TYRONE MADE A winning start to the resumed Dr McKenna Cup against Armagh here in the Athletic Grounds, two fisted goals from Lorcan McGarrity and Mattie Donnelly doing enough to squeeze past their hosts.
On a night that held none of the old Blackwater enmity between these two, you might wonder if the new rules have stripped the game of potential cases of shithousery. And indeed games between this pairing is a fairly decent litmus test.
In front of a crowd of 7,180 souls glad to blow the post-Christmas cobwebs off, there were a number of items to admire. The kicking of Oisin O’Neill in compiling 0-4 shows that there is a superb season in the Crossmaglen man if he can stay injury-free.
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On the Tyrone side, their highest scorer was the vastly experienced Mattie Donnelly. In a reversal of their usual roles, Donnelly was kept up top among the three attackers without responsibility to track back, while Ruairí Canavan was played at centre-forward and seemed to enjoy himself in the greater space.
It won’t happen all the time, but it was interesting to watch here nonetheless.
Kieran McGeeney handed starting debuts to Daniel Magee of Clann Éireann and Fergal O’Brien of Mullaghban. A notable debut from the subs bench was Aaron O’Neill of Crossmaglen, brother of Oisín and indeed Rian, who wasn’t togged out here.
Tyrone gave first starts to Trillick’s Peter McCaughey, Donaghmore’s Conor O’Neill and Oisin Gormley of Drumquin.
And yet it wasn’t until they had substitutes Darren McCurry, who rattled up three points from play in quick time, and Niall Devlin at the back that they looked like a team who knew the ropes.
The two goals arrived in eerily similar fashion in either half. For the first, Joe Oguz made a burst upfield and played a lovely weighted kick-pass to Michael Conroy, who drew in Ethan Rafferty before handpassing to Lorcan McGarrity at the back stick to make it certain.
In the second half, Cathal Donaghy, coming off the back of a Man of the Match performance in the county final as his Loughmacrory won their first O’Neill Cup, played to Ruairí Canavan who laid it on a plate for Donnelly to punch to the net.
Elsewhere, the McGrath Cup in Munster got underway, with Clare beating Waterford 3-10 to 0-11 and Tipperary triumphing over Limerick, 0-15 to 0-4.
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Mattie Donnelly goal helps Tyrone to opening win over Armagh in McKenna Cup
Tyrone 2-13
Armagh 0-17
TYRONE MADE A winning start to the resumed Dr McKenna Cup against Armagh here in the Athletic Grounds, two fisted goals from Lorcan McGarrity and Mattie Donnelly doing enough to squeeze past their hosts.
On a night that held none of the old Blackwater enmity between these two, you might wonder if the new rules have stripped the game of potential cases of shithousery. And indeed games between this pairing is a fairly decent litmus test.
In front of a crowd of 7,180 souls glad to blow the post-Christmas cobwebs off, there were a number of items to admire. The kicking of Oisin O’Neill in compiling 0-4 shows that there is a superb season in the Crossmaglen man if he can stay injury-free.
On the Tyrone side, their highest scorer was the vastly experienced Mattie Donnelly. In a reversal of their usual roles, Donnelly was kept up top among the three attackers without responsibility to track back, while Ruairí Canavan was played at centre-forward and seemed to enjoy himself in the greater space.
It won’t happen all the time, but it was interesting to watch here nonetheless.
Kieran McGeeney handed starting debuts to Daniel Magee of Clann Éireann and Fergal O’Brien of Mullaghban. A notable debut from the subs bench was Aaron O’Neill of Crossmaglen, brother of Oisín and indeed Rian, who wasn’t togged out here.
Tyrone gave first starts to Trillick’s Peter McCaughey, Donaghmore’s Conor O’Neill and Oisin Gormley of Drumquin.
And yet it wasn’t until they had substitutes Darren McCurry, who rattled up three points from play in quick time, and Niall Devlin at the back that they looked like a team who knew the ropes.
The two goals arrived in eerily similar fashion in either half. For the first, Joe Oguz made a burst upfield and played a lovely weighted kick-pass to Michael Conroy, who drew in Ethan Rafferty before handpassing to Lorcan McGarrity at the back stick to make it certain.
In the second half, Cathal Donaghy, coming off the back of a Man of the Match performance in the county final as his Loughmacrory won their first O’Neill Cup, played to Ruairí Canavan who laid it on a plate for Donnelly to punch to the net.
Elsewhere, the McGrath Cup in Munster got underway, with Clare beating Waterford 3-10 to 0-11 and Tipperary triumphing over Limerick, 0-15 to 0-4.
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Armagh Dr McKenna Cup GAA Gaelic Football Tyrone