Tyrone County Football and Hurling

[trailer]

Tyrone have to bite the bullet and start giving other players a chance. We will probably lose games as player find their feet. The team needs freshened up. And I don't mean 20 mins as a sub, guys need to start and believe they have a realistic chance of starting in championship. If they don't think they're getting a look in they will walk away. The management seem to think that they have about 18 players and nobody else is worth consideration. Lads need to start and get a run in the team. If you're looking in and seeing the likes of McGeary start after some of the poor performances then you'd lose heart yourself.

We need to find a reliable free taker from 35 yards out. We leave serious scores behind us. McCurry missed one that was right on the edge of his range and obv Morgan has about a 3% conversion rate.
We need 2 half backs. A no.6 for sure.
We will probably need a no.3 as well.

We just have to give lads a run and see where it takes us.

One small consolation was McShane's performance once he came on. Pity we'll not see him again until Jan.

[Jerome]

Out of interest how many players did Tyrone use in the championship? Must be close to 25?

15 started at the weekend
Oguz
Burns
Kelly
Richie Donnelly
Sludden
Sean O'Donnell
Clake
McShane
Devlin
McGleenan

[NotedObserver]

Out of interest how many players did Tyrone use in the championship? Must be close to 25?

15 started at the weekend
Oguz - Can he make the step up? He has got the frame and the pace
Burns
Kelly
Richie Donnelly
Sludden
Sean O'Donnell
Clake - Will he be the new number 3?
McShane
Devlin - This year will have helped him
McGleenan - Has he the legs? If he has what a handful half forward he would be

[Lamh Dhearg Alba]

Did Paddy Tally just tell the Kerry lads to leave McGeary and O'Neill free and allow them to have the ball as much as they wanted? No threat? Looked that way from the stand anyway #insideknowledge

O'Neill was effective in 2021 in closing down space. He had 11 on his back but he never appeared in attack and indeed you'd need to be watching carefully to see what he contributed, but he put in a power of work and it was effective. Seeing him running with the ball in advanced positions early on Saturday was probably a sign things were already going wrong, surely that wasn't part of Tyrone's plan. If it was part of Kerry's it worked well, clearly that isn't O'Neill's game.

[square_ball]

The only player that consistently ran hard at the opposition defence all year was Michael McKernan. We need a few more playing with that kind of attitude.

Kerry were clearly happy for O'Neill to have the ball on Saturday. He wasn't going to hurt them at all. In saying that I thought he has played OK in the past few games but can see why he would have his critics.

I do think there will be a change in management. By accident or design there is an obvious favoured probably 14 players so maybe it will be a refresh for the whole squad to have a new set up.

[Christmas Lights]

There is probably a transition period coming up, it was a scatty enough league and the facts are Tyrone played 5 championship matches this year and won only one.

People got giddy over beating a Donegal squad who were in disarray this year, Saturday was a hammering and could have been more than 12 points.

[Snapchap]

There is probably a transition period coming up, it was a scatty enough league and the facts are Tyrone played 5 championship matches this year and won only one.

People got giddy over beating a Donegal squad who were in disarray this year, Saturday was a hammering and could have been more than 12 points.

Played 6.

Won 2 (Armagh & Donegal) , Drew 1 (Westmeath), Lost 3 (Monaghan, Galway, Kerry)

[BennyHarp]

I wonder would Ciaran Meenagh and Paddy Tally make a compatible management team?

[God14]

I think if Tyrone are serious they go all out to get M O R

100%.

I cant think of one good reason why we wouldnt approach him.

And there isnt a better candidate out there, realistically.

O'Rourke as Manager, Porter as Coach. Would like to see someone like Enda McGinley in on the ticket too.

[rrhf]

I said before the game that we would not know where the players are until after the Kerry match. There was so much hype or false hope in the county that we felt we were better than we were, the performances did not lie.
2021 was a phenomenal All Ireland win but it softened us up and realised lifetime ambitions that many did not think they were going to achieve despite being there for many seasons. I would take the last 2 average years for that one Sam. I think the team picked was as good as we had to offer except for a couple. I think we were eventually blown off the pitch by a much better group of footballers at this stage in their career. Certainly not 2 years previously. Kerry were superb, we were found out, all our weaknesses in playing style and player profiles were exposed, as a bad day out in Croke Park tends to do, and I think all involved in making 21 happen, must be given time to consider how things can be changed, freshened up and who can offer something in the future.  People are talking management as is inevitable, people are talking players as is inevitable, however it can be the jolt they all need to see what they can do. I would be in favour of the existing management taking this experience and bringing in whatever now coaching help they need. They run the rule over the club season and go for new trials based on key performers this year.  If current management step aside, an all Ireland capable experience is lost. Let them propose a new way forward as they are best placed to do so and one thing is for sure, they will only do what they feel is in the best interests of Tyrone football.     

[An Watcher]

I hear where you're coming from but at the same time I don't want to be like some counties holding on to unsuccessful managers for too long

[Fuzzman]

Good post rrhf and agree with a lot of that.
It's interesting that both Mickey Harte and D&L both won an AI in their first year.
As Dooher said himself after the 21 final, a lot of that team had been together for a long time before and had got to a final in 2018 and a few semis.
So maybe the new management bounce coupled with experience and a lot of hard work, huge hunger and good teamwork we went from a top four team to winning it outright.
We definitely rode our luck along the way and surprised Kerry that day. We suddenly started scoring goals and benefited from Mayo not playing with a heavy blanket in the final.

Since then though I think a lot of the hunger was satisfied (even the fans backed off a lot) and there was never the same drive or passion that we saw from several players in 2021. That high octane workrate was gone and you could see that on Saturday although part of that was probably playing 3 weeks on the trot which was their own fault again.

I think this group of players feel the achieved what they wanted and it is a HUGE ask to go through that year on year as we saw with so many leaving the panel to either travel or play club football or just live their normal lives.

Every time we have won the AI, Kerry have won it the year after which I think speaks volumes for how much it means to them.
O'Connor went out of his way this time to bring in external men to get the best backroom team possible and they certainly got their defence sorted out last year and again on Saturday. We couldn't get the ball into our FF line at all and they turned us over time and time again like we did to them in 2021. I think a lot of us including a lot of media pundits believed the hype that Tyrone get under Kerry's skin and we raise our game massively. Well we didn't do that on Sat and haven't really done it all year.

I think Kerry and Dublin are at a different level and we did get there in 2021 but we've fallen badly back down again.
I would have been happy enough getting to a semi this year but alas we met an angry hurt team that owed us one and put us back in our place. As someone said they have won 4 of the last 5 championship meetings so maybe we need to realise that we're not their bogey team any more.

The main thing that disappointed me about this year was the lack of direction or system we seemed to play. It often seemed very sporadic and the lack of long high ball into the FF line even though we rotated the big men in there. The future looks hopeful with the Canavans, Dazza there a while more, hopefully McShane coming back to some form, McGleenan, Cush and the other U20 lads getting more chances.

[ClubScene13]

The list of names from club football that could be brought in wouldn't be massive off the top of my head which is a concern. A lot of the best players in the county have already been in and out of squads. Squad looked very thin this year all of a sudden. I hope we can regroup quickly but it's been a second lacklustre season on the bounce.

[rrhf]

The big but in change from players will be the return to clubs of unplayed or low played panellists. There is a belief that players learn their Trade  at club senior football level and need club football to stay fresh..

[Jerome]

First thing that needs to happen, no matter who is in charge, is that Tyrone coaches shouldn't be double jobbing with clubs. Tyrone at times this year didn't look sharp, looked jaded. Energy comes from coaching, if coaches burnt out due to clubs then it affects players. 100% focus needs to be on county, players are asked to remove themselves from clubs during county season so why is it acceptable for coaches not to do the same?