Inter-provincial Football Championship semi-final: Ulster v Munster (tomorrow, Parnell Park, 2pm)
THE inter-provincials may have taken a huge chunk out of Tyrone’s resources ahead of tomorrow’s Ó Fiaich Cup semi-final against Louth – but boss Mickey Harte still hopes the Red Hands will have enough to progress.
Tiernan McCann, Peter Harte, Mark Bradley, Niall Sludden, Niall Morgan and Connor McAliskey are on Ulster duty against Munster and won’t be involved in Tyrone’s first competitive game of the new season.
But Harte says their absences will give others a chance to shine in Crossmaglen tomorrow.
“Lee Brennan will be involved,” said Harte.
“Paudie Hampsey, who has been around the panel, will be involved.
“Darren McCurry will still be with us; Johnny Munroe who’s been around the squad too, is there, and Ronan O’Neill.
“Conor Meyler and Cathal McShane will be there and possibly Frank Burns, Hugh Pat McGeary and some of the Pomeroy lads.”
Experienced ’keeper Mickey O’Neill will be in goal given Morgan’s absence.
Colm Cavanagh, Paudie McNulty, Conall McCann and Mattie Donnelly are all carrying knocks and won’t feature against Louth.
“Resouces are obviously thin on the ground with injuries and Ulster has taken a serious bite out of us,” said Harte, “but hopefully we’ll muster enough to stay in the competition.
“I watched all the Championship matches, so anyone who can perform in a Championship environment where it’s knock-out in Tyrone, I think you want to be looking at them.
“If somebody stands out in those games, they have the mentality for the knock-out game, and I obviously know players that I have been watching for a year or two anyway.
“It’s not a shot in the dark; you know who you really want to see. You take a look at them to see if they’re ready to come in and be part of it. It doesn’t mean they come in and stay but they come in and get a feel for what it’s like to be there, and some of them might do well enough to stay there.”
While some observers have dismissed the idea of the inter-county season starting before the turn of the year, Harte (right) is happy for Tyrone to be out on the field in December.
“There are people that make too much out of these things,” he said.
“The players would be playing something else if they weren’t playing Gaelic football. They’d be playing a bit of soccer or a bit of rugby.
“People can be too pessimistic about these things.
“Isn’t great to be out and about? Why would you be complaining about it?”
Louth boss Colin Kelly will be without Declan Byrne and Padraig Rath who have been selected to represent Leinster in this weekend’s inter-provincials series, while Conor Grimes is going travelling for 12 months and won’t figure in 2017.
Jim McEneaney, Louth’s key attacker in 2016, will be in action against Tyrone while Andy McDonnell has returned to the Wee county after two years in Australia.
Paddy Crozier, the former Derry manager, has stepped away from Louth’s managerial set-up this season.
“We’ll have a lot of debutants on Sunday but we’ll have some experienced guys as well,” said Kelly.”
