Football

Tyrone still shaking off rust: Rory Brennan

Monaghan’s Conor McCarthy  and Tyrone’s Rory Brennan in action during the Allianz GAA Football League Division 1 round 2 between Monaghan and Tyrone  at Castleblaney on 02-02-2020. Pic Philip Walsh
Monaghan’s Conor McCarthy and Tyrone’s Rory Brennan in action during the Allianz GAA Football League Division 1 round 2 between Monaghan and Tyrone at Castleblaney on 02-02-2020. Pic Philip Walsh Monaghan’s Conor McCarthy and Tyrone’s Rory Brennan in action during the Allianz GAA Football League Division 1 round 2 between Monaghan and Tyrone at Castleblaney on 02-02-2020. Pic Philip Walsh

DESPITE having won the McKenna Cup last month, Rory Brennan believes Tyrone are still “shaking off some rust” in the early weeks of the Allianz League.

The Red Hands have started sluggishly, struggling to see off Meath in their opening game before finding themselves completely outplayed by Monaghan in a four-point defeat.

Two points in Castleblayney would have eased their worries but suddenly their fixture list looks very difficult. Their two remaining home games are against All-Ireland finalists Kerry and Dublin, while they have to go to Galway and will finish the campaign with back-to-back away ties in Ballybofey and Castlebar.

“We just didn't play or perform as well as we expected to,” admitted Brennan.

“We just have to hold our hands up and say Monaghan were much better than us on the day. We produced too many unforced errors and silly mistakes on our own behalf.

“It was just one of those games where we just couldn't get rest and get going.

“We won the McKenna Cup alright but are still shaking off some rust and the league is obviously a step up. We had boys coming in for their first full game and you are going to expect it to take time to get up to speed.

“But no doubt we all would have expected a better performance there today. We missed a couple of chances and got turned over a few times in the first half.

“Once Monaghan got the goal they just seemed to boss the game and we couldn't get back on top even though we had opportunities.

“We were taking snap shots and wrong options, as I said it was just one of those days. Nothing seemed to go right.”

Their start bears a resemblance to last year, when Kerry and Mayo both comfortably accounted for a Tyrone team that went on to finish third, picking up nine points from their last five games.

A full-strength Tyrone would look upon their upcoming run differently but they’re minus a lot of talent. Naturally, much of the focus has been drawn towards the attacking absences of Cathal McShane, Mattie Donnelly and Connor McAliskey, while Mark Bradley will now also miss the Kerry game barring a successful appeal against his late red card on Sunday.

But defensively they’ve been as badly hit. Padraig Hampsey and Michael McKernan are both sidelined for at least a few weeks yet, while Ronan McNamee picked up a head knock in Sunday’s game that will make him a doubt for the visit of Kerry.

Going in against an in-form full-forward line of David Clifford, Paul Geaney and James O’Donoghue, as well as having to deal with Sean O’Shea, Stephen O’Brien, etc from deeper, makes them a frightening proposition.

“We have Kerry coming next week after a good performance last week against Dublin.

“It won’t be easy but there is nothing more that we can do that get back to training on Tuesday night and reset, and work on things that went wrong today. We have to ensure it doesn't happen again.

“Everyone knows the talent they have in their forward line.

“We’ve a great squad and boys will relish the opportunity to come up against those forwards. We can only play with what we have and boys will be raring to step up to the plate.”

Mickey Harte has been trialling attacking options in the early part of the year, but the decision to move Frank Burns out towards midfield at half-time and stick a yellow-carded Colm Cavanagh at full-forward, and then offer very little in the way of suitable service, underlined where they’re at in the process.

They were, however, turned over at will by Monaghan, often before there was the option of a kick. They lost the ball 12 times in Monaghan’s attacking zone during the first half alone, and Brennan believes that the number 14 position isn’t the issue.

“It’s not necessarily that. We were making unforced errors further out the field. It wasn’t that we didn’t have that target in there, we were just careless in possession all over the field.

“We’ll have to look back over the video and see where we fell down.”