Mayo vs Tyrone NFL: Five Talking Points

Looking for a reaction

TYRONE’S round two clash away to All-Ireland champions Armagh didn’t exactly go according to script, but there are always bound to be a few bumps on the road in the early days of a new management team – chalk it down to a learning experience and all that. Tyrone’s approach in the first-half simply did not work, but they’ve had a fortnight to work on things so expect to see a sharper performance against Mayo. That’s usually the way of it league football – a poor performance is rarely a disaster in the long run. Mind you the same argument could be made about Mayo who are still chasing their first victory.

The return of the Errigal lads?

DARRAGH and Ruairi Canavan were advised to follow return to play protocals after sustaining concussions in Errigal Ciaran’s All-Ireland final defeat against Cuala, and they’re due back this weekend. The question is whether Malachy O’Rourke will keep them in reserve – they have played a lot of football over the last year – or throw them back in as Tyrone go in search of two precious league points. There’s two other Errigal lads on the panel – the vastly experienced Peter Harte and Joe Oguz, so it’s fair to say that the return of the Errigal contingent, whether it’s this weekend or not, is a big boost going forward.

A partner for Brian

IT’S fair to say that big Brian Kennedy has firmly established himself as one of the leading midfielders in Ireland over the last number of years. His leadership qualities are commendable and he’s gone up for the toss in their opening two Division One matches, but the question is who will take the other midfield slot in the coming months. Liam Gray is staking a claim for selection, Conn Kilpatrick is a prominent option (he’s generally partnered Brian in the middle in recent years) and then there’s the likes of Aodhan and Cathal Donaghy from Loughmacrory and Joe Oguz. It certainly makes for healthy competition.

Expecting a corker

DONEGAL boss Jim McGuinness says that the new rules lean too heavily in favour of attacking players, but we’re not complaining – there have been some cracking contests in the opening two rounds of league action, none more so than the recent Celtic Park encounter between Kerry and Derry, which ended up the proverbial ‘hurling score’. Perhaps the new two-pointers are putting a bit of gloss on the scorelines, but that said, overall the new rules are doing exactly what they say on the tin – enhancing the game as a spectable. Let’s hope Tyrone v Mayo follows in that trend with plenty of attacking football.

A big result for the Tyrone ladies

IT was never going to be easy for Tyrone ladies in their eagerly anticipated return to Division One and opening round defeats to Meath and Armagh didn’t bode well for their chances of staying up. It’s still a mightily difficult task, but they received a real morale boost last Sunday when they travelled to Mayo and claimed the spoils. It was great to see Niamh O’Neill make her return after two years away, and she scored four points from play in her first competitive outing for Tyrone in some time – well done Niamh.