Tír Eoghain v An Mhí (AI Quarter Final '07)

[Great Leap Forward]

Tyrone may find themselves in the same situation as the Meath and Galway teams of the late 90's. Both of these teams had 9 or 10 players who had won 2 All-Irelands while they were still reasonably young and it seemed they could possibly build a dynasty. This never materialised.

This was probably due to the mix of a lack of hunger among players who had achieved it all and the fact that some players had given so much in a 4-5 years spell they had nothing left to give at the top level.

It is feasible that some Tyrone players may yet win another All-Ireland but it will more likely be in a few years time with a different group of players.

[haveaharp]

I thought King was absolutely superb as well. He's getting better with every game. I also thought there was nothing in the GG/Cavanagh incident. Watched it again as I'd recorded the match. If it was anyone else other than Graham no remarks would have been passed.

You're full of shite Jinxy, how you can say there was nothing in that challenge beggars belief,
1) the trademark GG rabbit punch to the back of the head
2) Followed by a kick in the side of the head as Sean was going down
3) then trampish of all, intentionally leaving the trailing boot low to catch him again in the head with the studs
  Yes all the one incident   interesting to see if the CDC have anything to say about it as the ref didn't react!
  GG aside,  as someone said earlier, it would have been a travesty had Meath not came through,
Yes we were missing a few big time players not to mention Mulligan but there were also three or four
passengers on the field yesterday for too long, decisions like this don't get it done in Aug or Sept
Again Yesterday showed that the game is in dire need of finding ref's with balls to make calls
Good Luck against Cork as i don't think they have gotten out of 2nd gear and haven't had to show they're hand yet

If big Sean concentrated more on staying on his feet and not going over like Didier Drogba when touched then he wouldnt be getting any kicks to the head.

[haveaharp]

Well done Meath. Deserved win.

After trawling through the thread, not much if any comment on the ref. I have only one word for him. ****..

We are now starting to see the true colours of our Tyrone posters. You were beaten all over the field. Get over it.

[mannix]

must agree with that last post, tyrone were well beaten and their day is over for now.They can complain abouty injuries but its an excuse much like last years was.Meath beat them becausethey are a massive team physically and could brush tyrone out of the way easily in both defense and attack and owen mulligan is not peter canavan.
Simple and easy, hard to swallow if you are a tyrone man but all things come to an end.

[T Fearon]

Congrats to Meath, it is always a pleasure to be there in nthe flesh to see Tyrone (especially when they harvour false aspirations of All Ireland glory) put in their place (though nothing will surpass the 5 goals Armagh put past them in the Ulster SFC Semi Final in 1987 under the same scenario ).

Thought Meath made it unnecessarily hard for themselves, if they continue to concede soft goals like the two against Tyrone (ffs a decent club side's defenders would be alert to balls coming back off the post) they will not realise the ultimate goal of All Ireand glory. For me the best part of the match was when the vastly overated Mc Menamin passed the ball straight to a Meath player under no pressure and went down in a heap as if to say I'm not a silly cnut really I have just pulled a muscle 

As for Meath someone please tell the County Board there to put me on their complimentary ticket list I have never seen them beaten in Croke Park, and i was there on the occasions listed below, and must be their lucky charm

1990 NFL Final

1990 Leinster Final

1994 NFL Final

1996 AI Final

1999 AI Semi Final

2007 Leinster Championship V Dublin (drawn match)

2007 AI Quarter Final

[supersarsfields]

^{We are now starting to see the true colours of our Tyrone posters.}
I think most acknowlwdged that Meath were by far the better team. And they were suffering fron injuries aswell as Tyrone.
However I disagree with MAnnix about this Tyrone team being over. This year they have uncovered Gormley, McGuigan (Jr), Mulgrew came of age, McCaul. All young players who held themselves very well. Fair enough we may loose Dooher and Calvan but I still think (hope???) they will be there or there about in the next couple of years.

[snappiered]

Disapointing Day for us on Saturay. Id like to start of by stating that i hope Mickey Harte stays on in the job. No one else would do any better. Also i dont agree with the view that this is the end of an era. We may loose Calvo (Hopefully not though) but no one else of the starting 15 are likely to go.
We did not pose any threat in the inside forward line. Like our top socrer going into Saturdays game had only scored a paltry 1-6 in 3 games. Thats really were we missed O Neill.
Mickey Mc Gees loss was not really felt to Saturday either. We have no man markers except Conor Gormley. Brian Mc Guigan would have been a massive boost as well. But on Brian we all just hope he can firstly regain his vision and then hopefully making it back onto the playing fields next year.
I Thought Mellon was coming into the game at wing forward at the time he was moved to midfield and should not have been switched. Defensively Ricey and Damian Mc Cauls attacking runs masked their defensive weaknesses. Although Ricey did have an good 2nd half. I didnt think Jordan merited being subtituted either. Would Calvo not have been worth a try around the middle when Kevin Hughes was taken off. Think Collie Cavanagh should have got a chance at the edge of the square in 2nd half. Mulgrew started very well but didnt have much of an impact after 20mins. Dermy Carlin definately should not have been dropped and should have come on alot earlier. It easy being critical of Mugsy but he just hadnt the shooting boots on. He tried very hard. Just didnt work out for him.
But its wonderful to have the gift of hindsight to air our opinions. Hopefully we can get over this. Learn alot and build for next year. Looking ahead i dont think its a good idea to play too many of our established players in the Mc Kenna cup or early in the National League. This year Tyrone played there best football in January in February. Sitting in Breffini Park on a cold Tuesday night in Februray V Monaghan i heard it quoted that if the All Ireland was played in Jan and Feb we would win it hands down this year. Unfortunately we are gone before the Mid point in August. Hope we can learn from this.

Anyway its back to club football for our county players now. Wonder when the Senior Cship Quarter finals be now?

[T Fearon]

History and revisionism will record the key roles Canavan's diving played in Tyrone's two All Ireland wins and the lucky block by Gormley which denied Armagh successive titles in 2003 and the cheap free Russell awarded Tyrone in the 2005 AI semi final.

Although Tyrone have 2 all Irelands, it is now clear beyond dispute that Armagh 1999-2007 was a superior and more consistent side than Tyrone 2003-07

[Maximus Marillius]

Tony I will say this for all the Tyrone wans ( and this coming from a Derry man) go and suck eggs. 

[supersarsfields]

Tony how did that become clear this year when Armagh were long gone by the time Tyrone went out? If you'd stopped at 2006 I could understand, maybe!!  

[clarshack]

the likes of cavanagh, o'neill, dooher etc should be nowhere near the mckenna cup squad in 2008. tyrone dont need any more mckenna cups. it is a joke competition and always will be. these players need rest. the mckenna cup should only be used to give good club players a chance to play for their county that they otherwise wouldnt get.

[Great Leap Forward]

History and revisionism will record the key roles Canavan's diving played in Tyrone's two All Ireland wins and the lucky block by Gormley which denied Armagh successive titles in 2003 and the cheap free Russell awarded Tyrone in the 2005 AI semi final.

Although Tyrone have 2 all Irelands, it is now clear beyond dispute that Armagh 1999-2007 was a superior and more consistent side than Tyrone 2003-07

As a neutral I have to say that this a load of shite Tony. Conor Gormleys block was one of the finest pieces of defending ever witnessed in All-ireland final.

As for the cheap free in 05, I recall that newspaper pictures clearly show McKeever was pulling O'Neills jersey. It's terrible that people have to spout biased shite instead of giving people their dues.

[rrhf]

some good points snappiered. I dont think we need to be taking hatchets out against M Harte either,  He obviously wants another go at it, so give him one more year surely.  Yes the corner backs were under pressure but the problems were huge out the field and time and time again the perfect ball was allowed into a deadly enough forward unit.  I think Mc Caul is a natural number 6 eventually but he was one of Tyrones better performers and had a quite remarkable performance considering his level of experience.  Saturday was his full championship debut.  Midfield is the major problem with tyrone .. and we knew it all year.  Although many on here felt it was time to stop tinkering with it after hubs great second half V Dublin.  We simply have to give others a chance in there.  I beleive Sean is going to be in the half forward line next year and we need 2 new big lads.  But enough of that now.  Those Tyrone players have brought Tyrone great joy over the past 5 years and no one should be ott with their criticism.  Tony go f**k yourself -  I was there when Armagh produced that one off in 1987.  Whover heard of Shane Skelton since?  total one - off.  As for who I want to win Sam now I must go For Derry now closely followed by Monaghan, then the Dubs followed by Meat with Cork followed by the kingdom.   Bring it back to Ulster boys.  

[orangeman]

After having reflected for a couple of days, I feel that we were beat because of the following :

Brian Mc Guigan's loss came home to roost - we just didn't have a man to hold the ball and use it intelligently.I've seen him play for Ardboe and Tyrone and he can make ordinary players look like Allstars ( no disrespect meant ).

Defensively - we have too many defenders who look well going forward but who can't go toe to toe with their marker. On Saturday, Mc Menamin and Mc Caul LOOKED great going forward but were defensively inept.

Midfield - How did Hughes get the full 70mins ? Cavanagh was taken it out of it to be fair. But Cavanagh would be better off in half forwards. So we need a different midfield. One thing I noticed was Hughes wanted the goalie to give him short kick outs in order that he didn't have to compete.

Forwards - were well and truly marshalled by a very hungry, tight marking Meath defence.

Brian Dooher should NEVER have started. It was plain to see that he couldn't run.

When you're manager of a team for a long time, there is a temptation to remain loyal to those who have been loyal to you. This is a big danger which has cost Joe Kernan as well and Mickey might have to look at this.

But today is not for apportioning blame - we have done well over the past few years - but teams like this only come around once in a while and the killing thing is that we only lost by two points having dominated possession for the last 20 minutes ( Meath didn't score in this last period ).


So keep the heads up and try again.

[Uladh]

As a neutral I have to say that this a load of shite Tony. Conor Gormleys block was one of the finest pieces of defending ever witnessed in All-ireland final.

As for the cheap free in 05, I recall that newspaper pictures clearly show McKeever was pulling O'Neills jersey. It's terrible that people have to spout biased shite instead of giving people their dues.

What is really terrible is that there will always be clowns like you to take him seriously