Chloe praises the impact of youth on Tyrone panel

THE influx of some exciting young talent has breathed new life into the Tyrone set-up according to talented attacking star Chloe McCaffrey.

In the very first game of the season five players made their competitive debut in the NFL opener against Westmeath (Clara Daly, Aine Grimes, Aoibhinn Daly, Katie Rose Muldoon and Caitlin McCallion), and that trend  continued in subsequent matches with the likes of Ciara Colton, Amelia Coyle, Eimear Quinn, Eimile Loughran and Sorcha Gormley also taking their bow in Red Hand colours.

Chloe McCaffrey is one of seven members of the current panel to have been involved when Tyrone last annexed the All-Ireland Intermediate crown in 2018 and while still aged only 25 herself, the St Macartan’s star feels the strong youthful spine to the panel has helped to galvanise things in 2024.

“ We won the All-Ireland in 2018 and are probably only really now getting back to those heights again. Six years have now passed so we want to make the most of this opportunity to win it.

“ The year (2019) after we did very well getting to the quarter-finals of the Senior Championship but ever since Covid it’s really hasn’t got going until this season again.

“ No doubt a lot of the younger girls has helped boost things- the likes of Aine Grimes and Clara Daly have slotted in and done really well.

“We have a very young squad and a few of us older heads to go along with them. So it is a good mix right now.”

On the back of a successful League campaign Tyrone are already guaranteed to be playing Division One football next season, but McCaffrey, the team vice-captain, stresses that a Championship triumph would provide a solid platform on which to really build.

“ We haven’t been hitting the heights we did back in 2018 but to be playing Division One and Senior Championship next year would be massive for Tyrone football, in terms of the team development, but also hopefully to bring more younger girls out to get involved and aspire to play for the Seniors some time in the future.”

Chloe states that the panel cannot wait for Sunday to come around and to get the opportunity to grace the hallowed turf of Croke Park for the second time in a season.

“ We can’t wait for the game. We are delighted to be there as it was a tough campaign. We have had a bit of an up and down Championship and there has been times when we didn’t know what way it was going to go.

“ Since the start of the year it was one of our aims to get to an All-Ireland Final. Croke Park is a great pitch and a great place to be playing in. We are definitely looking forward to it. The fact we were there already hopefully should stand to the girls.

“They have all got that experience now of running out at Croke Park and that should help to ease nerves.”

Having been on the wrong end of a stunning comeback from Leitrim earlier in the All-Ireland competition, McCaffrey appreciates that Tyrone must be on their guard to prevent a repeat on Sunday.

“ Leitrim are full of heart. We were up by ten and they came back to beat us by a point so that shows the type of team that they are.

“They also have a Tyrone man over them so they will know a lot about us. We definitely won’t be taking them for granted.

“ We can’t think about anyone making us favourites. We won’t listen to any outside noise and just focus on ourselves.”

After the disappointment of losing to Kildare in the League Final at Croker, Chloe acknowledges that the Championship was something of a slow burner for Tyrone, until they belatedly hit their straps.

“ We had a great league campaign which we didn’t really expect at the start of the year.

“In the League Final we were a bit unlucky though we probably didn’t perform as well as we expected on the day.

“ In the Ulster Championship against Monaghan we just couldn’t hit the form of the league.

“We only started getting going at the time of the Wicklow game and then the Clare game was a massive win just to get us back on the right footing.”