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Casting the net wide
EVERYONE is getting their chance. Malachy O’Rourke is operating with a panel of about 45 players at the moment. There’s your experienced heads, young guns fresh off the shelf after their All-Ireland winning exploits at U-20 level, and lads who showed up well in the Tyrone Club Championships. Ethan Jordan, for example, made his debut against Down at the weekend and acquitted himself very well indeed. The difficult part is to come – the panel will be whittled back in time for the league, though O’Rourke has expresssed his hope that anyone who doesn’t make the cut will remain involved via the feeder squad.
So who’s going to start?
IT’S not just a question of who’s going to make the cut for the upcoming National League campaign. In recent years, you could make a decent stab at who was going to start for Tyrone on any given day out. This time around, things are rather different and in truth that’s the way any manager would want it. You could probably count on one hand those who are nailed-on starters for the Kildare match , but elsewhere there’s a whole load of positions up for grabs. Who would you start? Answers on a postcard, please.
They went out on their shields
IT wasn’t to be for Clogher on Sunday. I watched the first half of their All-Ireland final before switching my focus to the Tyrone v Down game, but it looked like they were in business at the interval. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, but they gave it an almighty rattle and only for a string of spurned chances, could easily have come out on top. Anyway, it doesn’t make things any easier for the rest of us that Kerry have a championship system that lends itself to excelling in the All-Ireland Intermediate and Junior Championships. I think it’s something the top table of the GAA need to tackle head-on because it’s getting tedious at this stage.
Coming to the boil
OMAGH CBS are getting better with every game. In their MacRory Cup quarter-final last Friday night at Fintona they swatted aside St Pat’s Armagh with ease, racking up five goals in a comfortable victory. Some key players are available again after recovering from injury, and they’re two wins away from a third MacRory Cup title in four seasons. The competition is fierce though – all the teams remaining will have designs on the title so it’lll be fascinating to see how it all pans out.
We’re blessed to have streaming services
IN life, one has a tendancy to take things for granted. That’s definitely the case with the sheer volume of games that are available to watch these days, a hefty portion of which are streamed online. It takes a massive amount of work on the part of dedicated production teams, and it means that matches which wouldn’t have been broadcast in a million years back in the day are now available to watch at the click of a button.
