biggest shout of the day.

Glennon got a couple of handy frees in the first half which surprised even him. He has a habit of turning very fast on his man and as a tall man often slips. These frees drove the crowd mad and we were lucky to get them. The switch Tyrone made on him greatly reduced his input.

frees had a big part to play in our defeat. Firstly quickly taken frees led to direct possession reversal on two occasions and Tyrone scores. these were calamitous when they occurred and must have seriously damaged morale. Secondly the close in free Denis Glennon missed in the second half was unfathomable. His address of the ball and orientation was unsuitable for such a tap over and it was very costly. It came at a time when they were under severe pressure and their early second half lead had been reversed.
The dismissals occurred soon afterwards . Brian Dooher is a great man to have when the game reaches a turning point. Westmeath fell for it hook, line and sinker.
The change from 15 to 13 was not as catastrophic as it should have been and at times I was counting Westmeath fellas to make sure that two had actually been sent off. Tyrone should have romped home but didn't and then.....Dessie, Dessie ,Dessie.

The general assertion that Westmeath are fine defensively, competent in midfield but need one or two more effective attackers was shown to be the case again. paradoxically  this problem might ease a bit as Dessie declines.

Feck it anyway........

[pintsofguinness]

The choice of an Armagh man to referee was a bit odd. It clearly enraged the crowd and was an unnecessary added factor in an already tense game. The level of abuse doled out to him in the first half was huge and I am sure from looking at his demeanor that he was under pressure. Certainly his umpires and linesmen were and they received multiple threats of grievous harm that I heard. After the 45 incident two bottles were thrown at the umpire involved and you could see he was greatly unnerved. When the referee made the error about which way the free was going we heard the biggest shout of the day.

That's shocking.  Completely out of order.

[passedit]

Very disappointing to have got such a tough away draw in the first place. 5 matches played in the championship this year and all away if you count the Dublin match. Worst of all no kudos gained with respect to the qualifiers by having won two championship matches ---- we were in the pot with those we beat ( Kerry, on the other hand, get into the last round of the qualifiers as a reward for beating Clare)

It's ironic that the qualifiers which were introduced alledgedly to aid the weaker counties actually skews things even further in favour of the stronger. The fact that the strongest county has the easiest route says all that is wrong about this system and the retention of the provincial championships.

If the provincial system must be retained (I think it should be scrapped myself) then the qualifiers should only be open to those counties who lose their first game out, after that its knockout for everyone with the last two standing in the qualifiers playing off against the munster and connacht winners for a semi final place (thus redressing the numerical imbalance in the provinces).

This way everyone is guaranteed two games minimum and the stronger teams in munster and connacht have to exert themselves befor August.

[Tyrone Dreamer]

The ref was a disgrace. I thought we played quite well and dominated for much of the match but shooting was very poor at times. Full forward line needs sorted out for the Kerry game next weekend. Penrose and McCullagh could both lose out. Davy Harte is struggling but the signs are that Harte wont take him off/drop him no matter what. We definately need Sean C fit for next week or else we could be in trouble. I actually thought the sending offs disrupted Tyrone, we were starting to play quite well just before them but seemed to lose shape afterwards.

[ONeill]

100%. Tyrone were flying just before the sendings off and had scored 4 in succession to edge in front. The sendings off disrupted their superiority.

[Main Street]

I'm glad to hear the news on Sean Cavanagh is not as bad as feared.
Anything could have happened to him with a fall like that.

I only caught the last 20 mins.
Tyrone shooting can only improve