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.

Dr McKenna Cup campaign ends in disappointment

Last night’s heavy defeat to Derry felt remarkably familiar after a frustrating year for supporters in 2022. Maybe I’m overreacting but we need to start as we mean to go on and although it wasn’t our strongest XV, Derry were without their Glen contingent of Conor Glass and Ethan Doherty. Derry are reigning Ulster champions and it is they who now set the standard for the province, despite themselves residing a division below us.

Tyrone scored just one point in the first half to trail by six points at half time. Indeed, it would have been a lot more but for goalkeeper Benny Gallen making two key saves, hurting himself in the process. Unfortunately, he had to go off injured which saw Niall Morgan accrue unexpected minutes.

After half time, Tyrone made use of the breeze and within ten minutes had managed to find themselves level thanks to a marvellous goal from the returning Darren McCurry and a spread of three points from across the team. That comeback ground suddenly to a halt and we scored just once more in the last 25 minutes of normal time. Derry ran riot and finished in style to be crowned victors by a hefty 12 points.

The campaign had actually started quite well with convincing wins over Fermanagh and Cavan either side of an entertaining draw to Derry up in Owenbeg. A blend of experience and youth had me feeling a lot more optimistic but that’s three disheartening defeats in Armagh City in less than a year. Key men in the Tyrone team still appear to be underperforming. Cathal McShane has regained form but there are several others who have brought their form from 2022 into 2023. Although, the McKenna Cup is not always a clear indicator of what is to come results-wise in a year, the non-performance last night was alarming.

While Derry defended compactly and led incisive counter attacks, Tyrone looked dead in the legs and lacking ideas. Our movement and pass selection was poor and there was no clear style of play on show. We were sloppy and gave away far too much ball in dangerous positions. It is something which Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher will have to address. What brand of football do they want to play? It isn’t easy to decipher.

Tyrone used 28 players in the campaign with 19 different names featuring on the scoresheet. Cathal McShane top scored with 12 points across the four games. The Sigerson Cup running concurrently did not help our younger stars. We are likely to see more of Darragh Canavan in the coming weeks but it is less clear whether others will remain in the panel for the league. Cormac Munroe, Nathan McCarron, Niall Devlin, Cormac Quinn and David Mulgrew have featured regularly with a number of young players also making appearance from the bench. Conor Quinn, Liam Rafferty, Michael O’Neill, Ronan McNamee and a number of others have yet to feature at all. Opportunities are there for lads to take. Management need to rebuild this panel after all last year’s departures or we will be faced with another season of disappointment.

Safe trip to Roscommon all!

2023’s hectic GAA intercounty calendar – potential list of games

2022 came and went very quickly for Tyrone. 2021 was our year but it will be either Kerry or Galway who deservedly lift Sam Maguire in 2022. Despite our disappointment, I think the All Ireland Championship structure this year has been solid. There were just two rounds of qualifiers, rather than four in pre-pandemic years, and the weaker counties fought it out in a hotly contested inaugural Tailteann Cup, in which Westmeath prevailed. Games have come thick and fast and there have been a minimum of irrelevant games this summer. This will change in future.

I’ve been looking at the structure for 2023 and have compiled a list of games below which Tyrone could play. Games highlighted in bold are games we will definitely have to play, as it stands. If we were to regroup and win Ulster, it could take us eight or nine games before we reach an All Ireland final. Same goes for any of the Ulster teams, providing they don’t have a preliminary round in Ulster to contest.

The league remains the same with seven regular games and a final for the top two teams. I would expect us to host Armagh, Donegal and Kerry in Omagh with away trips to Mayo and Monaghan. The two promoted sides Galway and Roscommon make up the division and I’d expect us to host one and visit the other.

The McKenna Cup will surely return and a run in it so early in the year will have even less relevance than usual given the additional games possible later in the season. Worst case scenario, the top Ulster sides could play 13 competitive games for the season. Win everything and you could be looking at over twenty games in seven months.

This is the outcome of the green proposal which passed earlier this year. I had been of the opinion that last year’s proposal B was a great opportunity but it wasn’t to be. The provincial bodies weren’t happy but I believe what has passed will signal the death knell of the provincial championships much sooner, in any case. Time will tell.

If I’ve overlooked anything, please let me know.

Potential games in 2023

McKenna Cup group game 1
McKenna Cup group game 2
McKenna Cup semi-final
McKenna Cup final

NFL Division 1 gameweek 1
NFL Division 1 gameweek 2
NFL Division 1 gameweek 3
NFL Division 1 gameweek 4
NFL Division 1 gameweek 5
NFL Division 1 gameweek 6
NFL Division 1 gameweek 7
NFL Division 1 final

Ulster Championship quarter-final
Ulster Championship semi-final
Ulster Championship final

All Ireland round-robin game 1
All Ireland round-robin game 2
All Ireland round-robin game 3
All Ireland playoffs between 2nd and 3rd placed teams
All Ireland quarter-final
All Ireland semi-final
All Ireland final
All Ireland final replay possible

Reflections on 2022 as Tyrone bow out

As championship summer continues without Tyrone, there will be plenty of time to reflect upon a disappointing season. Lifting Sam Maguire in 2021 was a huge achievement for management, staff and the entire panel. It was a massive feat which supporters rightly delighted in and while it may have been a shock to many in the GAA world, it was a long time coming for the core of a team which had been motoring together at senior level for over six years.

Many had suffered All Ireland semi-final defeats in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019, won Ulster Championships in 2016, 2017 and 2021, as well as tasted defeat in the 2018 All Ireland final. Beating Mayo to win a fourth All Ireland in September was the culmination of a huge body of work. Going to the well again and defending Sam Maguire eluded the great team of the 2000s and so it was to be again this year with our current crop of champions.

This Tyrone team has brought much pride to the county in the past through their dedication, guile and talent and will do so again. It is however not hard to argue that standards have dipped and it feels like we have been chasing the ghost all year to get back to where we were last summer. A raft of premature retirements has weakened the panel and key players have remained out of form and done so together.

The defeat to Armagh was unsurprising despite hopes that the five week lay-off after our mauling by Derry would have given time to turn things around. Management rolled the dice and afforded a championship debut and first competitive appearance of the year to Peter Teague in the full back line. It was a gamble which didn’t pay off as he was given the hook after allowing Aidan Nugent to run easily past him for Armagh’s goal. It was a harsh lesson for him and in truth, Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher could have taken any of the backs off as Armagh caused chaos dropping long balls over the top. The passing was far too lateral and Tyrone remained incapable of penetrating the Armagh 45.

The match could have been over at half time yet we went in trailing by a solitary point at half time. The sloppiness was evident and the writing was on the wall but we failed to take initiative and make the necessary tactical changes. Management’s best plan was to bring on Richie Donnelly but he saw a black card within minutes. Last year springing Cathal McShane and Darragh Canavan from the bench was a masterclass but it made no difference on Sunday. McShane has failed to find form all year and has just five points from play to his name from ten appearances. This is difficult to comprehend from the talented forward who was sensational when lifting an All Star in 2019. Darragh Canavan hasn’t kicked on but has plenty of time on his side.

Darren McCurry is arguably one man who had a decent year. Indeed he has averaged 4.5 points a game which would be a solid haul if he wasn’t the only forward scoring on regular basis. Goalkeeper Niall Morgan has given Tyrone many scores from placed balls over the last decade but these dried up in 2022. He converted just four this year which is alarming given he slotted two points in the All Ireland semi-final against Kerry last year.

The loss of so many panel members has cost us dearly in squad depth. Between league and championship, we used just 30 players. Bearing in mind, that Paul Donaghy left mid-season and Pádraig McNulty has a long-term injury, this left just 26 players with appearances in 2022 competing for the 26 places in the panel at the Athletic Grounds, with Peter Teague and Michael McGleenan seeing their first action that afternoon.

Five players started every game and that number would have been greater if we hadn’t received four red cards in the league encounter against Armagh. Discipline has been poor – nine red cards in ten games with numerous black cards tell a tale. Another 12 players featured in nine games. We haven’t been able to draw from the bench to the same extent as in recent years when very often we finished with a stronger 15 on the field. This has contributed to fatigue and performances have been laboured and lethargic.-

Kieran McGeary was Footballer of the Year in 2021 but has not exerted the same influence in 2022 and we badly missed Ronan McNamee, Peter Harte and Mattie Donnelly at times through injury. An extended rest can help this trio of experienced All Stars. Conor Meyler soldiered well but hasn’t had the same outlet for his runs while Conor McKenna hasn’t played as much as we would like.

Club league and championship in Tyrone is going to be fierce this summer with no interruptions. This may unearth a few gems. Management can look towards the U20 All Ireland Championship team for new recruits – Ruairí Canavan, Michael McGleenan, Niall Devlin and Steve Donaghy have already joined up. The U17 team have lifted back to back Ulster titles and will look to go further this year and pick up an All Ireland. We may be deflated this week but football in Tyrone is in a very positive place. As bad as the league campaign was, we were not relegated thanks to a rare win over Kerry in Killarney. Division 1 status and competitive spring football is one thing which will be crucial in reviving this team in 2023 and it’s something Dublin weirdly won’t have whether they win the All Ireland or not.

Now is the time to lick our wounds and save our cash. These lads will be back. They’re too good not to be.

Last Chance Saloon

No doubt about it – this is last chance saloon for Tyrone and our hosts Armagh. The build-up to Sunday’s Round 1 qualifier has been surprisingly quiet but tensions will be simmering under the surface in both camps. This is a draw both counties could have done without following humbling defeats to Derry and Donegal respectively in the Ulster Championship.

Tyrone have been very flaky this season aside from narrow wins over Mayo and Kerry which helped maintain our Division 1 status. There have been too many games where we just haven’t turned up – Armagh, Dublin and Derry. There have also been games that were there for the taking which we failed to grasp – Monaghan and Donegal.

Kieran McGeeney’s Armagh started the year brilliantly pulling us apart back in February in the league meeting, a week after they dismantled Dublin at Croke Park. Indeed, the game looked to be over as a contest at half-time but Tyrone petulance cost us dear at the end with four red cards being dished out by referee David Gough. The media furore afterwards did no favours and it is evident that poor discipline has been a recurring problem this year. Tyrone have been shown the line ten times in nine games this year. We have completed just four matches with the full complement of 15 men on the field. Our reputation precedes us and that is worrying.

Armagh will be without Ciaran Mackin and Niall Grimley. Grimley broke a bone in his neck in training which makes you wonder about the wisdom and intensity of Armagh’s sessions. In any case, it’s unlikely they will be soft when the game is in the mixer on Sunday.

I get the feeling we could know within ten minutes which Tyrone has turned up at the Athletic Grounds on Sunday – the valiant, defending All Ireland champions or the depleted, frustrated and fractured panel suffering a severe Sam Maguire hangover. Tyrone supporters haven’t been given much to shout about this year and there has been a tepid atmosphere in the crowd with many resigned to defeat early doors due to these poor starts.

However, it hasn’t been all negative. There will have been great joy in the news that four members of Tyrone’s U20 All Ireland Championship winning team have been called up to the senior panel – Niall Devlin, Michael McGleenan, Steve Donaghy and Ruairí Canavan. I think it’s unlikely we will see any of them introduced against Armagh in such a hotly contested derby but it bodes well for the future to have players of this quality to bring forward.

Championship meetings with Armagh have been rarer in recent years since those heady days of the mid-2000s. Tyrone have won five of the last six meetings in championship dating back to the 2005 All Ireland semi-final. It would be wise to remember the one we lost – a 2014 All Ireland qualifier in Omagh which came as a huge shock and ended our season. A repeat on Sunday would be less of a shock, despite the triumph we pulled off last September.

It has been five weeks since Derry dumped us out of the Ulster Championship at Healy Park – a long time to wait. In the meantime, Derry have shown they are just as good as they promised with superb wins over Monaghan and Donegal on way to lifting the Anglo Celt Cup. It’s up to us now to show we are much better than that afternoon indicated. Plenty of tickets remain on sale but I sense the Athletic Grounds will be a cauldron on Sunday and close to full capacity. 14,000 for a league meeting would suggest that a ground of 19,000 will easily be filled for a championship do-or-die derby.

Ambitions have been significantly lowered for Tyrone. We have drifted out to 20/1 in the betting to retain Sam Maguire for the first time. This is a fork in the road for this team and how they deal with adversity will tell us a lot about them and define much of how they are remembered as a team going forward.

Finally, congratulations to Gerry Donnelly and his staff and players as Tyrone’s U17 team won the Ulster title for the second year in a row. They sealed the title after tough meetings with Donegal and Derry and can now realistically aim to go one better than last year.

The State of Play in Tyrone

It’s been two weeks since Tyrone were heavily defeated in the Ulster Championship quarter-final to Derry and there has been much soul-searching done across the county. The warning signs had been there throughout the league and the loss in panel depth is becoming more and more apparent. Derry proved yesterday that they weren’t geared up for just one game and dismantled an experienced Monaghan team to reach their first provincial final since 2011 – a date with Donegal.

The All Ireland Championship triumph of Paul Devlin’s Tyrone U20s has greatly lifted spirits. It was a sensational campaign and one made extra special given the superb wins over Kerry and Kildare, in the semi-final and final respectively. Many warm congratulations to everyone involved. The performance of Ruairí Canavan was truly breath-taking. Throw in the strength and brawn of Michael McGleenan, the leadership of captain Niall Devlin and an impenetrable full back line, there will be no shortage of people clamouring for lads to make the step up to the senior team. I would be inclined to allow them to enjoy their success this summer and make the step up when the time is right.

The Minors are motoring well also. They will face Donegal in the Ulster Championship semi-final this weekend at Celtic Park in Derry. Their last outing was a facile destruction of Antrim at Corrigan Park in West Belfast. With many of the team still together who lost the All Ireland Minor final to Meath last summer, there will be a huge appetite and belief that they can go one better in 2022.

There are now three weeks until Round 1 of the Qualifiers. The draw will be held next Monday morning (23 May). The Tailteann Cup was held this morning and should in my opinion have been followed by the Round 1 Qualifiers draw. I know the GAA wants to promote the Tailteann Cup as an event on its own merits but it was not worth leaving managements, panels and supporters in the dark for a further week.

In any case, opposition could be any of the seven teams below, with the first team drawn out getting home advantage (if the GAA feels like it, of course).

Armagh
Clare
Cork
Louth
Mayo
Meath
Monaghan

Including ourselves, five of the eight teams have played Division 1 football in the last two years. We remain two games away from the prospect of an All Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park. These ties will take place on the weekend of 4/5 June.

Teams who progress will face one of the defeated provincial finalists on the weekend of 11/12 June. The teams in the mix will likely be Derry, Donegal, Galway, Kildare, Limerick or Roscommon. I don’t see any chance of Dublin or Kerry slipping up in their provincial finals.

Will Derry roll back the years at Healy Park?

Tyrone got the 2022 Championship up and running a fortnight ago with a relatively facile win over Fermanagh at Brewster Park in Enniskillen. The gloss was taken off the scoreboard with two sloppy goals conceded in the fourth quarter of the game after Tyrone ran riot early in the second half.

Conor McKenna laid down a marker for the year with some superb long range passing and a couple of well taken points before finding himself embroiled in a so-called melee for attempting to protect his team-mate Conn Kilpatrick. The appeals process has ruled in our favour and Conor will be available for selection against Derry in Omagh on Sunday. Peter Harte is expected to return to the Tyrone squad and it is believed the Donnelly brothers, Mattie and Richie, are nearing fitness.

Derry are a team on the up. They were unlucky not to conquer Donegal in the Ulster Championship last summer. Having motored well in Division 2, the wheels came off against Galway and Roscommon and promotion to Division 1 was missed. Nevertheless, Rory Gallagher has regenerated the team and there is a buzz going into this meeting of old rivals.

A bitter rivalry in the 1990s (Tyrone with two championship wins to Derry’s three), spilled into the 2000s. Many will remember Derry pipping us at the second attempt in 2001, in the first edition of the All Ireland qualifiers, and destroying Tyrone who were reigning All Ireland champions in Ulster in 2006.

No one can change the fact that Derry won the All Ireland first in 1993 but it’s a lot easier to swallow now Tyrone have brought Sam Maguire back four times to the O’Neill County. The pendulum has clearly swung and the last four championship meetings have resulted in victories for Tyrone – 2009, 2016, 2017 and 2019.

Derry have plenty of star quality. While the departure of Ciaran McFall to the States came as a disappointment, they still have huge performers in Conor Glass and Shane McGuigan.

Sunday will be an intense game but I sense Tyrone are finding form at the right time. We have the experience in these games and have been playing at a much higher level in recent years. Anything but a home victory would be a shock but certainly not impossible.

Finally, congratulations to the Tyrone U20 team who captured the Ulster Championship with a narrow win over Cavan last Friday. This bodes well for the future and generates great excitement around the county. The Minor team are also progressing in the Ulster Championship. Heady days for the county!

Ulster Championship v Derry @ Celtic Park 2016

Tyrone and Fermanagh to open Championship 2022

Tyrone, the defending champions, will open the All Ireland Senior Football Championship away to Fermanagh in Enniskillen on Saturday evening. This match has come around quickly after Tyrone concluded the league with moral-restoring wins over Mayo and Kerry.

A frustrating league campaign will be a distant memory if Tyrone can make a statement in the Ulster Championship, this spring. A number of key players are however doubts for Saturday. Former captain Mattie Donnelly is suffering hamstring problems and may not feature in this year’s Ulster Championship at all. Peter Harte, arguably our best player in the league, is recovering from appendicitis. Brian Kennedy and Michael O’Neill are recovering from injuries and could feature soon which is more heartening. Less pleasing is the departure of Paul Donaghy from the panel, the seventh footballer to leave since we lifted Sam Maguire in September. There is no doubt that our panel has been severely compromised and we lack the strength in depth that helped us see out the biggest games last summer.

The form of several players has been poor during the league but better weather and faster pitches should help in changing that. These are men who turn up on the biggest of occasions and don’t have to prove anything to anyone.

Fermanagh are no pushovers but realistically no one is expecting a shock at the weekend. This is not the Fermanagh team of the 2000s who reached an All Ireland semi-final in 2004 and came within inches of winning their first provincial championship in 2008. They finished mid-table in Division 3 and will be playing in the Tailteann Cup this summer unless they reach the Ulster final.

Fermanagh’s last championship win over Tyrone came in 1982 but past championship history points strongly in Tyrone’s favour – Tyrone have 13 victories to Fermanagh’s five, with two draws between the sides.

Recent duals have been sparse. Tyrone have only played Fermanagh once in competitive football since 2007, an NFL Division 2 match in 2016 which ended in a draw at a rainy soaked Brewster Park but Tyrone’s most recent championship trips to Brewster Park have resulted in victory – against Cavan in 2018 and against Donegal last July.

With the exception of Darren McCurry, Tyrone’s forwards have struggled so far this year. Saturday represents an opportunity, for the likes of Cathal McShane to rediscover form with tougher tests ahead. Meanwhile, Fermanagh’s Seán Quigley scored 4-29 in the league and will also fancy his chances against a Tyrone defence that have not been at its best. Derry await the winners of this preliminary round tie in the Ulster Championship quarter-final.

Reflections on the League

2022’s NFL Division 1 did not disappoint. The league really is a fantastic competition but not one you can ever expect Tyrone to fully show their hand in. Tyrone survived an away trip in Round 7 to Killarney with Dublin and Kildare falling to Division 2.

Predicting what Tyrone would do on any given weekend was futile. We stumbled against Monaghan and Donegal, when wins looked to be on the cards. We were horrendous against Armagh and Dublin, suffering convincing defeats after two first half no shows. We beat Kildare by the narrowest of margins, saving our best to the last two rounds against two of the best three teams in the country – Mayo and Kerry.

Just a few weeks ago, things were looking ominous for 2022. We have always stuttered in the years following All Ireland triumphs and many of us will be forgiven for feeling a certain sense of déjà vu. I missed the rarest of Tyrone wins on Sunday in Killarney at home with Covid. It certainly perked up my mood and resurrected my optimism for the year. It was a frantic afternoon and showcased most of the best of our games.

The Ulster Championship is going to intense. We start away to Fermanagh in Enniskillen in just over a fortnight. A win there would be rewarded with a quarter-final at home to Derry in Omagh. Derry will be furious that dodgy refereeing lost them the most important game of their campaign in Roscommon and they missed out on promotion despite a 5-1-1 record. Make no mistake – they are a team on the up. An extra year in Division 2 might aid their development but it won’t be easy with Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Cork for company.

Tyrone have had almost a full panel to choose from during the league. Niall Morgan, Frank Burns, Conor Meyler, Niall Sludden and Darren McCurry started all seven games. Nathan Donnelly started the first five but has dropped to the role of substitute as the league concludes. However, Michael O’Neill has yet to feature and Mattie Donnelly and Conor McKenna are struggling for fitness and gametime. Pádraig McNulty’s injury in Ballybofey is disappointing but the form of Conn Kilpatrick and Brian Kennedy in midfield has been superb.

Cathal McShane has struggled to regain the form of 2019 which made him a nailed-on All Star while Darren McCurry finished the league in fine form. Darragh Canavan has been a member of the panel for a few years now but it’s been very stop-start. 2022 looks to be the year when he finally shows what he can do on a regular basis at the top level.

The six departures from the panel were disappointing but have afforded opportunities to others. Jonathan Munroe’s return to the Tyrone team is heartening and encouraging and Richie Donnelly has put in some decent performances. Peter Harte is finding top form again at the right time. Poor discipline cost us heavily against Armagh and Dublin but if we keep our heads, 2022 promises to be a good year. Ronan McNamee’s return in the last three games has been timely and we will need him at the peak of his powers to help shore up the defence.

Tyrone will play our seventh consecutive season in Division 1 in 2023. We will have fixtures against Armagh, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Mayo, Monaghan and Roscommon. While going down wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world, it certainly would have hampered preparation for the Championship next year. And let’s be honest – you want to play against the best week in week out.

Can reunion with Mayo spur stuttering Tyrone into life?

Last weekend’s relegation four-pointer with Dublin in Omagh did not go our way. A bright ten minute period at the beginning of the first half failed to deliver more than a solitary converted free as Dublin routed a tepid Tyrone with point after point to lead by a scoreline of 0-11 to 0-2 at half time. The match was in reality over long before half time and it was a sobering experience to hang about until full time. Dublin now look much more likely to avoid relegation than we do despite having opened their campaign with four straight defeats.

Our home support has not been strong this season, perhaps mirroring the lacklustre performances on the field. Those in the bar at the interval were disgusted with what they saw. Seeing the crowds pouring out early, it is difficult to remember you are watching the All Ireland champions. Everyone is searching for a reason. Is it a post All Ireland triumph hangover? Have the half dozen departures from the panel sapped morale? Is there bad feeling in the camp? Or are we just being just a bit too cute for own good and playing down expectations?

All this will become clear in the next six weeks, after Championship games against Fermanagh and Derry, should we beat the former. One thing that is certain is that poor discipline is costing us. Captain Pádraig Hampsey had a terrible afternoon against Dublin. A black card in the first half and a red card just after half time for shouldering Cormac Costello off the pitch were unacceptable. He will need to summon the form and spirit of last summer in which he deservedly became the third Tyrone man to captain his county to Sam Maguire.

Ronan McNamee returned but it was not to be an enjoyable afternoon for him. He will need minutes against Mayo and Kerry to get back up to speed but they will not be easy outings. Conor McKenna appears to be struggling with injuries and has started just one game this season. Brian Kennedy was a huge loss of presence in midfield against Dublin and we will want to see him return as soon as possible.

Tyrone’s forwards are not finding scores from play easy to come by in the league. Darren McCurry has five, Niall Sludden and Richie Donnelly have four and Cathal McShane has only three. No other Tyrone forward has more than two.

On Saturday evening, Mayo will visit Omagh. Mayo will be eyeing up revenge for last year’s All Ireland final defeat and will also be looking to return the favour for when Tyrone relegated Mayo to Division 2 in 2020. It’s been a strange league for a number of counties but we are staring relegation in the face. Tyrone’s league performances have often deceived in past years as our runs deep into the championship will attest. Maybe supporters and pundits are over-reacting and it will all turn out fine in the summer. However, the manner of the disappointing performances rather than the poor results gives plenty of genuine cause for concern.

Tyrone have games against Mayo and Kerry ahead in order to preserve Division 1 status for 2023. While it would be chastening to be relegated, it is not the end of the world. Mayo will have designs on a spot in the final. W would enjoy playing the role of party poopers but first we must secure our own safety. Tyrone have a habit of getting league wins when least expected. Keep the faith and expect the unexpected.

Dublin @ Healy Park March 2022