Donegal v Tyrone Sat 24th May

[Lamh Dhearg Alba]

It was an important win for Tyrone without doubt. We all knew the team was a rudderless ship the past two seasons and underachieving terribly. There were positive signs through the league and in Ulster that O'Rourke was bringing it together but the team needed a good win. Going to Ballybofey and winning, and winning with those late scores, is a good step along the road. Plenty work to do but an important victory.

Looking at Donegal I thought the Murphy factor was interesting. Getting him back only appeared to be a positive - still a magnificent player if used correctly and a leader on and off the field. But Donegal last night seemed to be overly reliant on him, his two pointers keeping them in the game then trying to find him late on, at a stage where perhaps his race was run. In that context he almost became a weakness as Tyrone won those balls. I'm sure McGuinness will be looking at that and asking other men to be standing up in the games ahead and take a bit of the pressure off Murphy, he surely wasn't brought back with the expectation to be quite so front and centre for 70 minutes.

[inroundthesquare]

"We didn't perform to our normal levels at all tonight. I think we had a lot of things that were off tonight, but that was a decision in my opinion was crucial. We were 2 points down, we had worked really hard to get the turnover, we did get the turnover and he was pulled back. And that's the reality. And that's a huge decision, that's a decision that has to be got right. That decision has to be got right. If we got our hands on the ball there, then we had the ball for as long as we needed to get a 2 point score to level the match. And I thought the other one in the corner as well I thought Darragh Canavan was held up and it was a travel, I don't think that was a free kick. But anyway I'm not going to go down that road I don't want to go down that road but certainly that was a big moment and we had done a huge amount of effort to get that opportunity, and we did get it Ciaran Thompson was pulled, listen I stand to be corrected on that but I'll be watching it very very closely when I look it back because that is the moment and he needs to get that right. He needs to get that right because they can be defining moments."

[tyrone08]

It was an important win for Tyrone without doubt. We all knew the team was a rudderless ship the past two seasons and underachieving terribly. There were positive signs through the league and in Ulster that O'Rourke was bringing it together but the team needed a good win. Going to Ballybofey and winning, and winning with those late scores, is a good step along the road. Plenty work to do but an important victory.

Looking at Donegal I thought the Murphy factor was interesting. Getting him back only appeared to be a positive - still a magnificent player if used correctly and a leader on and off the field. But Donegal last night seemed to be overly reliant on him, his two pointers keeping them in the game then trying to find him late on, at a stage where perhaps his race was run. In that context he almost became a weakness as Tyrone won those balls. I'm sure McGuinness will be looking at that and asking other men to be standing up in the games ahead and take a bit of the pressure off Murphy, he surely wasn't brought back with the expectation to be quite so front and centre for 70 minutes.

Still have no idea why McGuinness is playing him for almost majority of the matches. He should be brought on. For 20-30 minutes as an impact sub.