I QUESTIONED whether Tyrone were real All-Ireland contenders last week. It would be wrong to read too much into a win in the opening round of the Championship, especially with the meekness of the Derry challenge. But the first 35 minutes was hugely impressive.
There’s no doubt Dublin are ahead of everyone, but Tyrone must be considered in the discussion for who is first in line to challenge them.
They appear to have improved from the team that pushed Kerry all the way last year, so there is good reason to believe they can beat the likes of Kerry and Mayo.
I expected Derry to adopt a defensive approach to try and cover for the shortcomings that were exposed in their defence during the League.
I was shocked at the tactical naivety they showed early in the game. It was almost as if they didn’t expect Tyrone to play the way they did.
It’s very rare nowadays to see a team get caught with ball over the top of their defence, but I remember three separate occasions when this happened to Derry.
Ronan O’Neill’s opening goal came from a floated ball over the top, while Connor McAliskey kicked a point and Padraig McNulty had a goal chance saved from similar passes.
Tyrone’s tactics shouldn’t have been a surprise as they played with a similar set-up to what we have all seen over the last 15 months.
They try to minimise the space available to their opponents inside their own 45. The key to these tactics is the speed of the counter-attack when they force turnovers.
Derry played right into their opponents’ hands by leaving so much space for Tyrone to run into.
Tyrone had 13, 14 and sometimes 15 men inside their own half.
Remarkably, Derry had the same number inside the Tyrone half and failed to leave anyone back to cover the inside defender or to pick up the runners.
Tyrone simply overturned Derry at will and had acres of space to attack and utilise the greater pace in their team.
From an attacking point of view, Derry were just as poor.
Emmett McGuckin played in the full-forward line, yet I can’t remember one long ball kicked in his direction before he was subbed.
The plan was to keep the play wide and look to kick long-range points.
I regularly hear people saying the way to beat the blanket defence is to kick scores from distance.
There is no doubt that scores from distance are available against a packed defence However, you cannot rely on these types of scores alone to win.
It seemed like that is exactly what Derry hoped to do.
Mickey Harte would not have been concerned to see long-range points from James Kielt, Daniel Heavron and Mark Lynch bring Derry back to within a point after 16 minutes of play.
The radar would eventually go off and the lack of variation in the Derry play would be their undoing.
Only two years ago we saw Dublin succumb to Donegal in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Like Derry they kicked some brilliant points early in the game, but they were eventually suffocated by the defensive wall in front of them after those low percentage shots started to miss the target.
Tyrone were happy to give Derry possession from kick-outs.
Damian Barton’s team decided they wouldn’t run at Tyrone and their play became static with sideways and sometimes backwards passing.
It is a style of play that has not proved very successful for Derry in recent years and Tyrone gobbled them up.
It’s easy to make assumptions from the outside without first hand knowledge, but Derry had a number of players who didn’t look in physical shape to play 70 minutes of Championship football.
The modern game requires players to be athletic before they can showcase their footballing talents.
Last weekend Derry didn’t seem to have the physical or mental capacity to compete with Tyrone.
Damian Barton has a massive job to do over the coming weeks to get Derry mentally prepared for a tilt at the Qualifiers.
They will be hugely despondent due to the manner of the defeat.
Traditionally Derry have failed to embrace the Qualifier system, but they owe it to themselves to prove that they are much better than what was displayed in Celtic Park on Sunday.
Picking a man-of-the-match was difficult and that is one of the strengths of this Tyrone team.
They do not rely on any one individual and almost everyone contributes to the performance.
However, the form of Ronan O’Neill up front is very encouraging and he is now starting to deliver on his undoubted ability.
I was also particularly impressed with Niall Sludden making his Championship debut.
He’s a perfect fit for the Tyrone system in that he sacrifices himself for the team, plays with real pace, can kick a score and has a bit of devilment in him.
I think he could have a big role to play in the summer months ahead.
The ruthlessness of his side in the opening 35 minutes will really have pleased Mickey Harte.
3-8 in a half of football is exceptional scoring and Tyrone kept their foot on Derry’s throat throughout the opening period.
No doubt Mickey would have wanted this to continue in the second half – 70 full minutes of intensity is what has Dublin ahead of the rest.
However, we learnt more about Tyrone from this game than we did during the entire League.
