Tyrone have fate in their own hands

GAA reports by Francis Mooney

VICTORY over Meath on Saturday will secure Tyrone’s survival in Division Two of the National Football League.

The threat of relegation still hangs over the Red Hands, but their fate is in their own hands, and it’s all to play for at Croke Park this weekend.

They face a high-flying Royals side, but if they can put victories back to back for the first time this season, the pressure will ease.

However, they have a difficult run-in against two of the teams chasing promotion, Meath and Cork, both of whom will be tough nuts to crack.

Offaly appear to be doomed to the drop, having lost all five of their games to date, while Kildare and Cavan are both below Tyrone in the league table.

But the situation can change dramatically in the final two rounds of high stakes games, and nothing can be left to chance.

Manager Malachy O’Rourke and his coaching team have spent the last two weeks working on the areas which have proved to be problematic for Tyrone in the campaign so far, and he’s hoping it will all fall into place at GAA Headquarters.

“We don’t feel we’re performing at our best or anywhere near it yet, but we want to work hard and get a really good performance against Meath,” said O’Rourke.

“Meath are going really well, they’re an experienced team, we have ground to make up, but we’re looking forward to it.”

Following an opening day draw against newly promoted Kildare, Tyrone suffered defeat at the hands of Derry and Louth, but victories over Cavan and Offaly lifted spirits, and helped the younger, less experienced members of the team build confidence and gain important learnings as they move forward in their journey as senior inter-county footballers.

Against a confident and experienced Meath side, Again on Saturday, O’Rourke will field a team short of established players, but he’s happy to place his trust in emerging talents in the expectation that fortunes will see an upturn.

“We know that performances haven’t been good enough, but we’re working really hard to try and put that right.

“If you look at the games we have played, the first day out , we had a fairly inexperienced team against Kildare, and we drew it.

“The next day it was always going to be 50-50 and Derry had a very strong team out.

“We beat Cavan the next day, and last week we went down to the Leinster champions in Louth, which is never an easy place to go.

“But we played well the first half, second half wasn’t so good.

“So we were just glad to get the two points (against Offaly), it gives us that wee bit of breathing space.”

That victory over Offaly ten days ago at O’Neill Park in Dungannon improved Tyrone’s position in the league table, but relegation is still a possibility, and they face into a difficult run-in against two of the division’s leading contenders, Meath and Cork.

“We’re not mathematically safe. We knew that we had to win that one to put ourselves in a better position, but we know the next two are really important as well.

“We’re just looking at the next game, we want to go out, get a better performance.”

The loss of an experienced cohort of players has impacted Tyrone’s attempt to make an immediate return to Division One following last year’s relegation.

Peter Harte’s apparent retirement, injuries to Padraig Hampsey and Niall Devlin, along with Kieran McGeary’s extended travel break, have deprived the team of key figures, and McGeary’s return has coincided with Darragh Canavan’s departure for a month in Australia.

“You expect criticism, there’s no problem with that, and I’m well able to take that,” said O’Rourke.

“It’s really important to try and shield the players from it, particularly the younger players, because a lot of them are only starting on their journey.

“We’re doing a lot of work on them, we’re hoping that they’ll grow and develop into really good inter-county players.

“Hopefully they can get a wee bit of breathing space to do that as well.”

Again on Saturday, O’Rourke will field a team short of established players, but he’s happy to place his trust in emerging talents in the expectation that fortunes will see an upturn as they develop their senior careers.

“We know that performances haven’t been good enough, but we’re working really hard to try and put that right.

“If you look at the games we have played, the first day out , we had a fairly inexperienced team against Kildare, and we drew it.

“The next day it was always going to be 50-50 and Derry had a very strong team out.

“We beat Cavan the next day, and last week we went down to the Leinster champions in Louth, which is never an easy place to go.

“But we played well the first half, second half wasn’t so good.

“So we were just glad to get the two points (against Offaly), it gives us that wee bit of breathing space.”

While the Red Hands face two testing ties over the next couple of weekends, the other relegation-threatened teams are also preparing for tough assignments.

Kildare’s trip to Cork and Cavan’s clash with Offaly are ties which will have a bearing on Tyrone’s fate.

And if it goes down to the final day, on Sunday, March 22, Malachy O’Rourke and his team could be watching out nervously for the outcome of Cavan’s meeting with Derry at Celtic Park and Kildare’s home tie against Louth.

Meanwhile, Tyrone’s Ulster Senior Football Championship preliminary round clash with Armagh has been fixed for Sunday, April 12 at the Box-It Athletic Grounds.

And if they manage to overcome the Orchard, they will have home advantage in the quarter-final against Fermanagh on Saturday, April 25.

The provincial semi-finals will take place on the weekend of May 2/3, with the final scheduled for Sunday, May 17