WHEN Tyrone took their now infamous pasting in Killarney months before their All-Ireland success in 2021, they took the bus into the town and as they stepped off, the Kerry supporters clapped them.
It wasn’t sarcastic applause, or at least it didn’t feel that way. At the time the Tyrone players thought nothing of it. But by the time they met again in the All-Ireland semi-final, the Tyrone mindset had turned it into something even they knew it wasn’t.
“It didn’t feel like it was sarcastic, it actually felt like they were genuine GAA people. Then as Tyrone do, we ended up turning it at the end of the year, ‘Remember, they clapped us off the bus’, but we love doing that in Tyrone get the chip in our shoulder and we use anything we can at all as motivation,” said Niall Morgan on Shane Rice’s podcast earlier this year.
For all the modern sciences, Tyrone are at their best with a chip on the shoulder. They need something to be angry at. Something bigger than the week-to-week stuff.
It’s not unique to this generation. In the years they didn’t win Sam between 2003 and 2008, they were knocked out by Laois, Meath and an average Mayo.
Right now, Tyrone are a passive team.
It’s not quite as simple as just mindset, but then so much of what is going wrong is within their power to fix.
For all the talk about players departing, the Roscommon game three weeks ago was the first time since the All-Ireland that Tyrone had fewer than 14 of the 20 players used that day on the field.
When they lost to Derry last summer, Rory Brennan was the only one of their first 18 players who hadn’t been involved on All-Ireland final day.
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Tyrone still have enough quality on the field to be doing better than they are.
They’ve fallen into a very negative style of play, indicative of their absolute lack of confidence.
It’s slow, tentative, risk-free football, all the things they were derided for at the tail end of Mickey Harte’s time in charge.
Mayo more than any team in Ireland have always thrived on the energy of turnovers. Tyrone have traditionally been good at it too. Right now, they aren’t playing with that fire.
Take the example of the opening day loss in Roscommon.
Playing with the wind, the game delicately balanced at 0-8 apiece, four of them converge to strip Enda Smith of the ball 30 yards from the Tyrone goal.
The runners stream forward. Instead of driving into the space and hurting Roscommon, the first pass goes backwards. Then the second pass goes backwards. The third pass goes backwards to Niall Morgan. Not should the Rossies have been trying to get back in wellies would they have been hurt by it.
It's as if merely having the ball is enough at times. No urgency, no energy. The pace and drive they’re bringing to the counter-attack is nowhere near the levels they’d expect of themselves.
In three league halves played against the wind, Tyrone have scored 0-14. Almost half of that, 0-6, was against a struggling Donegal.
Their three opponents have racked up 3-17 between them when faced with the same conditions.
The centre of their defence is so porous. Teams are walking into Tyrone’s D and kicking scores.
Matthew Tierney’s first point last weekend, he cut in off the sideline, ran past four white shirts without a hand laid on him. They knew he was on his stronger left, looking to shoot and very capable of it.
His last point came 29 seconds after Darren McCurry had dropped a shot short. Four forward passes, a couple flat to men coming on to the ball, and Galway had gone the length of the field.
Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher were rightly praised for the bravery with which their team played two years ago. Against Mayo, they left Padraig Hampsey, Michael McKernan and Ronan McNamee one-on-one in oceans of space against Tommy Conroy, Ryan O’Donoghue and Aidan O’Shea respectively. That allowed their attacking game to flourish and their midfield to reach its potential.
If anything displays their symptoms, it’s that Cathal McShane touched the ball just four times against Roscommon before being replaced at half-time. Tyrone had no interest in kicking it to him against the wind, and then he became the fall guy.
He looked so sharp in January and in the fleeting moments he’s been inside this year, he’s done well. Darren McCurry is showing signs of finding his form and the two look to have a decent understanding.
Even through this bad spell, Conn Kilpatrick keeps getting better. Brian Kennedy had an excellent second half in Tuam.
It’s about time Tyrone got angry. It’s about time they started to hurt teams again.
Mayo’s defence has yet to be properly tested in the new McStay era, particularly their full-back line and Conor Loftus as a defender.
There’s nothing to lose from Tyrone throwing the shackles off, and so much to gain.
Do that, they’ll win in Mayo. Anything else is just waiting to be beaten again.
