“Going on from the first game where they were very impressive, Paul Donaghey’s gone off form completely, and Conor McKenna’s form right through the league has been desperate.”
The word “crisis” has been thrown around a lot in GAA circles this season. The snappy league with very little pre-season, COVID restrictions, new management teams not getting time to work with their teams – all of these factors have played a role in teams being a little inconsistent.
In Tyrone however, things are looking to be increasingly worrying. Despite the fact that they tick the box for all of these excuses, the Ulster side were still expected to be performing a lot better than they have been recently.
They seem as though they are struggling to find their identity as the team is chopped and changed, while simultaneously transitioning out of this defensive system that has served them so well in years gone by.
Even the most die-hard Tyrone fan would have admitted that Kerry were probably the favourites going into this match, but everyone thought that they would at least be competitive and they certainly didn’t think the defence would be so leaky.
Discussing their poor form on the GAA Hour, Colm Parkinson tries to get to the source of the problem: “What do Tyrone do here, do they stick or twist? How do they fix this?
“Going on from the first game where they were very impressive, Paul Donaghy’s gone off form completely, Conor McKenna’s form right through the league has been desperate. Everything should be going through him and it’s not, he’s outside of every game – it’s really worrying.
“They’ve conceded six goals, they’re trying to play a more open style – you will catch Tyrone backs out. I’m not necessarily sure that they’re bad backs, they’re just not used to this.
“They’re trying to learn on the hop, no pre-season, they have new management and how good is the management to actually coach these defenders in a more open game? There’s lots of questions for Tyrone there.”
Former Cork star Paul Kerrigan was also on the show, and agrees that the Red Hands have reasons to be concerned.
“We said they were probably the most exciting team or at least the team we were most looking forward to seeing in the league, but they now have the most questions,” said the 2010 All-Ireland winner.
“I know they have the old culture of blanket defence and they’re coming out of it as a team. I don’t know if the management knows what their best 15 are going into the championship. In the forward line, McKenna has been woeful, we were hoping for big things from him.
“Mark Bradley, Lee Brennan, Darren McCurry; they’ve all been in and out of the team. Mattie Donnelly’s been moved all over the place . I think they have an awful lot of questions.
“Canavan, who looked good, is now under pressure for the championship. I would say they definitely have to tighten up the defence – they will probably sacrifice a forward to do so.
“Tiernan McCann came on at the weekend and did all right, so they might put him in at wing back, but I think they’re under a bit of pressure. They have Cavan now in a few weeks time, so I think they have massive questions over them coming out of the league.”
Listen to the full discussion on the GAA Hour now
