1. Tipperary manager Peter Creedon steps down
After four championship seasons at the helm, Cork native Creedon confirmed after the game that he’s leaving the Tipp job.
His boots will be big ones to fill as Creedon guided Tipp to the last 12 of the All-Ireland series in 2012 and 2014.
But Tyrone were too good this afternoon, outscoring the hosts by 0-12 to 0-1 in the second half.
Creedon has taken up a new teaching job in Cahir and the demands on his time will be far greater than his previous position in Tipperary town.
It had been widely-speculated that Creedon would quit after Tipp’s 2015 campaign concluded and the hunt for his successor will begin immediately.
2. Tipperary’s indiscipline
We had expected that this encounter would be full of needle following the All-Ireland U21 final between the counties in May.
A melee broke out before half-time and both sets of players had to be separated as they made their way off the pitch at the break.
But those flashpoint moments seemed to galvanise Tyrone as Tipp fell apart in the second half.
Liam Casey was sent off for stamping on Colm Cavanagh just two minutes after coming on as sub and Tipp suffered a further blow when International Rules player Ciaran McDonald was black-carded.
Tipp also finished the game with seven players booked, compared to just three for Tyrone.
3. Tipp take a step backwards
Beating opposition of a similar standard, or a little above, has become a regular exercise for the Tipperary footballers.
But there’s still a road to travel before they can compete with the big guns, based on today’s evidence.
At half-time, Tipp were well in the hunt and turned to play with the breeze in the second period.
But Tyrone were rampant as they kicked a flurry of unanswered scores to close the game out.
Tipp can take plenty of learning from this one but some key aspects of their play, most notably ball handling and decision-making in possession, let them down.
4. Peter Harte’s display for Tyrone
Harte was the man who got Tyrone out of jail with a decisive penalty in their previous qualifier against Meath.
And the Errigal Chiaráin dynamo was superb again today, providing the ideal link between defence and attack.
In a first half that was a real war of attrition, Harte and captain Sean Cavanagh provided the leadership and cool heads to keep Tyrone ticking over.
Both men kicked two points each before half-time and Harte must have covered every blade of Semple Stadium grass with his incessant running.
This was another superb display from the flame-haired defender who was named at number 7 but operated in a myriad of roles before he was taken off, exhausted, with seven minutes left.
5. Big improvement from Tyrone bodes well
While they’re still involved in the championship, Tyrone are a danger for any future opponents.
The clinical nature of their second half display will have provided manager Mickey Harte with huge encouragement ahead of Monday morning’s round 4B draw.
Tyrone were there or thereabouts despite losing to Donegal in the Ulster championship and appear to be building up a nice head of steam through the back door.
They were lucky against Meath but swatted aside a potentially difficult opponent in Tipperary with relative ease.
Harte stated after the game that if Tyrone perform to what they’re capable of, they won’t fear anybody.
