Tyrone v Kildare Part II - The Revenge Div 2 NFL Final Sunday 29th April 2012

[ONeill]

Penfold probably is lower down.

Not overly confident thought that'd be normal enough.

Mattie Donnelly?

[rrhf]

Donaghmores strongest ever representation on a starting Tyrone team In Croke park.  Good team

[omagh_gael]

Mattie must have picked up a knock as the form he was showing before his last injury surely would have had him in with a big shout for a starting jersey. Still a strong team and hopefully mugsy, SoN and Petey Harte show the same scoring form as the did at the start of the league in Croker.

[ONeill]

Kildare 5-14 Tyrone 1-14

[omagh_gael]

Who you banking on scoring all the goals for the lillies? Seanie?

[ONeill]

Some handsomely tanned midlander.

[Captain Obvious]

Will be like the opening league game where Kildare will be lucky to get within 6 points of Tyrone.

[rrhf]

Kildare 5-14 Tyrone 1-14

Cheeky

[Fuzzman]

A lot of cute hoorism going on here lads.

Personally I'm very optimistic we'll win with a few to spare.
We've been putting up big scores all year and whilst the opposition might not have been Div 1 standard we still looked (sounded  ) very impressive.

I know Kildare will be a changed team from when we met them back in Feb but still we have progressed even better I think and there is a freshness and hunger back there which hasn't been there for some time.
Pace is the main ingredient we seem to have recaptured and even though we've lost 2 excellent young forwards for the year, we should still have the makings of a good team for the months ahead.

We win a lot of those matches without the likes of Sean & Colm Cavanagh, Joey and Justy near the start, Ricey and Gormley.

[nrico2006]

How many people here have watched every league game involving Tyrone?  What is the best half back line - McCarron, Harte and Mc Caul or McCarron, Harte and O'Neill?  As mentioned, the pace injected throughout the team has been a big plus and I think it has alot to do with these players I have mentioned.

[Fuzzman]

Must be hard for red Sean to have waited so long to get his chance and then to have missed out on the last 3 months. Then to watch his clubmate McNabb become almost a regular now yet he has to perhaps wait until someone in that half back line get injured or lose out again.

There has been a lot of positives from this league campaign, especially Petey and McCarron.

I'd like to see Cassidy get a run of games now without injury and nail down a MF jersey
We always seem to be chopping and changing MF as often as we do goalkeeper.

[Fuzzman]

A wee article in today Irish Indo. Yes I know some people love that paper
http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/mickey-hartes-rebuilding-project-3093678.html

SOME 20 minutes had elapsed in their All-Ireland quarter-final against Dublin last August when Tyrone's Martin Penrose repositioned himself in a much deeper position to where the number on his back suggested he should be.

It was the general area of Croke Park from where Diarmuid Connolly had already wreaked havoc and Penrose, whether by instruction from the sideline or his own natural instinct, had dropped back to prevent further leakage.

Connolly was already on his fourth point at that stage and threatening to do to Sean O'Neill, now in his slipstream, as he had done to Joe McMahon in the early exchanges.

At that point Tyrone were submerging just about everywhere, and the generation that had overhauled football and pointed it in a different direction was coming to a shuddering halt.

Mickey Harte retained his usual demeanour on the sideline, arms folded and eyes fixed studiously on what was unfolding before him.

That was the public front at least. Inside Harte must have sensed that the nine-year odyssey was at an end. If he was to stay at the helm, he himself would have to change and old loyalties would have to be set aside.

His 2003 team had changed the landscape with the ferocity and structure of their approach; now Harte and Tyrone found themselves victims of a modification of that approach.

Earlier this year, Sean Cavanagh acknowledged as much in an interview when he confessed that Dublin had "changed the face of the GAA".

Tyrone had, in essence, been 'out-Tyroned' on that August evening. The original hunters were now being hunted out of existence.

One by one, familiar faces began falling away, with Brian McGuigan, Brian Dooher, Philip Jordan, Ciaran Gourley and Enda McGinley all retiring.

Kevin Hughes dabbled with thoughts of retirement and sought a break from the early season training to consider it. He was advised to think about it as he trained. The same request might not have been turned down 12 months earlier. By the end of January, he was gone too. Medals on the chest were no longer a passport.

The overhaul may take a season to complete, and with long-term injuries ruling Ronan O'Neill and Kyle Coney out for the season, the advance of the last three months may stutter. Coney was the star of the 2008 All-Ireland winning minor team who flirted with AFL, suffered and then briefly threatened not to fulfil his vast potential.

He scored liberally and magnificently in Tyrone's last five league matches -- he has amassed a total of 0-24 -- to rekindle the belief that he can become one of the forwards of this decade.

O'Neill appeared fleetingly in the league but his promise is immense.

The need for an injection of pace has been the basis for most change. Most of those who have been introduced throughout the league are relatively seasoned. Aidan McRory, PJ Quinn, Ronan McNabb and Cathal McCarron have all been on the fringes for the last couple of years.

In overhauling his team, Harte has recognised the need for ball players with a high cruising speed.

Tactically they have also tailored their style significantly and the return of a more defensive-orientated game should be an ominous sign to their rivals.

Peter Harte has been central to their game plan. Nominally the team's centre-back, he has been given licence to boot forward at any opportunity in the knowledge that the space he leaves behind will be filled by McNabb or other covering players from the half-forward line and midfield.

In last year's championship, Harte struggled as a half-forward in the two key games against the most physical of Tyrone's opponents, Donegal in the Ulster semi-final and Dublin in that All-Ireland quarter-final.

But giving him the free role has released the quality footballer in him and so far this season, Harte has scored 5-5 (three of the goals have been penalties).

In all, Tyrone's half-backs have been responsible for 3-11 in the league, which amounts to just less than one sixth of the team's total. Cathal McCarron's 1-6, Damien McCaul's 1-1 and Harte 2-4 from play reflect a much more fluid system being encouraged.

It was significant to hear Harte speak this week of greater early-season urgency in training, how one size now fitted all and that tailoring sessions to suit the legs and age-profile of some of the squad was no longer a policy.

cornerstone

The one session a week that was a cornerstone of their 2003 approach has long since been dispensed with.

Harte has had his own personal difficulties to deal with, but football is always something that he has immersed himself in, now more than ever it seems.

Most of the great managers of the past in Gaelic football have had the capacity to overhaul when they had to. Kevin Heffernan did it with Dublin in 1983, Mick O'Dwyer to a lesser extent with Kerry in '84 and Sean Boylan dramatically so with Meath in '96.

In each case, they had the players to make the swift transformation.

Harte has that luxury too. The spin-offs from the last two All-Ireland winning minor teams (2008 and 2010) will be greater than the previous two ('01 and '04).

So far the rebuild is right on course with 12 wins from 12 games at senior level aligned neatly with the statistic that Tyrone representative teams (minor, U-21 and senior) have lost just one of the 24 games they have played in 2012 -- the Ulster U-21 final against Cavan.

That's an ominous sign for the rest of the country. As ominous as Mickey Harte bringing his team back to the basics that made them great in the first place.

[Donnellys Hollow]

Cill Dara (v Tír Eoghain)

1 Shane Connolly - Naomh Lorcan
2 Peter Kelly - Teach Dhá Míle
3 Hugh McGrillen - Cill Droichid
4 Ollie Lyons - Cill Droichid
5 Emmet Bolton - Baile Éide
6 Morgan O'Flaherty - Cairbre
7 Gary White - Na Sairséalaigh
8 Mick Foley - Áth Í
9 Pádraig O'Neill - Naomh Lorcan
10 Eoghan O'Flaherty - Cairbre
11 Mikey Conway - An Urnaí
12 Johnny Doyle - Fíodh Alúine
13 Alan Smith - Na Sairséalaigh
14 Tomás O'Connor - Claonadh
15 James Kavanagh - Baile Mór


I can't see Kildare winning this match without Flynn and Leper starting. Don't think we'll win enough ball around the middle without those two. Interesting that Chalky is recalled. I think it's his first start since the Derry match last July.

[Dinny Breen]

Six changes from the 1st round game with McGrillen, Foley, Doyle, White, O'Flaherty and Bolton all starting, that gives Kildare a much stronger middle 8 than the last time.  McGeeney has kept his squad fresh and only Flynn and Leper will be really missed but I'm happy with Kildare's squad development and am not convinced by the hype around Tyrone's rejuvenation. Both teams will struggle to raise intensity levels but Kildare have the added incentive believe or not of a first national senior football title since 1928.

[Fuzzman]

Why do ye all think there will be such a lack of intensity?
There is HUGE competition for places in this Tyrone team especially from 1-9 and with it being the last chance to impress Mickey before the championship as we don't do challenge games then I'd say they'll all be out to stake their claim.

I'm particular interested in watching the half forward line to see how often they tuck in to half back and allow the HB line to push forward to get scores.

That seems a strong enough FF line for Kildare so personally I'm expecting a great game with Kildare keen to win a national title to kick start their summer