Donnelly sees the bright side after improved display against Armagh

By Niall Gartland

MATTIE Donnelly was happy to acknowledge that Tyrone’s performance levels were hugely improved in Saturday afternoon’s McKenna Cup defeat to Armagh.

Tyrone fell to a chastening defeat to Cavan last Tuesday evening in their first competitive outing as All-Ireland champions, with the obvious caveat that they were only home from a team holiday in Orlando, Florida.

While they lost out by 2-15 to 1-15 against Armagh, the scoreline alone tells you that this was much more like it from Tyrone, and Donnelly, who was a constant menace up front, agreed that it was a much more respectable showing from the Red Hands.

“The energy was a lot greater today – it had to be. We’ve set high standards over the last few years and Tuesday’s game against Cavan fell below it.

“So we expected a bit of a reaction, the performance needed to be better, and while the result didn’t go our way, the performance and the effort which we asked for was a lot better.”

Tyrone have a fortnight to prepare for their Division One opener against Monaghan on January 30. They’ll get back down to business on the training ground, and Donnelly is confident that they have the personnel to get up to the pitch of battle ahead of their looming league campaign.

“Armagh probably had a lot more work in the bank, there’s no point lying about that. We’ve some work in the bank too but we’ve a lot of refinement to do.

“That’s on the agenda for us – to start refining and getting up to those level and we need to do that pretty sharpish as we’ve Monaghan in two weeks. We’ve a lot of work to do but we have the boys to do it.

“We’re acutely aware that we have a lot of work to do. We’ve a lot of work behind us as well, but we have to work on things physically, tactically and technically. We have the squad and management to do that so we’ll make progress week-on-week.”

Kieran McGeeney’s side looked in good nick against Tyrone, and they gave some exceptional players in their ranks, none more so than Crossmaglen dangerman Rian O’Neill. Donnelly also recognises that Tyrone have a target on their backs this year as All-Ireland champions.

“Armagh are well-conditioned physically, they know what they’re at and have been on the road a long time under Kieran McGeeney. Any team coming to play us this year will be very motivated. You’ve seen that already and we just have to raise our standards.”

Donnelly admits that they made life difficult for themselves at times as Armagh picked off scores on the counter-attack.

Again, it’s something that Tyrone have no choice but to work on ahead of a tough run of fixtures in the league.

“At this level you can’t afford to hand out unforced turnovers, especially against counter-attacking teams like Armagh. You saw how fast and mobile they are, and their high level of physical conditioning lends itself to that type of game. We played into their hands at times, but our intention was right and we just need to learn from it and hopefully we will with a bit of refinement.

“Their goal was the difference and it came from a turnover. It’s something to learn from, we maybe forced the issue a few times. We passed up a few good point-scoring opportunities to bring it back to a one-point game, we probably forced the issue a bit.”

Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher have used the McKenna Cup wisely, trying out a host of newcomers in both their games. But it’s also been of value for experienced performers like Donnelly.

“It’s been a good eye opener for a lot of us, both young and old. The next two weeks will be about getting the work done that needs to be done. We still intend on showing up in good shape for the first league game.”

On the new boys in the panel at present, he said: “This is a great environment for them to be in. They’ve done the work and shown great endeavour and energy and that keeps everyone on their toes.”