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TYRONE boss Malachy O’Rourke broadly welcomes the prospect of a McKenna Cup semi-final, but he’s conscious that he’ll have to reach deep into his panel for their Wednesday evening knock-out clash with Monaghan.
The Red Hands booked their spot in the last four of the pre-season competition with yesterday’s four-point win over Down at Pomeroy, a useful exercise that saw nine subs enter the fray at one stage or another.
Two of those subs were made very early on with Niall Devlin and Ruairi Canavan picking up knocks, and O’Rourke also cites the loss of his players who will be in action for their respective universities on Wednesday night.
“The more games we get the better, but having said that, we picked up a couple of injuries there in the first half to both Niall and Ruairi.
“I suppose that’s the chance you take, but it is going to leave us fairly depleted for the next day with all of the college lads in action on Wednesday night as well.
“We are still glad to get through, glad to get a good look at all of the lads on the panel as well, so they will get the chance to show what they are made of I suppose, and they will get that chance on Wednesday night.”
O’Rourke has trialled a batch of intercounty newcomers early in the new season, with a total of 11 players making their debut across Tyrone’s two McKenna Cup matches to date. It’s not just underage stars from recent All-Ireland U20 teams graduating to the senior set-up, with O’Rourke scouring the club scene at every grade. The panel is stellar in that respect, but the difficult part is to come, points out O’Rourke.
“There are a lot of lads coming through who have done brilliantly at underage level, but as I keep saying, it doesn’t happen overnight – they have to be given a chance to develop in every way.
“They are great lads, it’s great to introduce them there, and hopefully they can keep going from strength to strength.
“We also wanted to make sure that we got a good look at all of the different championships this year – Junior, intermediate, senior – we wanted to give everyone a chance.
“The unfortunate thing is we have to cut the panel down now to around the 35 mark, and we probably have 45 at the minute, so we’re going to have to cut eight to ten lads off it.
“The good thing is though we have the feeder squad up and running now that we had last year, so hopefully we lose no one to the system.
“Just because of the numbers we can’t include everyone at the moment, but you will still get a chance and if they have that desire they will get that chance.”
O’Rourke also gave an injury update on captain Brian Kennedy and Peter Teague who are yet to play any part in Tyrone’s 2026 campaign to date.
“The boys were all training this morning and they are coming on well – Brian has done a bit, he’s been on the pitch, he’s taken part in full training, but again it’s a matter of being very careful about how you handle them. Peter is the same, he had a hernia operation, so again he is working away this morning, but hoping that he and all of the boys will be back in the next couple of weeks.
“You could bring them back a week earlier, or a day earlier, and you could set them back three or four weeks, so we want to be very careful with them, but we’re hopeful they will be in contention over the next couple of weeks.”
