O’Rourke hopes Tyrone learn from painful semi setback

IT will be a more confident Tyrone team that bids to make a mark in the All-Ireland series later this year after a strong performance brought them to the brink of ousting the reigning Sam Maguire holders in Saturday’s Ulster semi-final.

Just one point separated the teams at St Tiernach’s Park in Clones, but there was more than enough evidence from the Red Hands’ display to suggest they will be strong contenders in the later stages of this year’s championship.

Rory Grugan’s late winner made the score 0-23 to 0-22 for Armagh, who now proceed to the provincial final. For Tyrone, the return to training at Garvaghey comes with the knowledge that they are capable of challenging for top honours in 2025.

Tyrone manager Malachy O’Rourke was understandably disappointed with the result, but he accepted that the experience gained bodes well for his new charges.

“We started to really go at Armagh in the second half after going behind. They showed why they are All-Ireland champions in the way they finished the game, so we’re a bit disappointed with that,” he said.

“The Ulster Championship is gone, but the good thing is we live to fight another day and we’re looking forward to the All-Ireland series now. We got ourselves into a good position without playing our best and are just disappointed we didn’t finish it off.

“The pleasing thing was that when we went five or six points down, the players didn’t throw in the towel.

“There was good fight and good character shown – and that’s our number one aim: To fight to the final whistle.

“There are a lot of things we need to get much better at, but at the same time, we got into a great position to win the game, and it’s disappointing we didn’t finish it.”

Supporters will also have been encouraged by a number of key Tyrone performances that augur well for the future. Despite Mattie Donnelly and Peter Harte having to withdraw from the starting team just before throw-in, others stepped up to make their mark.

Darren McCurry’s accuracy and determination were key factors, while Darragh Canavan, Michael McKernan, Cormac Quinn and Conn Kilpatrick also impressed. Eoin McElholm injected energy into the attack after coming on, and Peter Harte’s monster two-pointer brought Tyrone right back into contention at a crucial stage.

The focus now shifts to maintaining momentum ahead of the All-Ireland series, where Tyrone will be pitted against three other counties in a group yet to be confirmed.

“It was great to get Padraig Hampsey back after being out for a long time. Mattie Donnelly had a bug overnight – a few lads had it earlier in the week too,” added O’Rourke.

“It’s desperately disappointing to come away with nothing after putting in such a big effort in the second half.

“But we’ll dust ourselves down. When you have players prepared to fight right to the end like that, there’s lots to build on.

“There are plenty of aspects of our performance that need improvement. Our workrate was really good towards the end, and we manufactured a couple of top-quality scores.

“We knew this would be a good benchmark, to see how close we are to the All-Ireland champions. Even without playing our best, we came close enough.

“There’s plenty of positives to take from this game – but also a lot of improvements needed.”