NFL: Donegal vs Tyrone- Five Talking Points

Contrasting circumstances

TYRONE badly need the two points this weekend. They have three points on the board after five rounds of matches, so they’re firmly mired in a battle for survival. Donegal by contrast have won four of their five matches and can afford to slip down a gear or two. The question is – will they? There’s a lot of chatter that they’d rather avoid a league final berth as their Ulster Championship campaign starts a week later, but it’s still hard to see them rolling out the red carpet to their neighbours.

On the right track?

WHILE Tyrone have only won one of their league games to date – their opening round encounter against Derry – the manner of their performance against Galway on their last day out suggests that they’re making progress. It was unfortunate the way that one panned out – it looked like Mattie Donnelly had secured a late winner before Galway had the final say, leaving it a draw – but there were far more plus points than negatives and hopefully Tyrone carry that into Sunday’s game against Donegal at Letterkenny.

Goalkeepers reined in

THE Football Review Committee have amended the 3v3 rule, which in its original guise was being used by many teams to create an overload in attack by bringing their goalkeeper up the field as an extra attacker. And boy did goalkeepers make hay with it, and why wouldn’t they? Anyway, the rule has been modified so that the team in possession must have at least four players in their half of the field, which may include the goalkeeper. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Niall Morgan and Ethan Raffertys of this world revert to a more old-school approach as a result.

A new initiative

MALACHY O’Rourke has brought in a new development squad – in effect, a feeder panel. In an interview before the start of the league, he said that it will “feature some of the lads who don’t make the initial panel because of injury, or young lads just starting their development, as well as other lads we just haven’t had a chance to look at yet, with us only being in a while.” They played a match against Derry’s development squad in Moortown last weekend, won by a bagful, and it’ll be interesting to see if any of the players involved will be drafted into Tyrone’s Championship panel.

The pre-season comps get underway

THE expanded Jim Devlin Cup gets underway this evening [Thursday], for clubs as does the McGarrity Cup for Junior players. The pre-season competitions are a great initiative and will give players, managers and referees an opportunity to acclimatise to the new rules (we’re all wondering how exactly that will go at club level). As an aside, last year saw the resurrection of the Jim Devlin Cup and it proved a great success, attracting strong crowds, and it was a fitting tribute to Jim and Gertie Devlin on the 50th anniversary of their murders by loyalists.