Messages

What's the status of our possible squad for 2007?
Who is likely to break into the squad?

Packie – Back for another year of eye poking and long kickouts
J.Devine – Are they still going to take turns this year or is he now No.2

Ricey – Thought he wasn't as good in 2006 but then again who was. Will he get in
     trouble in 2007
McGee – Has he finally nailed down his place now or is he too small?
Carlin   - Always promises a lot but never settles into the side? CB or HB?
Gourley – Always injured but I think can be a great defender but was poor last year.

C.McGinley – Seems to do well for club & Mickey likes him but will he be No3 this year
C.Gormley  - Returning from injury. Will he be the same? Will be at 6 or 3 or 8?
Joey McMahon – Another who gets lots of injuries and does Mickey not like playing him
          What's his best position? FB, CHB, MF?
C.Holmes – Always seems to be injured but plays the odd game. Solid but not
                         spectacular

P.Jordan – Has gone to Aus for the winter but should be to reclaim No7 shirt.
        Is he still Mr Consistent and does he whinge too much?
D.Harte – Seems slow and awkward but has made the 5 shirt his own and scored the odd
      Point

Hub – Came back last season but found the going tough and still seems to go a bit OTT
   with the physical stuff.
Cavanagh – Sean still seems to be in good form and will benefit when others around him give some support. Again is he best in MF or HF?

Cavlan – Will he be back in 2007? Will he be injured every 2nd game? His potential is awesome and I would like to see him in the team.

Dooher – If he can get over his injury, which is still very sore then he can be great again.
If not we will miss his hoovering breaking ball big time.

B.McGuigan – We know what he can do and how he controls our attack but will he come back as good from such a horrendous injury? We all expect so but maybe not so easy.

E.McGinley – Another who gets lots of injuries but when he plays puts in a lot of work and can kick scores too. Best position probably 3rd MF from Corner Forward or maybe take Dooher's role if he's out.

Mugsy – Which one? Mugsy pre-Dublin goal or Post Dublin goal. Hard to believe he scored 2-6 in 2nd Louth game but I fear in tight tough games he has fallen back a bit.

S.O'Neill – Still outstanding if given the right ball but Ref's tend to let defenders constantly pull and drag at him but play the advantage as he's so strong.

McCullagh – Brought back last year and got a few scores. Is small and accurate but finds it hard to win clean possession.
Penrose – Huge potential and think will come good when in open matches. Not sure will he start though if full squad to pick from.
Mellon – Hot and cold. Has work cut out to make starting lineup if all fit.
Mulgrew – A lot of talk about the young fella and Mikey seems to like him but has played in some very tough physical games and not really shone. Where to play him?

I don't know much about the possible new additions to the squad but by the sounds of the trials these 5 seem to be mentioned a lot.

Colm Cavanagh (Moy)
Niall McGinn (Donaghmore)
Gareth Devlin (Stewartstown)
Paul Quinn (Errigal Ciaran)
Paul Mc Gurk (Cookstown)

Meath's powerhouse display against Tyrone in 1996.

Up til that point we thought we could win an AI with nice attractive attacking football and small forwards.

Kerry in 2003 and the whole country were waiting for the best game of the year but instead Tyrone turned the screw on the Kerry style who have now changed their game plan to do the same.

Yeah Mugsy's performances changed after that wonder goal but maybe his goal in the 2nd match in front of the hill put the Dub's to the sword as they were storming back at the start of the second half.

How about Kernan pulling off Geezer in that semi in 2005. Was that a turning point for both teams?

I think Mayo will be there or thereabouts next year again.

When you compare there scenario to Tyrone and Armagh before they made the breakthrough. Both were knocking on the door a few years before they broke it down. When they changed managers they then won it in their first year in charge as did Kerry in 2004.

When ye are getting to the latter stages regularly then your squad must have the talent, its just a matter of getting their minds focussed and everything coming together in the big games.

Tyrone struggled in a few games in 2003 but when they lifted their performance in the replays they were awesome. I think JOM will bring yis on to another level and hopefully Tyrone get a chance for revenge for 2004.

Since 1980 (27 years ago)...

Armagh have won Ulster 8 times from 12 finals
Tyrone have won Ulster 7 times from 10 finals
Donegal have been to 10 finals but only won 3
Down have only won 3 titles from 7 finals
Derry have also only one 3 ulster titles from 7 finals

Down and Tyrone have won the AI twice in that period
Whereas Donegal, Derry and Armagh have only won it once.

I'm surprised Donegal have made it to so many finals and they must be fed up meeting Derry and Armagh and rarely beating them.

[Winners]

It's hard to believe its 25 years since Fermanagh were in an Ulster final. Tyrone were the most successful team in Ulster in the 80's with Monaghan and Armagh next.
                                                                        Winners
1989  Final  Tyrone      2-13       0-7       Donegal     Tyrone
1988  Final  Monaghan  1-10       0-11      Tyrone     Monaghan
1987  Final  Derry         0-11       0-9        Armagh    Derry
1986  Final  Tyrone      1-11       0-10         Down    Tyrone
1985  Final  Monaghan   2-9        0-8         Derry      Monaghan
1984  Final  Tyrone      0-15       1-7        Armagh    Tyrone
1983  Final  Donegal     1-14       1-11        Cavan     Donegal
1982  Final  Armagh      0-10       1-4     Fermanagh  Armagh
1981  Final  Down        3-12       1-10       Armagh    Down
1980  Final  Armagh      4-10       4-7        Tyrone     Armagh

Tyrone              3 titles 5 finals
Monaghan          2 titles 2 finals
Armagh             2 titles 5 finals
Derry                1 title  2 finals
Donegal            1 title  2 finals
Down               1 title  2 finals
Fermanagh        0 titles 1 final
Cavan               0 titles 1 final

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1990   Donegal 0-15 Armagh 0-14
1991   Down 1-15 Donegal 0-10
1992   Donegal 0-14 Derry 1-9
1993   Derry 0-8 Donegal 0-6
1994   Down 1-17 Tyrone 1-11
1995   Tyrone 2-13 Cavan 0-10
1996   Tyrone 1-9 Down 0-9
1997   Cavan 1-14 Derry 0-16
1998   Derry 1-7 Donegal 0-8
1999   Armagh 3-12 Down 0-10

Donegal 2 from 5
Down     2 from 4
Derry     2 from 4
Tyrone   2 from 3
Cavan    1 from 2
Armagh 1 from 2

The 90's continued the trend of no team really dominating the Ulster title although Donegal made it through to 5 finals. Tyrone were the first team in years to win back to back titles in 95 & 96.

Armagh surprisingly only won one title in the 90's but that was in 1999 when they would go on to dominate Ulster with winning 6 titles within 8 years with Tyrone taking the other 2. Donegal have made it to three finals but have yet to beat Armagh in the 00's.

2001 saw the start of the qualifiers with Fermanagh making huge progress via this path by getting to a semi final in 2004 defeating Armagh in the quarter final.


2000   Derry 1-11 to 1-12 Armagh
2001   Tyrone 1-13 Cavan 1-11
2002   Donegal 1-10 Armagh 1-14
2003   Tyrone 0-23  Down 1-5
2004   Armagh beat Donegal
2005   Armagh & the Ref beat Tyrone
2006   Armagh beat Donegal

Armagh 5 from 5
Tyrone  2 from 2
Donegal 0 from 3
Derry     0 from 1
Cavan    0 from 1
Down    0 from 1

Did Eoin Gormley retire from the Tyrone panel before Mickey came or was he dropped?

Would he still not be worth his place?

Over the years Tyrone are well known for always having some very talented forwards and maybe not such a good defence.

However, I've noticed in recently the opposite seems to be taking place were we seem to have loads of good defenders coming through but how many oustanding forwards.

Yes Stevie O'Neill and hopefully Brian McGuigan will be our main men in 2007 if fit but who else will be our star forwards. Who will make it through these trials that can actually be a top forward?

Mugsy            Hot and cold - Depends who is supporting him.
Mulgrew         Still young and very light weight. Hasn't done it as yet.
Cavlan            Always injured
Penrose          Has potential but rarely delivered
E.McGinley      Great engine but often injured
Dooher           Still out injured and may soon retire
Mellon            Hot and cold

Yeah I've expected Vaughan to be in the team by now but his temperment always seems to lead him to trouble.

Like Mulligan for us I think other teams will target him for rough treatment and so he needs to keep his head.

What do you Dubs expect this year from the Sat nite Tyrone NFL game.
Will there be another day's boxing with fans getting involved.

I'd say it could end up being an all ticket game actually as 1st game under lights in Croker. Could be a lot of drunken fans turning up if on piss all day.

Its all gone very quiet in here of late?

Looks like we're getting our big day out in Croker early next year with the NFL game on the Sat nite under floodlights.

Will we get revenge for last year's beatin in Omagh?
When does Mickey hope to have his new batch hatched from these trials?

Is Mugsy back playing for Cookstown and will he line out this weekend v the Clanns?
Is this game on in Carrickmore on Sat?

Clann na nGael (But I'm now based in Belfast)

Tyrone

AI final 2003

Usually one team copies the winning formula of another team and so our game changes.

Armagh used the extra defender/sweeper in 2002 and played with a two man full forward line.

Tyrone used this and built on it by creating the swarm defense from every section of the field. They also used the hand pass much more than armagh as winning clean ball in midfield has always been a problem for Tyrone.

Teams saw this was effective and copied it but this lead to matches which are much more negative and defensive now with low scores and a lot more scrappy niggly games.

I think that's why people were glad to see the whole Kieran Donaghy style coming back in and the excitement it brings. I can see managers move away again from defensive play, at least I hope so for Tyrone.