‘Blue’ day for out of sorts Tyrone at Croke Park

Dublin 5-18 Tyrone 0-12

THIS was not a good day at the office: Tyrone were mauled by the merciless Dubs at Croke Park on Sunday marking an inglorious end to what had otherwise been a fruitful National League campaign.

The ease with which Dublin sauntered up the park and plundered goal-after-goal and point-after-point was the story of an entirely one-sided contest at a quarter-full Croke Park.

There were 21 points separating the sides at the final whistle leaving Tyrone with serious work to do on the training pitch ahead of their Ulster Championship opener against Cavan or Monaghan in three weeks’ time.

We’ve been here before – that infamous day down in Killarney in 2021 when Tyrone shipped six goals in a similar beating – and it certainly didn’t do any harm in the long-run, but all the same that will be of little consolation now to the Tyrone players after such a chastening experience at the hands of the Dubs.

Played in front of an attendance of 17,450 supporters, Dublin got the show on the road with a point from Con O’Callaghan, the spadework done by his colleague Lorcan O’Dell in front of the old Canal End.

Tyrone found themselves with a fair bit of space in which to operate in the opening quarter and got their first point of the day with a free from Darren McCurry. It was warranted – Cathal McShane had been bundled to the floor after a bullet of a pass from Niall Morgan who had drifted outfield.

Dublin edged back in front after useful forward play from the underrated Colm Basquel who proved himself a menace all afternoon with his incisive movement and unerring accuracy in front of the posts.

>body2text<But it was steady enough going from a Tyrone perspective early on and their second score was similar in tone to the first, Niall Morgan playing in target man Cathal McShane who made no mistake in front of the posts.

At times Dublin were able to venture forwards almost at their leisure and they stitched together two points in the space of a minute from midfielder Tom Lahiff and half-forward Ross McGarry. There was nothing earth-shattering about their build-up place but their fluidity was impressive in spite of the best efforts of an inexperienced Tyrone full-back line.

Kieran McGeary looked sharp and nailed a good point in the 12th minute and while it wasn’t the most intense fare, at least Tyrone were making a game of it against a Dublin team with rather more to play for.

But for a prolonged period thereafter, Tyrone struggled big-time in the face of a Dublin defence that had decided it was time to batten down the hatches. Tyrone persisted with their tactic of pumping the ball into Cathal McShane and it didn’t really pay off, despite the enduring efforts of the Owen Roes man who certainly tried his level best.

Down the other end of the field, Dublin chipped away at the scoreboard, starting with their first goal of the game. Brian Fenton had possession on the right flank, played a tidy pass into Con O’Callaghan, who flicked the ball through to Colm Basquel and that was that – within the blink of an eye, the Dubs had the ball in the back of the net.

That opened up a 1-4 to 0-3 lead and the scores started to flow freely, unfortunately at only one end of the pitch. For the rest of the half, Dublin outscored Tyrone by 1-7 to 0-3, Con O’Callaghan and Colm Basquel the main offenders.

Tyrone’s struggles were neatly summed up in Dublin’s second goal of the game coming on the cusp of half-time. Tyrone had a prolonged period of possession and moved it from flank to flank, but Dublin were in no mood to roll out the red carpet and eventually wrestled back possession. They ferried the ball up the pitch and after a defence-splitting handpass over his own shoulder by Colm Basquel, Niall Scully did the rest.

All the Red Hands could muster during the second quarter were a few fine individual efforts – a long-range free from Niall Morgan and points from play from McCurry and McShane, and with the half-time scoreboard reading 2-11 to 0-6 in the Dubs’ favour, it was a long way back from Tyrone.

Any thoughts of an unlikely second-half comeback were quickly nipped in the bud, however. Con O’Callaghan tagged on a brace then the Tyrone defence parted all too readily as Cian Murphy and Colm Basquel struck for two goals.

That left Dublin with an entirely unassailable 4-13 to 0-6 lead and talk about rubbing salt in the wound – they added a fifth goal of the day when Lorcan O’Dell blasted the ball through a phalanx of Tyrone defenders.

Inexperience was certainly a factor – the likes of Padraig Hampsey and Michael McKernan played no part yesterday – and of course Tyrone had been left chasing the game but it still made for difficult viewing from a Tyrone perspective with their Ulster Championship opener only a matter of weeks away.

Tyrone plugged away gamely with Ruairi Canavan growing in prominence, landing two lovely scores, one from the right flank and one from the left and his cousin Lorcan McGarrity also getting his name on the scoresheet.

With seven goals between the te ams, however, the die had been long since cast and the atmosphere seeped out of the game almost entirely as the clock ticked into the final 15 minutes.

Dublin rang the changes with second-half sub Paul Mannion kicking a couple of tidy points while Tyrone got their tenth of the day from Niall Morgan, whose score was greeted with ironic cheers from Dublin fans on Hill 16.

There were a scattering of further scores in the final minutes of what had been a desperately disappointing contest from a Tyrone perspective. This was a footballing clinic from the Dubs and time will only tell whether Tyrone can learn the salutory lessons from a day where everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

The Scorers

TYRONE
Ruairi Canavan (0-4, 0-1f), Cathal McShane (0-2), Darren McCurry and Niall Morgan (0-2, 0-1f each) Lorcan McGarrity and Kieran McGeary (0-1 each)
DUBLIN
Colm Basquel (2-3, 0-1m), Con O’Callaghan (0-5, 0-2f, 0-1m), Lorcan O’Dell (1-2, 0-1f), Niall Scully and Cian Murphy (1-0 each), Ross McGarry, Killian McGinnis and Paul Mannion (0-2 each), Seán McMahon (0-1)

The Teams
TYRONE
Niall Morgan, Conall Devlin, Nathan McCarron, Aidan Clarke, Ben Cullen, Kieran McGeary, Niall Devlin, Brian Kennedy, Aodhan Donaghy, Joe Oguz, Conor Cush, Lorcan McGarrity, Darren McCurry, Ruairi Canavan, Cathal McShane. Subs: Tarlach Quinn for McCarron, Ciarán Daly for McShane, Seanie O’Donnell for McGeary, Tiarnan Quinn for McCurry.
Dublin
Evan Comerford, Sean MacMahon, Diare Newcombe, Eoin Murchan, Cian Murphy, Brian Howard, Brian Fenton, Tom Lahiff, Ross McGarry, Niall Scully, Lorcan O’Dell, Ciaran Kilkenny, Killian McGinnis, Con O’Callaghan, Colm Basquel Subs: Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne for Fenton, Paul Mannion for Con O’Callaghan, Theo Clancy for Newcombe, Cian O’Connor for Murchan.