‘We can take a lot of learning from Donegal defeat’- McMahon

ALL the focus is now on the All-Ireland series for Tyrone, who will no doubt relish the break after an intense schedule of matches which culminated in their narrow defeat in last weekend’s Ulster Championship semi-final to Donegal.

Tyrone have already played 13 competitive inter-county matches in 2024. That list includes clashes in the McKenna Cup, National League, last week’s Ulster tie against Cavan and then this extra-time encounter with their old rivals from Donegal.

There seems to be little doubt that the clash in Breffni Park a week ago took a toll towards the end of the semi-final at Celtic Park. For, while Tyrone faltered, Donegal appeared to have the greater energy in extra time as they launched attack after attack.

Tyrone selector, Joe McMahon, was understandably disappointed with the 0-18 to 0-16 result against Donegal at the finish, and is well aware of the challenges which faced the players here.

“We set our sights on Ulster and maybe we paid for last week when the game went to extra time. The energy levels it took to get us through that spilled over to this week,” he said.

“We could have won it in normal time, but didn’t take some chances. But we can take a lot of learning from this game overall.

“I think we can be very happy with the effort, considering all that was put into last week (against Cavan). The boys just really died with their boots on, and we couldn’t have asked much more of them.

“It’s now a matter of regrouping, and getting ourselves focused again.”

Tyrone will likely be third seeds in the draw for the All-Ireland series. This means that they will be in a group containing one of the provincial champions as top seeds and one of the provincial finalists as the second seeds. That’s a list which includes All-Ireland champions, Dublin, last year’s defeat finalists, Kerry, Mayo or Galway and Louth or Clare.

Three games now await the Red Hands in that race for the Sam Maguire, and they’ll undoubtedly relish the break as they prepare for what’s around the corner.

“It will be a while before we find out who we are playing. But whoever it might be, it’s another challenge for us and one I’m sure that the whole group will be eyeing up and looking forward to,” added Joe McMahon.

“There are no easy seedings in the All-Ireland and we have seen already in games to date in other provinces that there have been a few scares for the bigger teams. On any given day, any team can certainly give it a go.

“That’s the beauty of these games and with what they are, you’ll always have a chance. The quality which we have shown in stages through the league and in the last two weeks, hopefully we can build on that and push on.”