Cork V Tyrone NFL

[tyssam5]

14-7 Mellon free 68mins

[tyssam5]

Thankfully Setanta have put me out of my misery by pulling their broadband coverage a minute early. Typical of those wankers.

[Armagh Exile]

Final Score
Cork 0-15
Tyrone 0-07

[Baile an tuaigh]

Thanks for the updates tyssam5. New it was going to be a very tough fixture for Tyrone but the manner of defeat I never saw it coming.

[ONeill]

Finished 15-7.

Full credit to the rebels. All of Tyrone's big names underperformed and were bettered by the dircet opponents. Spillane taught Mulligan a thing or two. Cavanagh nullified.

[Mickeys beard]

Of course, there is also the equatorial pull to take into account down that far in the country.

[ONeill]

That too.

I'll say it again - If Dooher, Jordan, McGuigan, McMenamin etc (our 2005 team) are missing, it'll be no different to last year against full strength county teams with decent pedigree.

All this strong bench talk is crap. Maybe 1-2 outside of the 15 mainstays.

Hughes should've been on earlier. Move Ger to CHF. Put Mulligan beside O'Neill.

[Lamh Dhearg Alba]

That too.

I'll say it again - If Dooher, Jordan, McGuigan, McMenamin etc (our 2005 team) are missing, it'll be no different to last year against full strength county teams with decent pedigree.

All this strong bench talk is crap. Maybe 1-2 outside of the 15 mainstays.

Hughes should've been on earlier. Move Ger to CHF. Put Mulligan beside O'Neill.

I would say that the bench is going to be stronger this year because passengers like Devlin, Meenan, Bradley etc will be replaced by up and coming players with talent and a desire to prove themselves. Youre right though, we will need the big guns fit to make a real challenge for Sam. Would also prefer to see Mugsy in the full forward line but he wont be playing CHF all season anyway.

Wee reality check at this point might be no bad thing anyway.

[tyroneboi]

In both 2003 and 2005 there have been demoralizing defeats in the league so i dont think the fans should get too downhearted. Its never easy to go down to Cork, never mind on a wet February saturday night. Apparently McGuigan played for Ardboe last night so he will come into consideration again soon and jordan is regaining match fitness as well. Dooher should also make a big difference when he returns to the team. not all doom and gloom and im sure Mickey Harte will be reminding them of this. Perhaps he could use the remainder of the league as a way of introducing new talent i.e. giving them a start rather than 10 mins at the end of games. By this im thinking of paul rouse, tommy mcguigan and paul quinn amongst others. full back is a big problem in my opinion and think they best option is joe mcmahon. im confident that Mickey will get it rite and Sam will be coming back to Tyrone come September.

[ONeill]

In both 2003 and 2005 there have been demoralizing defeats in the league

Can't say this is true. Lost to Kerry by 7 in last league game of 2005 but we'd still qualified for semis. No heavy defeats at all in 2003.

I can't recall a hammering like this.

[ClosetotheHarte]

That too.

I'll say it again - If Dooher, Jordan, McGuigan, McMenamin etc (our 2005 team) are missing, it'll be no different to last year against full strength county teams with decent pedigree.

All this strong bench talk is crap. Maybe 1-2 outside of the 15 mainstays.

Hughes should've been on earlier. Move Ger to CHF. Put Mulligan beside O'Neill.

This was just a bad day at the office in my view. A very, very bad one admittedly. Just as we should not have got carried away with the seven wins in a row in Jan/Feb we should not be getting too despondent after this beating. This result will do us no lasting harm at this time of the season, and might even do more good than harm.
I still believe we have more depth than we've ever had in the panel and tonight doesn't change that for me. Tonight's beating was not because we haven't got players as good as, or better than, Cork's, it was because almost our entire team chose (for unknown reasons) to play as bad as they can possibly play all together on the one night. And Cork saw an opportunity which they grabbed with both hands. Fair play to them, they played football that I haven't seen them doing for some time.
I can't explain why so many were so poor for Tyrone, and why the team as a whole was so inept, but I'm not going to get too bothered about it until I see how we react to this result against Donegal and others. Another display like tonight's would be a lot more sobering than tonight's was.
Dooher, Jordan, McGuigan, McMenamin and McMahon will all make a difference when they come back but the way things went tonight maybe even those five wouldn't have been able to turn our display around this time.
Tonight was (hopefully) a one off. Our players tonight can, and will, play a lot better than this in future and maybe we will be able to look back on this match as some sort of turning point.

[tyroneman]

First off - well done to Cork. To a man were better, sharper and hungrier.

Agree that a reality check is no bad thing at this stage. Armagh for example were no great shakes in 2002 / 2003 in the NFL from what I remember and ended up at HQ in Sep.

I would put this down to a very bad day at the office. Cavaln / Sean was never a MF to my mind. Both of them need a grafter to help out and do the dirty work, can't have both together against a good team.

Don;t think we'll see another game like that for poor passing / support etc from Tyrone. The basics deserted them altogether and all the big players were poor. Do not agree that we have no bench. One bad game and the hyperbole starts. Many of those playing tonight will be in with a shout come the Championship and many on the bench will put pressure on for places.

It was a bad night. Simple as. Everything went right for Cork. Everything went wrong for us. For O'Neill to suggest we are back to square one is a massive overeaction.

Couple of things are for sure though - McGinley is NOT the answer at FB. Mugsy is NOT a CHF. McCullogh deserves a 15 spot and even though things didn;lt come off - Mulgrew is shaping up well. Put in a power of work at least in first half especially as outlet for the backs.

We'll be thereabouts come Aug / Sep

[ClosetotheHarte]

In both 2003 and 2005 there have been demoralizing defeats in the league

Can't say this is true. Lost to Kerry by 7 in last league game of 2005 but we'd still qualified for semis. No heavy defeats at all in 2003.

I can't recall a hammering like this.

You're right O'Neill. This was a hammering that was hard to watch near the end. Reminded me of the Derry game last year a bit. But things are different this year and we'll surely bounce back. We've had 2 wins out of 3 in the League and 7 out of 8 so far this year. Definitely not a crisis.
By the way we hadn't qualified for the League semis that time when we lost to Kerry. It took a late, late Mark Harte free to give us the 7-point defeat that got us through. We took a fair beating that day as well and it was maybe a good thing. Now is the time of year to be on the receiving end of a defeat like tonight's, especially with a 2-week break to recover from it.

[Norf Tyrone]

Someone mentioned that Tyrone drove to Cork this morning. This would explain a lot, as they looked wrecked.

Credit to Cork though. Masters and Shieds especially.

[ClosetotheHarte]

Norf, I heard they left for Cork yesterday and were stopping somewhere along the road. They did look very tired though, no spark at all in their play, especially last 20. I think there could be an emergency team meeting called at their hotel tonight, wherever that may be!