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Tyrone players leave the field after the heavy league defeat to Kerry in June. James Crombie/INPHO
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'It was a bad, bad performance' - Six-goal hiding in Kerry taught Tyrone valuable lessons

The sides meet again in the All-Ireland semi-final on Sunday week.

NINE WEEKS ON from the six-goal beatdown they suffered against Kerry in the league, Tyrone will face the Kingdom with an All-Ireland final place at stake. 

The new Ulster champions were full value for their victory over Monaghan on Saturday and can point to improved defensive displays since that torrid outing in Killarney last June.

The nature of the Division 1 semi-final meant some experimentation was probably at play for Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan, though they still put out a very experienced team that afternoon.

Of the back six that started against Kerry, only half-back Cormac Monroe is unlikely to feature in semi-final. Conor Meyer, centre-back that day, has since been employed in the forwards. 

Their midfield pairing was Frank Burns and Conor McKenna. Burns was one of four players to miss the provincial decider to a Covid issue and is likely to be used as an impact sub on Sunday week. McKenna made his first start of the championship at centre-forward against Monaghan, a role he’s likely to reprise against Kerry. 

A new centre-field partnership of Conn Kilpatrick and Brian Kennedy for the championship has a good look to it. The duo helped Tyrone win five of Rory Beggan’s eight long kick-outs in the first-half and allow them compete in the air from restarts. 

Tiernan McCann was named to start at centre-back last weekend before the Covid complications also ruled him out. He’ll probably come into the first XV on the half-back line, with Michael O’Neill the one who could miss out. Rory Brennan and Richie Donnelly, who were the other two Covid-related absentees for the Ulster final, will provide added depth from the bench.  

“It was tough (losing the four players) but we knew we had the strength-in-depth there and we showed that in the championship,” says captain Padraig Hampsey.

“Lads coming off the bench have done really well and lads slotted in there who hadn’t been starting. Hats off to them and hats off to lads in the panel who stepped in, they all did a good job.”

Three games into their first championship campaign in charge, Dooher and Logan have a good idea of their best team at this stage. They showed tactical nous against Monaghan to take care of some of their key men.

They used Niall Sludden as a sweeper against Donegal and posted him to track Karl O’Connell against Monaghan. The Farney speed merchant was withdrawn at half-time after an ineffective display. The positioning of Meyler on Ryan McAnespie also worked a treat, while Kieran McGeary helped shut down Aaron Mulligan.

Paul Donaghy, who starred during the league, appears to have fallen out of favour as Mattie Donnelly’s dynamism in the full-forward line has been preferred. 

Above all else, there’s no doubting Tyrone have shored things up at the back since the league.

They conceded just one goal during the Ulster championship. On Saturday, a Monaghan team that put four goals past Armagh in the semi-final failed to create a clear goalscoring opportunity against Niall Morgan. 

“From the Kerry game we worked on trying to improve our feet position and not giving away silly frees,” explained Hampsey.

“I think that has stood to us in the Ulster championship, we haven’t given away any silly frees although we did give a few away near the end today but that was down to fatigue.

“Against better teams you need to be watching that because they’re going to hurt you.

“Defensively we’ve tightened up a bit and we’re not conceding as much as we did that day in Kerry. It’s something that we looked at, it was a bad, bad performance in the Tyrone jersey from a lot of our players, myself included.

“We took ownership of that ourselves, I don’t think it (the result) was down to the management, it was down to us as players.

“We fixed a few things but there still is a lot of room to improve on. It showed in that second half that there are plenty of mistakes that we can improve on.”

conor-mcmanus-and-padraig-hampsey Hampsey tackles Conor McManus during the Ulster final. Tommy Dickson / INPHO Tommy Dickson / INPHO / INPHO

The defender feels the hiding they took in Killarney taught them harsh lessons and he knows they can’t afford the Kingdom attack the same space in Croke Park. 

“If you look back on that one, yeah it’s maybe good that it happened to us in that part of the season.

“But you can’t have days like that and that Kerry team showed that they are ruthless and they are going to do that to you if you’re not on your game. We’ll be expecting a tough battle in two weeks’ time.”

Reflecting on lifting his first Ulster title as captain at the weekend, Hampsey remarked: “It’s special. That’s what you set out to do.

“At the start of every season you want to win titles and thankfully, the lads got across the line today but we made it tough (on ourselves). Monaghan had a great second half and they ran us right to the wire. Thankfully the lads dug deep and we got across the line.”

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