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WITH a whopping 24 players featuring for Tyrone in the McKenna Cup semi-final loss last week to Monaghan, Malachy O’Rourke has definitely been true to his word in giving everyone at his disposal a crack at it in the January pre-season competition.
The stakes from now on are a lot higher for the Red Hands as they begin their quest for promotion from Division Two of the National League this Saturday night against Kildare.
While his inherent competitive nature meant the manager was understandably disappointed to lose to the Farney men, O’Rourke stressed that the McKenna Cup had served its purpose, but his primary focus all along has been the upcoming League campaign.
“ I was very happy with a lot of aspects of it. We wanted to get good competitive games and we got that. The fact that we could have been playing again in three days time (Final) meant it was a very fine balancing act trying to get game time for lads and not to overdo it.
“We picked up a couple of injuries at the weekend (vs Down) on top of those we already have. So we didn’t want to be doing anything stupid that would put fellas out for ten days time. We had to be careful as well. We were pleased overall and felt we could have won the game at the end. We were disappointed we didn’t.”
O’Rourke made nine substitutions in the second half at Inniskeen, with returning captain Brian Kennedy among those entering the fray. The manager felt it was imperative to also give the rawer recruits a prolonged run-out in the three McKenna Cup matches.
“ All of the boys acquitted themselves very well. They have been all training really well and again that was the case tonight, we wanted to get a look at them.
“You want to give fellas a fair crack at the whip as well. There is no point just watching them in training.
“You want to put them out in inter-county games like this and see how they get on. We felt we could try lads out and also get to the final as well. We nearly did that but it wasn’t to be.”
Tyrone will have to cull their squad for the League and O’Rourke acknowledges that he has an unenviable array of talent at his disposal, albeit their options were stretched last Wednesday night.
“We have eleven away in the Sigerson Cup and a number of lads who have played no football this year yet. They are coming back from injury. So you could be talking 15/16 lads not available to us tonight.
“When you take all that into account that’s why we have to be careful with minutes we give the boys because we can’t afford to overload them and pick up more needless injuries.
“It was still a pity we didn’t win the game, but we got a lot out of it at the same time.”