FEARGAL Logan and Brian Dooher will have a “job on their hands” trying to replicate last year’s provincial and All-Ireland feats following the player exits since last summer, according to Peter Canavan.
The Red Hands open the defence of their Ulster crown on Saturday evening against Fermanagh at Brewster Park.
Canavan, who worked alongside Logan and Dooher as the trio guided Tyrone U21s to the 2015 All-Ireland title, expressed concerns over the depth of the current Tyrone panel.
Mark Bradley, Ronan O’Neill, Tiernan McCann, Lee Brennan and Paul Donaghy have all stepped away from the Tyrone squad from last year with game-time very much the common denominator in their respective departures.
Despite this, Tyrone scored a morale-boosting win over Kerry – the Kingdom’s first NFL defeat in five years in Killarney – after a fair bit of turbulence earlier in their Division One campaign.
“You do have hangovers from All-Irelands,” Canavan said. “Players leaving the panel has been a serious problem because we’d a real strong panel last year with players coming off the bench to make a difference.
“Coming back as All-Ireland champions was a position that we didn’t expect to be in… You need a lot of work done behind the scenes to keep everybody together, whereby you have players who aren’t in a position to fully commit knowing that they’re going to see very little game-time.
“In some cases, players feel the sacrifice outweighs what they’re getting out of it. So there are a lot of factors to weigh up and a lot of things for Tyrone to work on to get back to that level again.”
Canavan added: “Last year, with a full quota of players, it took everything to get over the line, just to beat Kerry, just to beat Monaghan, just to beat Mayo. It’s not that we’re head and shoulders above everybody else.
“So Feargal and Brian definitely have a job on their hands to try and get the current team playing to their potential but also to unearth a few players who are ready to make a serious impact from the bench.”
In last year’s epic All-Ireland semi-final win over Kerry, Logan and Dooher’s bench proved decisive with Cathal McShane and Darragh Canavan making vital contributions.
Omagh’s Ronan O’Neill didn’t make Tyrone’s All-Ireland final squad and announced his inter-county retirement at the beginning of the new season, while Lee Brennan featured even less than O’Neill as the Red Hands captured their fourth Sam Maguire.
The departures of Killyclogher duo Mark Bradley and Tiernan McCann – regular fixtures in Mickey Harte’s Tyrone teams - were also significant blows to the 2022 squad.
“They are all really talented players who are capable of making a difference – Mark Bradley, Ronan O’Neill, Lee Brennan, Tiernan McCann, Paul Donaghy...” Canavan said.
“Wait until you see these boys playing for their clubs; they’ll be leading lights. Not only that but you’ve also players struggling for a wee bit of form. Things would need to fall into place pretty quickly if we’re to give the All-Ireland a serious rattle again.”
Tyrone’s two-time All-Ireland winning forward also felt the horrendous conditions the National League was played in didn’t help matters.
In fact, the only decent playing conditions Tyrone experienced during the League was down in Killarney where they produced their best display of 2022 – albeit eventual League champions Kerry didn’t have to win the game.
“We appear to be back on the road again because we certainly were off it for the Dublin game,” said Canavan.
“Against Mayo, it was positive in a game we could have lost. The performance against Kerry was their best and you could see a big improvement.
“There were a number of factors: Kerry didn’t have to win, and it was the first weekend of proper football conditions. That’s a debate for another day, pushing the National League back, because there were six weekends where the weather was just dreadful.
“Against Kerry, you had better ground and it contributed to a better game… In fairness, Tyrone’s League campaign was something I expected because, fitness-wise, they were off the pace with winning the All-Ireland and the subsequent team holiday.
With a few more calendar tweaks, the Errigal Ciaran clubman is a fan of a more condensed inter-county season.
“It’s a big improvement in running off the Championship in shorter spells,” he said.
“It’s been a problem for the GAA for years: the training sessions to matches ratio. Players are playing more matches and have less weeks of training. The National League works week on week and reducing the Ulster Championship in time and not having players sitting idle for weeks on end is a good thing.
“It’s the worst period for county players though because in a lot of cases they can’t play for their clubs and you’re training with no matches. Even though the Championship is earlier than expected I’d welcome it.”
