Football

Tyrone will set the bar high for players says new joint-manager Feargal Logan

Tyrone will set the bar high for players says new joint-manager Feargal Logan. Pic: Philip Walsh.
Tyrone will set the bar high for players says new joint-manager Feargal Logan. Pic: Philip Walsh. Tyrone will set the bar high for players says new joint-manager Feargal Logan. Pic: Philip Walsh.

FEARGAL Logan will outline the standards he expects from the players who’ll wear the famous red and white jersey on his watch when he addresses his first Tyrone squad.

Logan, the new joint-manager of Tyrone alongside Brian Dooher, said his initial message to the Red squad would be to outline what he expected from them and what they could expect from him throughout his time in charge.

“We’ll be letting them know the responsibility that an inter-county player carries in Tyrone,” said the Stewartstown clubman.

“I’ll be letting them know some history and I’ll be saying to them: ‘Listen guys, we want the proper values and the proper conduct and the proper endeavour and then we’ll move forward on the football’.

“They will expect that too and we will get the right environment created. We will help them to be their best out on the field and we will provide for them as best as possible on and off the field. We’ll make it as easy as possible for them to max their potential and do what they can do.

“At the end of the day, it’s the 15 or 25 players who are the most important piece of jigsaw. We will be hoping to look after them and we’ll be hoping that they respond and we’re on the same wavelength to get the right atmosphere and environment created and our experience is that players will flourish.”

Logan is virtually chomping at the bit to get started in his role alongside joint-manager Dooher and a backroom team of Collie Holmes, Joe McMahon and Peter Donnelly who, he says, have shown a “willingness to come forward”. Covid-19 protocols mean that can’t happen yet but when it does Tyrone supporters can expect to see some new faces in the panel.

“We have a deep respect for every footballer in Tyrone and everybody who has represented the county,” said Logan.

“But we do have to have a relatively fresh start and that will mean there will be an opportunity for people to come along who have been there and for people who will be there for their first time, or even their second time, to show themselves in matches here when we can get things going.

“The people who show the form are the people you go with and managers want the best players because you are represented by those players. So I don’t necessarily think it will be a straight transfer of the old panel.”

As for the style of football Tyrone will play, the team Logan and Dooher managed to the All-Ireland U21 title in 2015 was noted for its attacking elan and Logan hinted that their senior side will play a similar brand of football.

“The defensive systems are washing through a bit,” he said.

“We saw Cavan and Tipperary at the weekend and I think it was inevitable that that phase of Gaelic Football would wash through a bit.

“I think generally the understanding is that it’s a more offensive style and that teams are going to get on the front foot and go for broke. We were four years with the U21s and I think we went for broke every night.”

While Cavan and Tipperary upset the status quo in their provinces, Dublin are still mighty dominant at national level. The Dubs are the yardstick by which all other counties are managed but Logan says he “would always back Tyrone teams” to match any opposition.

“Last Saturday night I watched the Dubs and you’re looking for one weakness in one player because it would lift your spirit a bit but you don’t see many in any of the players,” he said.

“They move the ball fast and efficiently. They are setting some standards out there but we’ll always back Tyrone teams against any opposition.”