Departure narrative has been disrespectful to our players says Dooher

By Niall Gartland

TYRONE joint-manager Brian Dooher says some of the chatter about players leaving the panel over the last few months has been “disrespectful” to the remaining squad members.

Dungannon forward Paul Donaghy is the most recent of seven players who have decided it’s time to move on, and the prevailing narrative in the media is that the exists are a significant blow to Tyrone’s hopes of retaining the All-Ireland for the first time in the county’s history. However, it’s not as if the team is down to the bare bones and there are exactly 40 players on this year’s championship panel, including a number of newcomers from O’Neill Cup winners Dromore and reigning league champions Carrickmore.

Moy forward, Michael Conroy, meanwhile, made his championship debut against Fermanagh on Saturday, coming off the bench and scoring a point, while Conor McKenna made a massive impact during his time on the pitch, before his day was unfortunately cut short by a controversial red card decision from Joe McQuillan.

Dooher, therefore, has good reason to defend the strength-in-depth of the squad and says he hasn’t been ‘overly concerned’ by the departures.

“A lot of people have made a big deal out of it, and it’s disrespectful to the players we have. There’s fine footballers there, and some of them got the opportunity to prove themselves [against Fermanagh] and did well, and there’s more waiting in the wings.

“I wouldn’t be overly concerned about the situation, it is what it is, and we have what we have, and I feel like we’ve a good bench.”

As expected, the Red Hands managed to account for Fermanagh on Saturday, but not without a few hairy moments in the first-half. Peter Harte and Mattie Donnelly missed out through injury, and Richie Donnelly was also unavailable for selection. Dooher fears that their Ulster Championship clash against Derry in a fortnight’s time may come too soon for Mattie, who damaged his hamstring in their victory over Kerry in Killarney last month. “Mattie mightn’t feature, it could come around too quickly for him. The other two will be there or thereabouts. We’ll have to see what the medical team says but they should be in the shake up.”

The two-time All-Ireland winning captain was pleased by Tyrone’s efforts in the second-half as they pushed on to record a 2-17 to 2-10 victory. Dooher says the players themselves knew their first-half performance wasn’t up to scratch, and they upped the ante and blew Fermanagh away during the third quarter.

“They came out with a bit of renewed vigour in the second-half, applied themselves a bit better and worked hard, and that’s all it took.

“They knew to take a bit more accountability with their actions and that’s what we expected. We didn’t get that in the first-half but the players held their hands up and recognised they needed to work harder.”

Dooher also welcomed the long-awaited return of Michael O’Neill, who got his first playing minutes since last year’s All-Ireland final after suffering with an abdominal problem. He was understandably a little bit rusty but the game-time should do him the world of good.

“That was Mickey’s first game for us this year. Obviously it’s a big step up in pace and might take him more time to adjust to that. He’ll be all the better for it and will be an option again in a fortnight’s time against Derry.