The biggie in my mind that Kerry are lacking real defenders that are willing to get down and dirty. With the exception of Tom O Sullivan and Paul Murphy (who seemd to be out of form this year) the rest are much more ballers and lack defensive bous and skill. Iâve always felt Morley was under utilized as a man marker. The kind of lad who would sacrifice his game for the good of the team to nullify an opponent much like Meyler yesterday. The retirement of Peter Crowley last year also confused. He was a dog that would be needed in a battle. As @Fulvio_From_Aughnacloy has already said they also lacked a defensive structure/game plan which is baffling considering the lack of backs. The âwe are Kerry, we are footballersâ spiel doesnât cut it
Contrast their backs to Mayo. I think theyâd do well to get one man in the Mayo backs. Mayo have better individual backs than Tyrone who rely a lot of the time on winning individual battles rather than a defensive structure.
I think Tyrone are moving more away from that under Dooher & Logan to be fair. McNamee and Hampsey are as good man markers as there is about right now.
Another player who went very much under the radar yesterday was Michael OâNeill who had two huge interceptions on Sean OâShea to prevent goal chances for Kerry.
Is there anyone in contention for young footballer of the year? Conroy and Mullin possibly for Mayo if they still qualify? Canavan I think is the only Tyrone player who qualifies by age but heâs not really played all that much due to injury.
Only useful for winning intermediate and junior club all-Irelandâs too. Youâd imagine with the regional teams that they should be able to expand senior. Is it 8 or 12 teams that they have in senior? I thought theyâd get more from the minor success but I still feel theyâre underachieving and will improve under better management. Clifford x 2, Oâ Se, Killian Spillane are four potent forwards with two workhorses like Moynihan and Oâ Connor on the wings maybe. They could really do with that Oâ Connor that plays AFL. Midfield options looking tame enough.
The likes of Paul Walsh that was tricking around with Ronaldinho last week may breakthrough as well from the last of those minor teams.
Jack Barry seems to be living off a display in a league final against Dublin 4 or 5 years back now. Havenât seen much from him at Championship level since then.
They had a few tidy looking forwards like Savage and Brosnan in the meantime who looked windy and lightweight at county level.
I have a genuine dislike of their club system, itâs weighted to service a few superclubs at senior level and then they act as if the club level in Kerry is outrageous because their 9th best club competes against other counties 17th best club at intermediate level and their 17th best club competes against other counties 33rd best club at junior level.
Paudie Clifford is a bit of a workhorse too. I donât think they have much answers when you clog up the channels through the middle. They met a Tyrone wall yesterday and it was hard to see where the scores were coming from other than Clifford and a few soft frees. Theyâre just one dimensional, they can cut the lesser teams apart but seem to come unstuck against the big sides.
I do think you need 6 really good defenders to get a handle on Kerry but if you have that then youâre in with every chance.
Teams like Galway and Armagh probably have the attacking weapons to hurt Kerry but they donât have the defenders to win a shootout against them. There was an air of desperation with Stephen OâBrien throwing himself to ground everytime he ran at Tyrone, like Cork last year - itâs one dimensional - they run at teams to open up goal chances but if that doesnât work they look rudderless.
I donât buy this idea that âthe free stateâ (yawn) has a thing against Tyrone.
Kerry certainly do and Tyrone live rent-free in their heads. I think most of the rest find it a bit amusing when Kerry get taken down and that goes for yâday too. Spillane doesnât help that at all.
When Tyrone have attracted negative press in the last 20 odd years it has tended to be for reasonable things as far as I can see eg overtly negative football, cynicism, play-acting, gay porn etc. On the other hand Iâd say most people were delighted to see their breakthrough win back in the day and the top players were properly celebrated throughout. Itâs all part of the gig of being a top team see similar for Dublin, Mayo etc etc
In relation to Covid I wouldnât be particularly fussed about the delay although itâs clear Tyrone played all their cards. The thing about the vaccines was entirely self-inflicted based as it was on a comment from their own manager so to be feeling aggrieved that it was picked up on seems a bit odd.
What Tyrone have attracted negative press has been for the exact same thing other counties do.
It was never so evident than when Aidan OâShea dived to send Fermanagh out of the Championship.
Cut back to RTE studio and they were all looking awkward and stuck in a state of naval gazing as they tried not to focus on the AOS dive. 12 months earlier there was a talk of a bad smell around Tyrone football due to McCannâs dive, Ciaran Whelan wanted McCann to apologise publicly and the GAA reacted to the shrieking by issuing McCann a 2 game ban that was nowhere in the rule book.
Tyrone were hung drawn and quartered for comments made in a minor match. Comments that the player who it was alleged they were made against never even said happened. Both county boards involved agreed that the comments alleged were not true, this months after Tyrone GAA had been judged and ran down in the press
Sour grapes from Tipp after an U21 game was further evidence of it, a game Tipp brought far more thuggery and cynicism to.
Dublin have had brawls in behind closed doors games, biting allegations, gouging allegations, dragging players down in the closing stages of AI finals, filthy late hits, embarrassing acts of simulation. It seems Tyrone or northern counties are the only ones where past transgressions are recorded.
Did anyone call for OâShea to make a public apology? Did anyone ask for him to be banned? Did anyone talk about a bad smell following Mayo football. And the thing was, OâShea had history with simulation, he went down clutching his face trying to get Pascal McConnell sent off in an All Ireland semi final when he got a little shove in the back. But nobody called it out in the studio.
Thereâs a severe lack of north Kerry defenders or panel members in the squad. The likes of Breen, Flaherty and Galvin who would take no shit and deliver it in spades. It may not be to lily livered Kevin McStays liking but theyâre badly lacking in it.
The incidents Tyrone have been involved in are the exact same as the incidents Kerry, Mayo and Dublin are involved and Donegal.
None of those counties get anywhere near the bad press and innuendo Tyrone do.
We beat Kerry yesterday fair and square and Dooher is fielding questions that are not in anyway related to the performance. The narrative is tiresome and I think it shows the chip on the shoulder the free state GAA media have with teams from the wee six coming down and doing the business. Armagh got the same type of negative press back in the day and were portrayed as macho thugs.
Did anyone talk about a bad smell around Kerry football when they are the only team to have a player fail an in competition drug test and itâs happened more than once. Aidan OâMahonyâs dive, the thuggery we saw from Tomas OâSe, Galvin, OâMahony and others over the years etc etc.
Tyrone are guilty of the same crimes all the other counties are but with Tyrone itâs fed into a narrative. Anytime they win, the talk is not about the football they played, itâs about other incidents simply because the staters are very, very sore when a northern team comes down and bests them.
Itâs an amazing coincidence that all the club teams, national teams, political parties etc that you favour are always victims of conspiracies, bias, cover ups etc by the âestablishmentâ, ârefereesâ, âthe mainstream mediaâ and various dark forces . Fierce bad luck altogether
