Brennan hopes that Tyrone can benefit from fortnight break

IF only it was Cavan every week but unfortunately the road to ultimate glory ain’t quite that straightforward.

So while Tyrone got back on the horse with another routine ‘Breffni Beating’ last Sunday at Brewster Park, the real business starts on the weekend of June 28/29th for the Red Hands in the All-Ireland Quarter-Finals.

The 0-31 to 0-18 victory in Enniskillen ensured that Malachy O’Rourke’s men topped Group 1 in the final standings and has also afforded them direct passage into the last eight, thus bypassing this weekend’s Prelim quarter-finals.

Speaking after Sunday’s win centre-half back Rory Brennan admitted that the fourteen day break was one of the main rewards to take away from the outcome against Cavan.

“ At this level if you are playing week in week out it is tough on the body but we can’t make excuses for that day against Mayo. We just weren’t at it.

“ The week after the Donegal game we admit it was hard to recover, but we just weren’t at it against Mayo. But definitely the two weeks gives you that breathing space and bit more preparation time because the schedule is tight these days, so any mini break is welcome. We will lick our wounds and get the bodies right now for the quarter-finals.”

There will be some angry sharks floating about in the other section when the quarter-final draw is held on Monday morning, with the likes of Dublin, Kerry and Galway lying in wait if they overcome their respective assignments this weekend.

Brennan appreciates that is it pointless hoping for an ‘easy’ assignment at this stage of the competition.

“It’s going to be tough whoever it is. On any given days any team can put it up to anyone so we will just see how those games go and see who we get in the draw. We have the fortnight to recover and focus on the next round.”

Reflecting on the nature of the performance in dispatching with Cavan on Sunday in their final group game the Trillick star was satisfied with the display overall, Tyrone barely affording their opponents a look-in across the seventy minutes.

“ It was a good reaction after the last day out. We probably didn’t do ourselves justice that day and were very flat. We weren’t at the races at all. A lot of things contributed to that so it’s hard just to pinpoint one.

“ So our backs were against the ball coming to Enniskillen and we knew we had to put in a performance and thankfully we did that.

“ We worked hard across the whole match and even during the spells where it looked like they might get back in it we responded, so overall the performance was good.”