Teague: Red Hands are heading in the right direction

EVEN though Tyrone’s league campaign culminated in relegation, Peter Teague is confident that they are heading in the right direction ahead of next month’s Ulster Championship opener against Cavan.

The Red Hands couldn’t quite maintain their grip on their Division One status, but it’s certainly not a matter of grave concern given the prevailing circumstances surrounding their relegation.

In any other season, seven points on the board would’ve been more than enough to stay up – and just as pertinently, Tyrone have played some great stuff over the course of recent weeks in particular.

Speaking after Sunday’s win over Dublin, Peter Teague, who delivered his latest assured performance in defence, said that their pressing priority was delivering a performance against the Dubs as they knew external events were entirely outside their control.

“I’ve just found out that we’ve got the drop, but we were just focusing on ourselves today, we wanted to put in a good performance and get the result and thankfully we did that.

“Other results didn’t go our way but it’s a very, very tough Division – it’s as competitive as Division One has ever been.

“There’s very little between those top seven or eight teams, but as I said our main aim was getting a performance and now we’ll turn our focus towards the championship.”

Also worth noting is that the last two All-Ireland SFC winners have emerged from Division Two, namely Dublin (2023) and Armagh (2024).

The Dromore man commented: “You could see how competitive Division Two was last year. Armagh maybe came in under the radar a bit, they played Donegal in the league final and they both ended up in the All-Ireland semi-finals and Armagh went on and won the whole thing. It was the same with Dublin the year before.

“Listen, it’s the card we’ve been dealt, we’ll take it on the chin and it’s not until next year. We’ve a long part of the season ahead of us so we’ll focus on that.”

Tyrone have shown notable signs of progression over their league campaign, going unbeaten in their final three matches with the championship just around the corner. Teague says the return of their Errigal Ciaran contingent is one of the factors behind the heightened competition in the squad which has aligned with their improved performances on the pitch.

“The Errigal men not being there for the first three or four matches would impact any team. We’re only starting to really gel together in training, we’ve got a good three or four games together and every man is putting their shoulders to the wheel. There’s competition for places all over the pitch and we still have one or two men to come back in and hopefully they’ll push the thing on further.”

Teague, who was part of the All-Ireland winning team of 2021, also says that he’s glad to be back in the fold under Tyrone’s new manager Malachy O’Rourke. He’s had a stellar league campaign on a personal level and he’s very much keen on carrying his form into the championship.

“I’m very thankful to Malachy and the backroom team for putting their trust in me and it’s great to be back. I love playing football for both my club and county. Any day you’re able to pull on your county jersey is a special day and long may it continue.”

Peter was in the stands for Tyrone’s Ulster Championship quarter-final win over Cavan after extra-time last year at a sunny Kingspan Breffni. Now he’s back on the field of play for his county and is looking forward to their Ulster Championship opener against Cavan on Sunday, April 13.

“I was at that game last year, I remember it was a very hot day in Cavan. It’ll be a different experience on the other side of the fence this year. Cavan’s a serious team and they’ve serious operators all over the pitch, fellas like Gearoid McKiernan. They’ve picked up serious form after a bad start, they had four or five wins on the bounce so it’ll be a big test in three weeks’ time.