Sport

Kenny Archer: Weakened Tyrone panel badly beaten by a much more 'together' Derry

Kenny Archer

Kenny Archer

Kenny is the deputy sports editor and a Liverpool FC fan.

Which direction are Tyrone heading in this year? Bouncing back from defeat to Derry? Or letting their All-Ireland crown slip off their heads? <br />Picture Margaret McLaughlin
Which direction are Tyrone heading in this year? Bouncing back from defeat to Derry? Or letting their All-Ireland crown slip off their heads?
Picture Margaret McLaughlin
Which direction are Tyrone heading in this year? Bouncing back from defeat to Derry? Or letting their All-Ireland crown slip off their heads?
Picture Margaret McLaughlin

"The socialism I believe in is everyone working for each other, everyone having a share of the rewards. It's the way I see football, the way I see life."

That's not one of former Liverpool manager Bill Shankly's more famous quotes, but it's probably my favourite.

It combines politics, sport, and an approach to living. Help each other and everyone will benefit.

Last year, you wouldn't have blinked an eye had you been told that Tyrone had that message as a mantra and a motto.

The Red Hands broke sweat and shed blood as they outworked everyone to win an unexpected All-Ireland.

This year? So far they've been more like the modern Manchester United (barring Monday night's decent display) than Shankly's Liverpool when they were at their peak.

After a sloppy, sluggish start to the League, Tyrone only had one win from five games, edging a home victory over Kildare by the minimum margin.

They roused themselves to beat both Mayo and Kerry again, as they had done in last year's All-Ireland Final and semi-final, and ensure they stayed up in Division One.

Yet if their display against Fermanagh in the Ulster SFC preliminary round was back to the low level of the poor performances in late January through to mid-March, then they sank to dreadful depths against Derry on Sunday.

It was almost exactly the same team that had lined out for the All-Ireland Final, except for Rory Brennan in a defensive role rather than Michael O'Neill and Cathal McShane starting instead of the injured Mattie Donnelly at full-forward, having come on for him against Mayo last September.

McShane certainly wasn't to blame for the defeat, despite being taken off at half-time, nor Brennan, even though he was as off-key as many of his team-mates before he too was substituted.

Indeed, barring illness and recovery from injury, Brennan and McShane might well have been first choices last year.

Basically, the same team then - but not the same team at all.

As good as Derry have been under Rory Gallagher - barring a surprising shellacking by Galway this year - Sunday's result was still stunning, sensational. As we'd say in the sticks, 'they got a quare gunk.'

The lack of energy and effort exhibited by Tyrone on Sunday was alarming.

The home support was clearly complacent. Of the just over 10,000 spectators in Healy Park, a surprisingly significant proportion were from Derry. The Oak Leafers normally have a small support, but they gave great backing, in contrast to a quiet home crowd.

Sure, they were given little to shout about, but their apathy, in the first home Championship match since their heroes won 'Sam' for the fourth time, was telling.

Those differing attitudes were reflected by the two teams on the pitch.

How did the All-Ireland champions lose by 11 points at home - and be lucky it wasn't more of a thrashing?

The answer perhaps lies beyond the team, even beyond the crowd.

The Tyrone panel has taken a beaten, and has been re-shaped in a manner that was not fit for purpose on Sunday.

Going back to that initial quote from 'Shanks', the squad was not working together from the start of 2022.

The mutterings have been heard about the lack of togetherness in terms of treatment on the team holiday.

There's no point talking the talk about the importance of every panel member if they don't also walk the walk into the first class lounges, along with the extended backroom.

There were no doubt other reasons behind the departures, but the Red Hands have lost seven serious squad players, some of whom had plenty of first team experience: Mark Bradley, Ronan O'Neill, Tiernan McCann, Hugh Pat McGeary, Michael Cassidy, then - more recently - Lee Brennan and Paul Donaghy.

With no offence intended to players trying to establish themselves, when Tyrone joint-managers Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher looked to their bench in Omagh they didn't have many options to provide optimism.

Without the Donnelly brothers due to injury, especially the determination and quality of former captain Mattie even more than the talented but injury-prone Richie, there was so little experience to call upon.

Only Ben McDonnell made his senior bow before 2020, with O'Neill and Canavan having featured in that year's Hallowe'en exit in Donegal.

With Peter Harte and Conor McKenna named among the subs but actually starting, no replacements for them were named, or at least that information was not announced.

So of the 24 on the day, exactly a quarter had no senior championship experience - Cormac Monroe, Lorcan Quinn, Joe Oguz, Ryan Coleman, Nathan Donnelly, and Rory Donnelly.

Two more only had minutes - Michael Conroy came on against Fermanagh this year, while Niall Kelly first featured against Donegal last summer.

In all, more than a third - 14 - of the 40 Tyrone players named in the programme had never played senior championship. That's 35 per cent.

Giving newcomers a feel for the senior game is one thing, but there has to be a limit to that.

How are they going to put pressure on All-Ireland winners? How are All-Ireland winners really to believe that their place is under threat from someone who's never played a second of senior championship football?

Everyone has to start somewhere, of course, but Tyrone's lack of real depth sank them against a much more committed Derry team.

Any management which oversees such a drain of talent has to ask questions of their leadership. I'm sure highly intelligent men like Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan will do so.

Tyrone have bounced back before, of course, notably last season, when Kerry humiliated them in a League semi-final before being beaten in Croke Park.

In 2008, the Red Hands recovered from an Ulster quarter-final replay defeat in Down to win their third All-Ireland.

Tyrone are traditionally strong in the qualifiers, having been the best team from Ulster if not often the best team in Ulster in recent times.

Yet the new qualifiers format is a pool containing at least a couple of sharks - Armagh and Mayo - and there may be other potential opponents against whom it won't be easy to get wins, perhaps Kildare and Meath.

Some question marks hung over the worth of Tyrone's triumph last year, with the sense that Kerry left that All-Ireland behind them.

Those doubts have at least doubled now.

I've typed these sort of words before and been proved wrong, but it looks like a long road back to get back-to-back for Tyrone.

Hard work beats talent, it's said - but only if talent doesn't work hard. Tyrone were trounced by a talented, hard-working team; they'll be down and out if they don't produce much more perspiration at the end of this month.

Without working together, as they did so impressively last summer, their only reward this season will be an early summer holiday - and certainly no free team holiday.