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This is hardly surprising from this management. There would seem to be a lack of confidence in their decisions shown by a failure to justify them to the players that were dropped. In any panel there will always be some criticism of selection of certain players. The thing is this year there has been more criticism that most years due to the selection of players from one club.

The problem with these coaches is that they do not have to answer to anyone to justify their decisions. At club level and school level you will have to face the parents of the boys dropped, but at county level this is not the case. That's unfortunate for the boys concerned. I'm sure they would like to know why they were not picked and to be given some idea of what to work on with their clubs to make them a better player or even a phone call to say that the door is not closed and to keep playing for their club

Talking to prominent member of Co Board today.  The County Board will meet tomorrow night and unviel the new minor managers. The names seem to be common knowledge in some areas. The Managers will attend the McRory Cup game s this weekend and will then use the panel minus whatever McRory players are still involved after the weekend. All panel members from the previous managers will attend on Monday 11th in Cookstown and each Monday night except the week before a McRory game until all the players are available. This agreement has been reached with all the schools still in the McRory.  Next year the Ulster Council and the Ulster Colleges will review the timing of the Ulster Minor League or the requirements of players involved in McRory or Vocational schools competitions to play in them. A statement will be released to the press for printing in Wednesdays paper.

[2007 - Ulster title and but for the injuries ot Mc Guigan, O'Neill, Dooher etc etc we might have got further If the drills are primary school drills, how come we have had all these injuries ??]

2007 - Ulster title and but for the injuries ot Mc Guigan, O'Neill, Dooher etc etc we might have got further If the drills are primary school drills, how come we have had all these injuries ?? -

Thats the point about the low intensity primary school drills - When tyrone then went to play at a higher intensity they picked up injuries - McGuigan was different - but Dooher, McMahon, O'Neill etc groin back hamsring etc


Definatel;y not saying that any PE teacher could train the Tyrone team - but there needs to be a bit more modern scientific knowledge about the training - that Tyrone are lacking. Either way we have lost one of our best players at present

Disappointing for Tyrone that Stevie has quit but no surprise. The real issue is the quality of training. There was a meeting and Harte was asked to change the trainer and he refused. Its a real shame but look at other counties and their trainers. Antrim managed by a PE teacher, Derry training by an experience athletica and fitness coach, Down trainer is Des Jennings an experienced fitnesss coach, Fermanagh - managed by a PE teacher, Armagh trainer Des Hollywood again an experienced coach, Cavan trained by Conal Sheridan a PE teacher, Donegal trained by Ryan Porter a sports Studies graduate, Monaghan trained by Martin McElkennon and Tyrone trainer by a primary school coach with no playing experience - NO wonder the training lacks intensity and is made up of primary school drills.

Another thing - Antrim, Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal have Tyrone men managing or training them - yet we get a primary school coach with no experience. Paddy Tally again with a PE background is training st Marys. There needs to be a change - If we are not careful we could get a surprise with Down in June they are on a roll on confidence seems to be up. This could be another year lost.

But if Mickey Harte were to go in the moring who would replace him. Its all very well saying get rid of him - but would you want Liam Donnellly managing Tyrone or Monroe for that matter

Kidddo You are on the ball quick. Any word on who played well from some of you Dromore contact. Heard last night McNabb was not playing as he got injured last week. Did he play. Any word on Armagh. how are they doing on challenge games. Are the venues out for Omagh's game. There was some talk before Christmas that they were fixing the game for the Pearses ground in Armagh. That would seem a bit unfair. What I hear in the club the Magehra Enniskillen game is fixed for Healy Park on the friday night.

The Programme in the McCormack Cup Final was very simple but effective. It was an A4 card in colour with the names of the full teams in the centre and colour pictures on the back page. The Ulster Colleges produced a similar Programme for the Rannafast Final. While there was a big crowd at the game today there was not the numbers that attended last night. The Colleges seem to have a efficient PR team that promote their games well .  

As regards McNabb he played last night and was invovled in the warm up but did not play

McCann was the trainer but Tyrone played 10 games that year and many felt thet if they had been fitter they would not have drawn the 2 games or without the ten games they would not have been fit enough - whatever way you want to look at it. All I know was that some of the players talked to Mickey Harte about changing his trainer for next year. Harte was not willing to do so.

Burnout is also going to be an issue. But yuo also need to consider the length of the playing season in some counties rather than the number of games. Often ther are 5 training sessions for every game even at club level. In Tyrone the season started in March and only ended last week with 22 games. It took abput 35 weeks to play 22 games and that was with on some weekends 2 games. There needs to be a overall fixture list drawn up with counties and central level being involved and a proper closed season. If lads want to play whatever in the closed season go ahead - it will be for fitness and will not be as intense as foootball.

Get Oisin some crayons from Santa and help him to colour it in

There seems to be a need to have real scientific expertise to train at inter county level. In Ulster many of the team trainers are PE teachers or have similar qualifications

Antrim - Jody Gormley
Derry - John McCloskey
Cavan - Conal Sheridan
Donegal - Ryan Porter
Monaghan - Martin McElkennon

Tyrone have Fergal McCann, a Primary Schools coach. I am not sure about Down or what the new Armagh set up will have. Is this where Tyrone are falling behind. Some of the players have said that the training lacks the intensity needed for that level. They are comparing it to Paddy Tallys time or the training that they got at school or university and even at club level. There were some senior players this year that asked Mickey Harte to change some members of his backroom team.

What do others think. Is there need for such a scientific knowledge to train a county team?

Is keenan omaghs new manager - heard that last night

Has been asked but not confirmed. His own club Gortin have aslo asked him and he is meeting with some of the players before he makes a decision. Is 'considering it'. Also was with newtown and they think they can get him to stay