Tyrone finally record back-to-back championship wins again

Saturday afternoon saw Tyrone record consecutive championship wins for the first time since 2021. All it took was for us to face Munster opposition twice, against Clare and Cork respectively. Now we know how Kerry get their confidence up and feel their way into the summer every year.

Cork provided a stern test in the first half but a black card on 43 minutes cost them dearly as Tyrone coasted ahead. Niall Morgan was exemplary, Mattie Donnelly bossed it, Ben Cullen combined with Darren McCurry for a fine goal and Ruairí joined his brother Darragh on the scoresheet with a confident display.

Tullamore is a fine town for pinting and O’Connor Park is as good a venue as I’ve seen in Ireland. Hopefully it won’t be too long until we are back there. The championship structure is a bit of a joke but the decision to take neutral games out of Croke Park has been a resounding success.

Tyrone are starting to click and a relatively kind draw at home to Roscommon in Omagh gives us a realistic shot at reaching an All Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park. Conn Kilpatrick will miss the game due to suspension for a straight red card against Cork. I didn’t see the incident on the day and I’ve yet to see it since. Referee Paddy Neilan frustrated both sides on the day but Tyrone were deserving of victory.

Our record against Roscommon in championship is very good. Five wins from five (2011, 2012, 2013, 2018, and 2019). Two of those were at the Hyde and three at Croke Park. This will be their first championship visit to Healy Park. Roscommon are noticeably weaker than they have been in recent years and have caused us problems in the league. However, that’s mostly been on home turf. Hopefully this won’t change.

What is wrong with Tyrone?

That’s two back-to-back defeats to Donegal. The feeling after the Ulster Championship semi-final was disappointment but with some optimism for the rest of the summer. This is very much in contrast to the feeling last night in Ballybofey where Tyrone endured a frustrating second half, second best in every department.

What is wrong with Tyrone? We clearly have experienced players. We also have a plethora of decorated underage stars champing at the bit to get involved. Brian Dooher perseveres on the sideline with a fine backroom of stalwarts while Feargal Logan recovers from a stroke.

However, there is a huge disconnect between supporters and this team. We are outnumbered by the opposition at most grounds despite having had plenty of success in recent times. Were we too spoilt by the 2000s? Sure, the calendar is stuffed with too many relatively meaningless games but every county is facing this. There is no enthusiasm in Tyrone while our neighbours Donegal, Armagh and Derry supporters can’t get enough of it.

This summer is too early for this year’s All Ireland U20 champions to come through. Hell, it’s still too early for many of our best U20 champions of 2022 to make their mark. Ruairí Canavan is a case in point. He should be afforded the same time which his brother Darragh had to find his place in the team, something which we are truly bearing the fruits of now.

The real pity is that the cream of those two U20 teams likely won’t get a chance to tog out alongside our standard bearers of 2021 – the likes of Niall Morgan, Mattie Donnelly and Peter Harte. I think we missed a valuable chance to win more silverware after 2021. Too many of our squad walked away and there is a long list of fine footballers in Tyrone who will likely never return to the setup.

Management will face many questions in the next few weeks. Is the desire the same as it was in 2021? That remains to be seen.

Next up in Group 3 is a home game against Clare in Omagh. Anything but a win will be shambolic. We have not faced Clare in a competitive game since 1996 and never before in Championship. We follow that with a meeting with Cork at a neutral ground, somehwhere in Leinster, I presume. We are more than capable of winning both of those games but shouldn’t take anything for granted. Decent results in those should set us up for a preliminary quarter final but it’s hard to imagine us winning a quarter-final at Croke Park right now. That’s sadly where we are at.

Early Season Ramblings

As Tyrone travel to Killarney to face Kerry in Round 5 of the National Football League, we remember Cormac McAnallen who passed away twenty years ago this weekend. He left an indelible impression on Gaels far and wide, particularly in his home county of Tyrone. At the time of his death, Cormac was our captain and decorated with almost every honour a gaelic footballer can win. His untimely passing denied us a magnificent presence and the strongest of characters.

I would like to wish our joint manager Feargal Logan well in his recovery from illness and hope to see him rejoin Brian Dooher on the sideline in the near future.

Transition has been the theme of Tyrone’s year to date, beginning with two narrow defeats to Ulster opposition Armagh and Donegal in the McKenna Cup. Tyrone suffered further departures from the panel with the experienced trio of Ronan McNamee, Niall Sludden and Richie Donnelly calling it a day over the winter.

The league has brought its ups and downs already with two wins and two defeats from our four outings to date. Roscommon were easily beaten but a heavy defeat to Derry in Celtic Park brought us quickly back to earth. Plenty of lads have made their competitive debuts and acquitted themselves well but we await the return of several key players. Ahead of the Kerry game, Mattie Donnelly and Cathal McShane have been named in the matchday squad for the first time this season. Frank Burns, Conor Meyler and Michael O’Neill have also yet to see action in 2024.

The panel looks noticeably different to 2021. Aidan Clarke, Ciaran Daly, Conall Devlin, Niall Devlin and Seanie O’Donnell have started all four league games. Darragh Canavan continues to be our shining light while Niall Morgan remains an influential presence. We would be a far worse team without him in it. I have grown to appreciate his forays up the field, adding scores from play and creating assists. His leaps above the crossbar can save us a point or two a game.

It’s undeniable that Derry have cemented their status as kingpins in Ulster. While the heavy defeat to Derry was disheartening, the narrow loss to Galway which followed was the most dissatisfying moment of the season to date. Galway were missing some of the best players in the country and managed to scrape a win when several Tyrone forwards wouldn’t work the shot which could have delivered a draw. That was rectified last week at home to Mayo. In a sensational second half, Darren McCurry returned and showed us just why he won an All Star and Man of the Match in the All Ireland final of 2021.

27 players have seen playing time in the league and a further five appeared in the McKenna Cup. One area in which Tyrone must improve is scoring goals. We have just one so far in the league. Discipline is an area in which we have however improved. Conn Kilpatrick’s harsh red card against Roscommon being our sole sending off in the league campaign to date.

Relegation remains a strong possibility. Taking both points in Killarney tomorrow is a big ask. Kerry will be smarting from their defeat to Dublin last Saturday while Tyrone are still short of key players and not helped by further injuries to Aidan Clarke and Michael McKernan. The meeting with Monaghan in Healy Park on 16 March would appear to be the key fixture for us ahead of Round 7 away to Dublin at Croke Park.

Safe trip to all supporters making the journey. Have a few pints in Tattler Jacks and Reidys for me!

2023 intercounty season rolls on without Tyrone

The All Ireland semi-finals will take place this weekend – Dublin v Monaghan and Kerry v Derry. When we bowed out meekly almost a fortnight ago at the hands of Kerry, it didn’t feel like a huge surprise. In fact, it may rank as one of the easier Championship exits, I can remember. The second half was tough to watch but there was no question that we were beaten by the better team on the day.

Where does 2023 rank? Certainly not as bad as 2022, ahead of which, I felt we could aim for another All Ireland title before panel departures rendered us a much lesser sum of parts. Throughout 2023, Tyrone looked like a team in transition. While Armagh have strangely generated all the hype, Derry have delivered back-to-back Ulster titles and will look to go further this weekend. Tyrone are clearly no longer top dogs in Ulster. Full credit to Monaghan who have also had a great season to date.

At minor and U20 level, Tyrone had a more modest season than in recent times, bowing out in Ulster semi-finals and Ulster quarter-finals respectively. The future remains bright with Ulster success at minor level in 2021 and 2022 and an All Ireland championship at U20 level in 2022. It is vital to plan for the future and build a new team. It is hoped that we can retain the services of a small core of senior players now above 30 – Niall Morgan, Ronan McNamee, Peter Harte and Mattie Donnelly. Their experience will be vital in nurturing the younger members of the panel especially if we see a change of management ahead of 2024. Senior players like Conor Meyler and Pádraig Hampsey will continue to drive standards.

A big positive from 2023 was staying in Division 1. The importance of the league may be diluted next year but there is no chance of us winding up in the Tailteann Cup any time soon like some other former giants of the game like Down and Meath. Other huge plusses are the arrival of Cormac Quinn and Ruairí Canavan at senior level and the significant improvement of Darragh Canavan.

Our championship campaign was underwhelming. We played six games and lost three of them. I still feel like we left a proper Ulster campaign behind us with a poor second half against Monaghan. Wins over Armagh and Donegal were encouraging and returning to Croke Park felt like a little progress was made. It would have been a very different narrative had John Heslin’s free gone over the bar for Westmeath in Breffni Park.

2024 will bring a lot of change. Ambitions have been reset and expectations must be adjusted. As the club league campaign hots up, there is a major opportunity for lads to put their hands up for selection. I hope the managerial situation is cleared up before club championship begins to give whoever is in charge the best chance of gathering the best panel possible.

Finally, best of luck to our Ulster rivals who have it all to do this weekend. While our local rivals may not have been too supportive of ourselves in recent decades, I won’t be actively cheering on Leinster and Munster opposition any time soon.

Tyrone to return to Headquarters on quarter-final weekend

Kerry will be the opposition tomorrow as Tyrone make our first return to Croke Park since the All Ireland final triumph over Mayo in September 2021. It’s always a long summer without a big day out in Dublin and 2022 was one to forget. An emphatic win over Donegal in Ballybofey last Saturday means we will play our 41^st championship match at Croke Park since the turn of the century. Of those 40 games, we have won 25 and drawn two, a win rate of 62.5%.

Our championship record against Kerry is a formidable and simple statistic. Four wins apiece. Not many counties put the fear of God into Kerry quite like we do. Our four wins all preluded us lifting Sam Maguire, in 20003, 2005 and 2008 and 2021 respectively. Kerry won the first championship encounter between the sides in our first All Ireland final of 1986, breaking many hearts in the process. Tyrone led at half time but fell apart in the second half. Tyrone reset everything in the 2000s with three convincing wins over Kerry, an All Ireland semi-final in 2003 and All Ireland finals in 2005 and 2008. As our successful team of the noughties faded in 2012, Kerry extinguished the dying embers with a huge win in Killarney. Mickey Harte successfully built a new team capable of challenging for honours but Kerry again proved too much for us in the 2015 and 2019 All Ireland semi-finals.

The 2021 All Ireland semi-final is still a huge talking point. Tyrone were forced to pull of the championship due to a large contingent of the panel suffering from Covid. Kerry, very nobly, forced the GAA hierarchy to delay the game and Tyrone were reinstated – a fact we should never forget. Fair play again to Kerry for this great display of sportsmanship.  Ultimately Tyrone were sensational that day and prevailed. We had chances to win the game in ordinary time but it went to extra time. David Clifford was forced to exit after the initial 70 minutes and we ran into a five-point lead ahead of the second half of extra time, eventually holding on by the skin of our teeth to gain a one-point win and a berth in the All Ireland final against Mayo. The rest is history.

Kerry got over this heartache and lifted Sam Maguire in 2022 but tomorrow they will have their first chance at avenging 2021. Tyrone have won two league matches against Kerry since that day but that will count for nothing in the raw heat of championship battle. Kerry’s form all year has been similar to ourselves – largely indifferent. An average league campaign was followed by another handy Munster Championship title. They lost in Killarney to Mayo in the group stages before recording wins over Cork and Louth.

The key men to watch will inevitably be the brothers David and Paudie Clifford. Conor Meyler will likely match-up again against Paudie while Pádraig Hampsey could be given the tough task of shackling David. Ronan McNamee marked David Clifford in 2021, keeping him to eight points, which was significant for Tyrone and as good as any mere mortal could have done that day. Stemming the flow of ball to the David Clifford and keeping top talents like Sean O’Shea and Paul Geaney quiet will be crucial. Kerry’s weakest line is their midfield, having failed to replace the superb David Moran. This is where the winning of the game could be. Tyrone have height and power in the partnership of Brian Kennedy and Conn Kilpatrick and if Niall Morgan can go long and find them more often, we have a big chance.

Fearghal Logan and Brian Dooher will turn to the experience of Kieran McGeary to put pressure on Kerry’s best ball handlers. Kieran is starting to show some glimpses of why he won Footballer of the Year in 2021. However, the biggest asset Tyrone have nurtured since 2021 is the development of the Canavan brothers. Darragh only entered the field in 2021 as a sub but since then has probably been our best player. Ruairí is in the infancy of his senior intercounty career but is a wildcard that may be ready to light up Croke Park. On the other hand, Mattie Donnelly is at the other end of his career but his performances this year have been nothing short of incredible and deserve immense credit. It is sure to be a tough battle and while it is the hardest draw we could have gotten; it focuses minds and that is no bad thing given how we have failed to string together decent performances in recent times.

Drumcondra is sure to be buzzing tomorrow. It’s perhaps unfortunate that Tyrone and Kerry have to serve as a warm-up act to Armagh and Monaghan. It will be a long evening for those of us who stay for the second match if we have bowed out of championship. Our neighbours will be keen to point that out to us and rub it in. Safe journey to everyone travelling down. Beware of traffic on the roads and congestion on public transport. It’s also worth noting how many pubs in the area around Croke Park have closed down in recent years, leaving those left to be completely thronged hours before throw-in. Pinting a little further out will aid enjoyment.

Finally, Tyrone are understandably underdogs tomorrow, but we prefer it that way. Let’s hope we can give a good account of ourselves and if we do, a win is far from impossible.

Knockout Championship Football is finally here

The shadow boxing and caveating of every single performance and result is over. Win or bust – knockout championship football is here at last. The round robin group stages of the All Ireland produced great excitement last weekend and Tyrone very nearly bowed out of Championship 2023 at the hands of Westmeath in Cavan. Had John Heslin converted that late free, we would have suffered perhaps our most surprising championship exit since 2007.

Indeed, if I had had my way, two teams would have been knocked out of the group and we would be gone already. It remains to be seen whether the GAA change this format next year but the same jeopardy would still be there.

The Galway match in Tuam was frustrating as we played most of it with 14 men and ten minutes of it with 13. It was a gutsy performance to keep the final scoreline as close as it was. Against Armagh, we emerged victorious by a slender scoreline despite facing only 14 men for the entire second half. As with the Ulster championship game at home to Monaghan, we are not finishing teams off and that is worrying. Refereeing decisions cost us dearly against Westmeath but in truth, we blew hot and cold throughout and Westmeath were decent value for the draw. With all due respect to the Lake County, there should be more than a few kicks of the ball between Tyrone and Westmeath.

Donegal had a sobering experience in the league suffering relegation and loss of manager to compound the enormous void left by the departure of captain Michael Murphy in the winter. They are the opposition once again tomorrow evening in Ballybofey. Their personnel has changed a lot but they remain dangerous and stand between Tyrone and a first return to Croke Park since the 2021 All Ireland final.

Expectations are undoubtedly low in what has been a stop start season. Darren McCurry should return tomorrow with the consensus being that it wasn’t worth risking him last weekend if not fully fit. Ruairí Canavan had his first championship start in Cavan but it was his older brother Darragh who stole the show with ten fine points. 2023 has been his best year in the county jersey to date and his improvement at this level has been stark and noticeable to all.

A major worry is our lack of squad depth. We’ve lost at least 15 men from the panel since the All Ireland triumph, about half a dozen of whom have departed since the start of this league campaign. Options have been tried and have not worked out. Joe Oguz and Cormac Quinn have helped to freshen things up – Cormac has started every single competitive game this year. Ruairí Canavan has mostly featured off the bench while Aidan Clarke, Nathan McCarron, Niall Devlin, Michael McGleenan and Seanie O’Donnell have had to be patient for opportunities.

Change can be slow and despite our struggles, about 11 or 12 of the old guard are still certainties to start every game if fit. Frank Burns Richie Donnelly, Kieran McGeary and Niall Sludden represent our most experienced options off the bench. It has the feel of a team in transition and I think we will see in the coming days exactly where we are at.

The gameplan has been too often slow and predictable this year. I think we need to mix it up more instead of trying to constantly run the ball through the field. We have a fine midfield pairing of Brian Kennedy and Conn Kilpatrick and it would be refreshing to see us make more use of the duo.

Very little media scrutiny has been on the Logan-Dooher management and the fact that they are in year three of a three-year term in charge. Although, they guided us to an All Ireland and have preserved our Division 1 status on three occasions, they may be judged on how their reign ends rather than by their crowning achievement in 2021. A win over Donegal is exactly what we need and the whole complexity of things changes greatly if we obtain a return to Headquarters next weekend.

Radical round robins

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

Tyrone throwing into Ulster Championship action

Tyrone begin their Ulster Championship campaign at home to Monaghan on Sunday in Healy Park. I must first mention the complexities and irregularities of the new championship structure. One can argue that progressing in the provincial championships will provide little benefit to any of the top performing counties from this year’s national league.

If we were to lose on Sunday, we won’t play again until at least 20 May. Of course, winning Ulster has always been prestigious and is probably the only football provincial championship still consistently worth watching. Look at how an all-conquering Mayo lit up the league then limped meekly out of Connacht last weekend to Roscommon. It remains to be seen how certain counties will treat their provincial championships if they have already qualified for the All Ireland round robin group stage.

Things have changed significantly with the removal of the backdoor structure. In the past, losing early in Ulster meant more games to reach the All Ireland series – strangely, now progressing in Ulster means more games. There are going to be a lot of games all over the country regardless of how we perform and supporters will struggle with the costs of this. Fuel is still dear and hotels will need booked at short notice next month for the neutral and away games in the round robin. We have no idea at this stage where any of those games will be.

The players will certainly be exposed to burnout and injuries. From the end of May, players will face six or seven games in just two months if they go on to reach an All Ireland final. Beating Monaghan first should still be the aim. It simply generates a winning spirit and will certainly be more fun for the squad than effectively embarking on another gruelling five-week training camp. Derry are the favourites to lift the Anglo Celt cup again but may have focused their sights further than that this year. Armagh meanwhile are on the comparatively easier side of the draw and surely have to win an Ulster title to indicate progress has been made under Kieran McGeeney despite their relegation from Division 1.

Tyrone finished the league very strongly with three wins in a row – putting Kerry, Monaghan and Armagh to the sword – after a very tepid opening few rounds where we suffered three heavy defeats away to Connacht opposition. I must confess I was worried after seeing what we saw in 2022 but I am feeling much more confident going into championship. Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher used 29 players in the league with eight players starting all seven games. The management know their best team and the return of Ronan McNamee is a huge boost. Darren McCurry continues to score freely, registering 32 white flags in the league while Darragh Canavan is in the best form of his Tyrone career to date and is our top scorer from play. The form of Cathal McShane remains a concern and he didn’t feature towards the end of the league campaign.

The U20s bowing out prematurely on their first championship outing could lead to a few lads being promoted to senior duty and blooded in championship action before the summer is out. Ruairí Canavan has already made a few impressive cameos in the league this spring while the highly rated Conor Cush hasn’t featured since the McKenna Cup.

Monaghan were very poor against us in Clones a few weeks ago but I suspect we will see a different side to them in Omagh after they survived relegation to Division 2 with a crucial win away to Mayo in Castlebar. The recent big championship meetings against Monaghan in Croke Park have all been in our favour – 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2021 – however Monaghan dumped us out of Ulster quarter-finals in 2014 and 2018 in Clones and Omagh respectively.

These are two counties who know each other very well with regular meetings every year in Division 1 since 2017. I expect it to be hotly contested but I wouldn’t be surprised at any particular outcome. While winning provincial silverware and possibly avenging Derry in the next round appeals greatly, a high level of performance is probably the most important thing on Sunday as we start this new truncated format of championship football. Make sure and arrive early for the hurlers!

Reflections on Tyrone’s season so far

I’m conscious that I haven’t posted anything of substance since before the start of the national league campaign six weeks ago. Having made the journey to Roscommon at the end of January, I hoped despite a horrific performance in the McKenna Cup final defeat to Derry, that we were ready to put the hangover of 2022 behind us. Tyrone started poorly, albeit facing a tough breeze, I was still confident we would turn it around in the second half with the wind at our backs. We started well, racing into a three-point lead, spurred a goal chance and then suddenly ran out of steam, shipping three goals in the process. After a tasty carvery in the Abbey Hotel and a few pints up the town in JJ Harlow’s, I was resigned to the prospect of facing another potentially sticky campaign.

It felt all too familiar. Roscommon was considered the easiest of the seven fixtures and we had dropped two points on day one. Tyrone were looking like slow starters again in 2023. Roscommon have proven since then that they were good value for the win, picking up three wins from three in the opening weeks of the league. Next up for Tyrone was a facile win over a Donegal side who look a shell of their former selves since losing captain Michael Murphy to retirement. No one took too much encouragement from this victory and that pessimism was well-founded with another two emphatic defeats in Connacht, to Galway in Tuam and Mayo in Castlebar, respectively. The Galway game was very poor. The Mayo game was even worse if we disregard the opening twenty minutes where we looked to be motoring well. Tyrone’s travelling support has been criticised and I must confess I wasn’t able to make either trip due to work commitments. There was some relief from not having to face the elements, but I still did not feel not too comfortable watching our full back-line torn asunder live, two weeks in a row on TG4.

Our support base at Healy Park has been relatively modest in recent times. I doubt I am alone in casting envious glances over at how Armagh’s supporters have turned the Athletic Grounds into a cauldron. Perhaps switching the odd match over to a venue in the east of the county could reinvigorate supporters or win back a few who rarely make the trip west anymore. The policy of switching games around the county seems to work better for Monaghan however than Donegal who very often can’t buy a win in Letterkenny or Ballyshannon.

Approaching Kerry’s visit to Omagh on Sunday, all the talk was of relegation. Optimism was certainly in short supply. Our record has been very strong against Kerry at home in the past and the sight of the green and gold jersey brought the best out of Tyrone once again. We weathered the storm early on with Seán O’Shea raising a green flag within minutes. But something looked different. Tyrone were fighting for this one. Chasing down ball. Attacking well. Tackling even better. It was the Tyrone of old. Mattie Donnelly has been phased into the year slowly, mostly appearing off the bench. He started here and was sensational, well deserving of the Man of the Match award. Joe Oguz had his best performance in a Tyrone shirt to date and Pádraig Hampsey had his best game in 18 months. David Clifford could only kick one score off him and converted just two frees. Our discipline was exceptional. It’s up to the lads now to prove this performance is the norm and not a flash in the pan like the false dawn of our win in Killarney last year.

Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher have a mammoth task going forward. First step is staying in the division which is in our hands if we beat Monaghan and Armagh. Expectations are generally high in Tyrone and they won’t be forgiven another year like 2022 in an extended championship with round robins after the provincial championships. The concern is not for a short championship – it’s for a prolonged one with jaded teams going through the motions. At times this year it has felt like year three of three. We have been weak defensively, conceding nine goals in five games. It’s crucial we reintegrate Ronan McNamee as soon as possible.

25 players have been used in the league thus far. Sadly Emmet McNabb walked away, likely due to a lack of gametime. Six players who featured in the McKenna Cup haven’t seen a minute of league action: Peter Óg McCartan, Liam Nugent, Dalaigh Jones, Benny Gallen, Rory Donnelly and Conor Cush. Management must keep the panel happier and hungrier. Subs must know chances will come their way when key players are out of form.

Worryingly Cathal McShane has struggled to regain the form he was showing in the early rounds of the McKenna Cup. We didn’t see him against Kerry but he is too good to be out of this team for long. Darren McCurry remains our most potent scoring threat but the continued development of Darragh Canavan is the most exciting thing I’ve seen this season to date. He is getting better and better. The introduction of his brother Ruairí from the bench in the last three games has also served to whet the appetite further. We are all hoping Sunday proves to be a turning point but time will tell. It was very encouraging and I’m sure a lot of us are feeling less dread ahead of the trip to Clones on Sunday week.

Tír Eoghain Abú!

Tyrone’s National Football League campaign to begin on Sunday in Roscommon

Tyrone’s first fixture in 2023’s Division 1 will be away to Roscommon at Dr Hyde Park on Sunday. Optimism for the year crashed emphatically at the hands of Derry last weekend in the Dr McKenna Cup final at Armagh’s Athletic Grounds. Prior to that, Tyrone had looked to be getting back to their pre-2022 normal but barely played for an hour of the 70 minutes and suffered a heavy defeat.

Roscommon away looks like one of the more winnable games in a tight Division 1, albeit one which lacks Dublin and Derry, two teams with realistic ambitions of contesting at the business end of the All Ireland championship. Roscommon will not have had many better chances to get a win against Tyrone since their last win over us in Mickey Harte’s first season in charge in 2003.

Our last two championship meetings with Roscommon resulted in comfortable wins in the Super 8s campaigns of 2018 and 2019 but our meeting in the 2019 league is much more relevant. In stormy conditions, Tyrone fought back from an awful first half to claim an unlikely draw after suffering defeats in our first two games against Kerry and Mayo. We would go on to win four games in a row to secure our Division 1 status.

In the league, Tyrone have this plucky reputation of winning where we expect to lose and losing where we expect to win. Given the fixtures, we need to start well this season. Following Roscommon, we host a struggling Donegal side, one learning to live without Michael Murphy, in Omagh. Those look like the two potential easiest fixtures of the series.

Following that, we have two trips to Connacht in February, six days apart; Galway in Tuam and Mayo in Castlebar. Those will be difficult games and expensive for supporters. Sacrifices will need to be made. Tuam has proven a hateful place to go with bad defeats in 2018 and 2020. Our experiences in Castlebar defy logic and we have run out winners there quite regularly in recent memory.

March will be far from easy with a trip to Clones to face Monaghan sandwiched in between home games against Kerry and Armagh. Tyrone are not really a strong league team – we haven’t contested a Division 1 final since 2013 but have however remained in it every season since 2017. The target is usually just to stay up and under the radar.

There is an argument that Division 1 is less important this year as there will be a round robin in the All Ireland championship resulting in three or four extra games after the provincial championships. Division 1 sides have no jeopardy of missing out on that. Division 2 sides know that they could miss out on the All Ireland championship if they finish in the bottom half. That’s where much of the media interest could fall later in the campaign.

Tyrone definitely need to start this campaign well and get points on the board. We need to nail down our best XV, introduce some younger players and reinvigorate a panel that has been flagging since lifting our fourth All Ireland only 16 months ago. Only then can we look forward and assess hopes of regaining a foothold in the Ulster Championship.