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Quote Onion Bag

Recently? Let's be fair about, even in 2003 Tyrone had 6 defenders on the bench that would have made nearly every other team in the country. The forward problem was glossed over then because Stevie was on the bench and realistically he was the only real scoring threat we had coming on. Same in 05, 6 quality defenders and Canavan was on the line as a scoring threat. And thus emerges the myth of Tyrone's strength in depth. Don't get me wrong, McCullagh and Penrose aren't bad options to have when you have O'Neill, Canavan, Mulligan and big Sean ahead of them as scoring options, and McGuigan, McGinley and Dooher providing quality ball, but as seen in this years ill fated campaign, when they have to step up and take responsibility without a few of the leading lights it appeared they didn't have the necessary quality to cut it at this level. It may have been different with McGuigan pulling the strings but who can say. While they shouldn't be disgarded yet, it should be fairly clear they're in last chance saloon.

No doubt the forwards that are there at present are not of the same quality as the past masters. Most would agree that O'Neill and Mulligan are fragile without the older heads. They are not real leaders but players that when they are on their game are brilliant - but cannot recover from a poor start to their own game.

The problem shown last year was a weak bench regarding forwards

Onion Bag did not mention Justin McMahon as a possible forward. He seemed to be doing a lotta scoring for Omagh and should have been in the panel this year. He will not be a real player this year but should be there

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?

THe shortage of forwards was shown last year when you had the likes of Aidy Ball and dermie carlin put on in the forward line. They are just not county forwards. Dermi carlin is a good defender and Ball is not up to county standard.

Getting good forwards is still a problem. Harte missed the chance to clear out his bench last year after 2005 and bring in some new players. They might not have made it but they were at least wotrh a try. If you thik what McCarron was able to offer in the McKenna Cup surely he was more use to the team than the likes of Bradley, Gavin Devlin Brendan Donnelly etc.

When you think about it the team did not look fit last year. McCullagh when he rejoined the panel looked fitter and sharper than any of the other panel. You have to think about the training they were doing.  I know a number of the players were not too happy with the quality of training last year. They said it was not intense enough and they felt unfit. Those i talked to said there was the same problem the previous year but because they had 10 games they eventually got fit. Unfortunately with injuries and an early end ot the season they cannot build on last years fitness

I thinl not only does Harte need to clear out the bench of those players who have been there from the previous 2005 success he also needs to look at his backroom team. I know he puts a lotta faith in his friends and neighbours but he now must look outside that circle and make radical changes.

What do others think? Who should be in the McKenna Cup Panel - excluding the college biys?

Good to see the game will go ahead. If Enniskillen really wanted to win the game that much why did they not go out and attempt to play. They spent too much time trying to mark the E C half forward line. D Harte  is a county player but he hardly needs marking like a forward

I have to agree. The problem is when you criticise womens football you are attacked like you are a savage. Like it or not there is a physical element to the game. When it is played by girls this is removed and it makes a terrible site to watch. As well the skill level may be poor in mens football but it is worse in the womens game. There are a number of reasons for this. The standard of coaching is poor - and much of the coaching is provided by men- so this is not a sexist remark. I watched a training session recently when there were 16 players using 1 ball with a bag of balls lying beside the coach. Also many of the players are very young - and have not yet become experienced players because they are quitting too early and due to family reasons do not return to coaching.

One other problem  - which will unfortunately attract criticism - is the attitude to many womens teams in a club setting. There is an arrogance there that will not accept direction or look for help - or will make a genuine effort to cooperate with the male players and coaches.

But rather than be against the game i thing it is greeat both in terms of a chance to develop a more healthy life style by getting more girls involved actively in sport and a family occasion is provided when everyone can go to the games

Saw a wee bit of it one night. There was a doll from Wexford I think who the last time she was in a filed she was lapping hay. She was so heavy that she was unbalancing the bus. It showed her mother on the show and she was no lightweight either. She was all dressed in her sunday best but was out in the yard. The oul fella came round the corner and she told her wee girl had survived. She gave the oul fella a peck on the cheek and he nearly had a heart attack. Cringworthy

What worries me about this is that some designer freak received thousands to come up with this childs squiggle. Another freak will now be given thousands more to explain its meaning to us.
The end result

Most of the w*****s who wear it every sunday will  be power drunk Hitlers who are rubbish at what they do

Why not spend the monay on attempting to improve tha standrad of refereeing

Whats the latest with the Tyrone Trails/ Are they finished or have any sort of a panel been drawn up

I don't want t get involved in the ongoing rights and wrongs of last Sundays game. I was very annoyed by some of the behaviour and the fact that the referees did not deal with it. To see it live there was so much not caught on TV.

But my main point is that modern Gaelic football is not suited by the rules at present. We should not criticise our current game just because of last Sunday

Kicking the ball is a skill - the absence of has been heavily criticised. But in football there is no benefit in kicking to the man as he will be closely marked. Most teams are coached to kick to the space and there is great movement in the forward line. We have moved away from the big static full forward. Kerry's Donaghy has great movement as well as height.

One area that has developed over the past few years is tackling skills - this is true for all teams not just those from Ulster. The Compromise rules does not allow the defender to tackle once the Mark has been called. In football if the defender cannot punch the ball away or win it clean the option is to tackle - Delay, and Deny Space  - as told by the coaching gurus -

We should recognise how our game has developed over the past few years and accept that it is a different game than 10 years ago - this does not mean that it is any worse for that developemnt