Tyrone were shown the ‘levels’ they need to reach- O’Rourke

IT was a Championship season which momentarily brought the bright prospect of All-Ireland glory for Tyrone before ending in the blistering heat at Croke Park on Saturday with a bitterly disappointing loss.

Both the players and management were understandably finding positives difficult to contemplate after a comprehensive 1-20 to 0-17 defeat to Kerry.

But, when the dust settles on this 2025 campaign, the future does look much better for the Red Hands.

More than 62,000 fans attended this tenth clash against the Kingdom in Sam Maguire football. Tyrone began impressively, and were very much in contention entering the second half. Then, things slipped, and the outcome was decided well before the final whistle.

Team manager, Malachy O’Rourke, was well aware of where things went wrong here. There will be plenty of food for thought in the long months ahead permeated by club championship commitments and preparations for the next year.

“I will take a lot of positives out of this year. We have had four championship victories, went to Ballybofey and won, went to Croke Park and beat Dublin, and the boys have put in a lot of effort,” he said.

“In the last four, you are going to be playing the top teams and Kerry are obviously one of those. Any weaknesses that you have are going to be exposed more than in other games.

” A game like this shows the level that you have to get to if you want to be challenging for the top honours and I suppose that is what we learned here.”

This was a tenth championship clash against the Kingdom stretching back, of course, to the famous All-Ireland Final meeting of 1986. Victory for Kerry in Saturday’s game means that they have now won six of those clashes, including the All-Ireland semi-finals of 2015, 2019 and now 2025.

Still, when the video analysis of this latest clash is eventually completed there will be aspects of the tie where Malachy O’Rourke and his backroom team will see clearly the requirement for improvements.

He highlighted some of the areas where Kerry’s control made a key difference in sealing their place in the All-Ireland Final instead of the Red Hands.

“We played a lot of good football in the first half and felt that we were in the game at half-time. There was a bit of a breeze and we knew if we tightened up and got our defence more compact then we were right in the game,” he added.

“It was got back to a point, but then when we got possession we just weren’t able to penetrate the Kerry defence. Our shot selection at times wasn’t great and Kerry could have got a few more goals and were able to increase their lead.

“There is a lot of space in Croke Park, and we knew after the Kerry win over Armagh that we wanted to curb Paudie Clifford and Sean O’Shea as much as we could.

” We were hoping to do that and then get back into a compact space. But when you give the ball away, you’re scrambling back and maybe we didn’t get back quick enough to give enough cover to our full-back line.

“In the first half, we had a lot of good movement off the ball and were doing most harm when there were runners coming off the shoulder and getting through gaps.

” It’s possible that their defence was more compact in the second half, and our movement around wasn’t as good and there weren’t as many gaps for us to make incisive breaks. Kerry were set up well and we just weren’t able to score.”

Small things made a difference, and many in Tyrone will feel aggrieved by the number of frees awarded to them by the Cavan referee, Joe McQuillan. Although Malachy O’Rourke didn’t focus too much on the differences, he still expressed surprise at the statistics.

He also urged some of the county’s veteran stars to remain on board to build for the future in 2026 and beyond.

“There is a big vaccum there between the U-20s and seniors, and a lot of work to be done. The more experienced players being about to guide the younger lads, then so much the better,” he added.

“It is a very condensed season, and there was a time when there was six weeks between the league and preparing for the championship. The new set-up means that you’ve only a couple of weeks and it’s game-by-game.

“It does seem rushed at times, and you would like more time to work at different aspects of matches.”