Emotion always has a place in the game. Dublin 2011 were another example of a team that couldnât have won without emotion. But they also nearly lost it due to emotion, when Ger Brennan lost his cool and pushed Donaghy in the face. Sport is not purely cold and clinical. Itâs about balancing emotion with calm. You have to control it.
There is no emotion in business and winning is a business
Iâd agree with that.
Emotion is great and Limerick around 2012-2014 were a real emotion team playing boom and bust hurling. Great entertainment so it was.
Now though they are also the best prepared Inter County Senior Hurling team in the country by a long way. They seem to planned meticulously for every circumstance that can happen in a game. They also have their skills practiced to a higher standard than everyone else. Every ball goes to hand, striking is so crisp. Clinical in everything they do.
It was the same with Tyrone this year. Their kicking, catching and handpassing was better than the rest. Clinical.
I think Tyrone have a bit more quality up front and a lot more quality in reserve
Mayo have a lot of newish players and were carrying guys like Plunkett and Walsh with not a lot on the bench. They also have a few players whose form has been patchy like Diarmuid OâConnor and the likes of McLoughlin who is probably no the player he was as well as having a captain who seemingly canât be dropped despite his ineffectiveness.
Tyrone will get better from here I think, will Mayo?
Armagh and Mayo are about as far apart stylistically as you could get.
Armagh played a very direct kicking game, Mayo play a hard running game. Armagh had box office scoring forwards, Mayo rely on their backs coming up for score and close range frees.
Armagh had very little pace in their side, what they had was brilliant forwards whose movement was top notch and were great ball winners and really good kick passers who could deliver that ball in. Mayo have an abundance of pace and energy in their team and like for their defenders to carry the ball out from the back. You rarely saw the McNultys or Bellew coming up the pitch with the ball, Andy Mallon did it well in latter years but there wasnât much in an attacking sense from the Armagh defenders. Aidan OâRourke and McGeeney pretty much held the 45 all day long.
Andy Moran is the only Mayo forward who would fit into the category of a forward with top class movement and ball winning ability since the first Horan era. That has been an Achilles heel for Mayo. They run it from the back but they lack that real crafty forward who is able to lose his man with a run (as opposed to his man having to leave him to meet a runner from deep in an overload situation).
Conroy is a great athlete, great ball carrier and has great pace but his movement is orindary. Heâs young and with the right coaching can change this, Ryan OâDonoghue also in this regard. This was very obvious watching the game last fortnight. Iâve seen COC before in person, his movement is very poor, he doesnât look for the ball too much, heâs not a great ball winner.
Mayoâs failings at the back are largely tactical as they have excellent individual defenders for the most part but Horan for all his plus points is very naĂŻve and predictable in tactical terms.
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Tis just an auld game lads, dont overthink it.
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Mayoâs young players should improve although it may be offset by the likely loss of the likes of Keegan, McLoughlin, OâShea, etc, in the next year or two. For all his underperformances in All Ireland finals, OâShea has been a big player for them outside of AI finals whereâs heâs been able to throw his considerable weight around against lesser sides. Keegan alone will be an indescribable loss to them as heâs the one player they have who always seems to perform when the need is greatest.
Having seen a lot of their underage teams in recent years I wouldnât say their is any obvious outstanding talents on the way to help them but Horan seems to have a knack for making lads who didnât particularly stand out at underage to start playing above themselves at senior.
A hobby
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âIn the hospital I promised him I would give my full focus to win an All-Ireland for Tyroneâ
Frank Burns of Tyrone lifts the Sam Maguire Cup
Declan Bogue
September 25 2021 02:30 AM
All-Ireland final day, and the Tyrone team sprint out of the tunnel, across the Croke Park pitch. The television cameras capture the moment in slo-mo and there it is.
Frank Burns. Pointing to the skies. To his father Patrick who passed away in early November, 2019.
âHis last Tyrone game was in Croke Park two years ago when we lost to Kerry in the semi-final,â Frank recalls. âHis last football game was when we were beaten by Galbally in the Intermediate final. I know he was looking down over us on the day.â
The young Patrick Burns met Kathleen Quinn from Pomeroy at the Ballymacscanlon Hotel outside Dundalk at a dance. From nearby Shelagh, he was smitten enough to move to the Mountains of Pomeroy when they married and had two sons, Frank and Brendan who would represent Tyrone. Motor Neuron Disease (MND) is devastating on everyone and while it beat Patrick, he wouldnât let it beat his spirit.
âItâs becoming more common now. It was a devastating blow, I can only imagine how tough the illness is on the person, but the way Daddy was, he was a strong man, and kept himself to himself. The way he carried himself through that disease was inspiring, he didnât let it get him down too much, not in front of us anyway. And when you see the likes of that, it makes you realise that the problems you face week to week and maybe moan about are only minor,â says Frank.
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âOne of the last things that I had said to him in the hospital, one of the things I had promised him was that I would give this my full focus and that we would win an All-Ireland for Tyrone. To have achieved that, is definitely very satisfying.â
Kathleenâs brother, Brian Quinn was a hurler for Ăire Ăg, Carrickmore and Tyrone. He is the proprietor of Rocwell Water, jersey sponsors of Tyrone for the 2005 and 2008 All-Ireland finals. It gave Frank and Brendan ringside seats for the glory decade. When it came to the All-Ireland-winning banquets, they would gaze at the likes of Peter Canavan, Joe McMahon, the Cavanagh brothers, awe-struck and dumb-struck. But thatâs him now to the children around the county. The other evening he was shopping in ASDA in Cookstown when people came up and started engaging him in chat. It will take a bit of getting used to.
It hasnât sunk in yet. He thinks it might only when the Sam Maguire Cup comes to Pomeroy. He has it booked to bring to Anne Donnelly, a local wheelchair-bound lady who even by Tyrone standards is a total fanatic, someone Frank is very close to.
After that, Brian Quinn will get to hold it once again, and then he has to bring it to his fatherâs people down in Shelagh, on the way to his uncle Frankâs bar, Toners in Dublin. There were moments when he felt this All-Ireland was out of reach. It was the same before the Ulster final when he missed out himself through Covid.
âI was one of the players who had it bad. I got it 11 days out from the Ulster final. So in my head, I would be OK to play a game on the Saturday,â Burns reasoned with himself.
A personal trainer by profession, he went out to his home gym to get a sweat on, after five days. It left him exhausted. âThe Covid situation was a tough one for the whole team. People on the outside are going to have their opinions, but it was dealt with really well. Player health was put first and it was all to do with player welfare, it couldnât have been dealt with any better, our medical team were exceptional,ââ he says.
He spent the four weeks between the provincial final and the All-Ireland semi-final driving himself to his limits. On the day, a late team announcement came; he snuck back into the starting team at right wing-back. He lasted the full gruelling game and extra-time.
And then onto the final. Specifically, the 40th minute when he caught Mayoâs Ryan OâDonoghue with a high tackle. He got a yellow but was pleading with Joe McQuillan not to fish out the black card. OâDonoghue took the free himself. It fell short, landing at Burnsâ feet on the line. He scooped it off the deck. Penalty. OâDonoghue again. A stuttered run-up and it shaves the post in going wide. Patrick Burns was looking down on his boy. After that, the final whistle.
âItâs indescribable. Thereâs that many thoughts and emotions running through your head. The first person comes near you, you embrace them and hug them. To see your friends, your clubmates in the Hill, and then we went along the Cusack and I saw Anne and Geralyn Donnelly! Uncle Brian in the Hogan, my mum, my girlfriend, people who are so close to you and mean so much, itâs invaluable to share that moment with them. They are the people who believed in you.â
As Frank strolled round the pitch, young Patrick Traynor was beaming at his heroes. A quick look at PĂĄdraig Hampsey and they lifted him over the hoardings and onto the pitch to pose with the Sam Maguire. âThatâs what it is all about. Patrick was sitting with his dad. People like Patrick deserve a moment like that and we are forever grateful to the likes of Patrick and the rest of our supporters.â
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Frankâs a decent sort, very calm and composed on the ball and takes up great covering positions if lacking a bit of pace.
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SON has the full set now
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Tough for the dubs. Naomh Mearnòg very proud of the captain and all the lads.
Knew a couple of lads playing that today. A great competition. Rouse had a good piece on it. Went to a few hurling finals in the early 00s. Pity they disbanded it then.
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Dubs team this year very cliquey
Explain ?
I see the Tyrone lads have finally taken the vaccine
Probably the worst thing that could happen for Derry.
Still though youâd fear for @dodgy_keeper and the Limerickâs heading for Dungiven next weekend.
I think the hammering galway gave us will stay in the memory longer than a mckenna cup. Nice to put one over on that Tyrone shower all the same
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Nice to see anyone bate Tyrone tbh.
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