After a premature exit from the Ulster Championship at the hands of Monaghan in Omagh, Tyrone will have been waiting 34 days to play a competitive game when we line out to face Galway at Pearse Stadium in Salthill on Saturday evening. Meanwhile Derry have secured their place as the official kingpins in Ulster with Armagh falling by narrow margins once again.
The All Ireland round robin series will give us an opportunity to see exactly where Tyrone are at. Tyrone finished the league strongly with wins over Kerry, Monaghan and Armagh after an indifferent start with three away defeats to Connacht opposition. I was not alone in thinking we were home and hosed after an excellent first half against Monaghan in the first round of the Ulster Championship five weeks ago., however Monaghan came back strong and that was that.
Our opposition in Group 2 of this inaugural 16-team All Ireland round robin are Galway, Armagh and Westmeath. I am not a fan of this structure, especially as only one team will be eliminated. I don’t think any team should be losing two games of three and remaining in championship afterwards. If we were to lose to Galway and Armagh before beating Westmeath, there will be many in the county who would prefer to call it a day and get the club championship up and running.
In any case, winning the group means an automatic place in the All Ireland quarter-finals. Coming second or third means a playoff with a team from a different group in a preliminary quarter-final. That’s right, it could be expensive. The benefit of coming second is a home tie in this round.
Galway and Tyrone haven’t faced each other often in championship history – just four times, and surprisingly only once in the post 2001 qualifier era. Galway won the first meeting in 1956 with Tyrone winning the last three in 1986, 1995 (my first visit to Croke Park) and 2004. Armagh need no introduction and this looks like being the key game for us in the group, luckily it will take place on 3 or 4 June in Omagh, where we relegated them to Division 2 at the end of March. Tyrone have faced Westmeath only once in the championship, in a qualifier in 2008 en route to our third All Ireland title. A neutral venue and date for that has yet to be confirmed but it will likely take place in either Cavan or as part of a double header at Croke Park.
Our management team of Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher seem to know their best team. There wasn’t too much deviation throughout the league but there should be opportunities for several of the U20 class of 2022 in the next month. It’s clear we don’t have the same depth as we had when winning Sam Maguire in 2021 but I remain confident that we will perform much better than in the calamitous 2022 campaign. Safe trip to all heading to Galway this weekend!
Fixtures
Game 1 – Sat 20 May – Galway (a) Salthill
Game 2 – 3/4 June – Armagh (h) Omagh
Game 3 – 17/18 June – Westmeath (n)
All Ireland preliminary quarter-final – 24/25 June
All Ireland quarter-final – 1/2 July
All Ireland semi-final – 15/16 July
All Ireland final – Sun 30 July
All Ireland final replay – Sun 12 August
Unofficial Tyrone 