First decent football match of the summer on the cards this weekend in the only really competitive province with Tyrone taking on Derry.
How do we see this one going & furthermore, who is going to come out of the trenches to go through the front door?
Tyrone by 3 or 4.
They have a good young side with a few tough and experienced lads to balance it out. They seem to have moved away from the old format of bigger and bulkier is better and more towards what Dublin are doing i.e all around aerobic strength is key to modern GAA. Thye attack and defend in packs and have really built a system where both Cavanghs have a massive influence which is only a good thing.
Tyrone have the nice side of the draw (avoiding Donegal & Monaghan) so they are rightful favourites to win it. Cavan are no pushover but they are a year or 2 behind Tyrone at the moment so I would put it down as a shock were they to beat them.
Tyrone v Donegal final and Tyrone to win by 2 in that.
I said on the old forum that I fancy Tyrone to make the All Ireland Final this year and take the scalp of one of the big 3 teams, so I will stick with that.
Tyrone will walk through this you would have to imagine. Derry are very poor. For all the clamour around Ulster there are some bog standard teams there at the minute. Donegal Tyrone and Monaghan are some distance ahead of the rest in Ulster. Cavan and Fermanagh still have some way to go imo.
Tyrone walking this match I feel is an unlikely scenario. This is a local and indeed particularly bitter derby match, being played at Celtic Park. I would expect Tyrone to come through but I would expect it to be very tight and a Derry victory would not be a major surprise.
Ulster this year is by far the most competitive province, although it could be argued that Ulster would be fourth favourites to provide the eventual All Ireland Champions.
The draw appears to have fallen favourably for the top four teams in Ulster - Tyrone, Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan, and they should get to the semi-finals. I get a sense that both Monaghan and Donegal have done what is necessary to get through the league whilst maintaining their Division One Status, and will have all eyes on their potential semi-final meeting. Current form will give no insight into how that match could go.
I would expect Cavan to take us in the quarter-final and play Tyrone in the semi-final. That will be a true test of how far Cavan have progressed and I feel it may be a step too far.
At a guess, Monaghan to beat Tyrone in the Ulster Final.
Good start here by Tyrone . Playing a lot of guys back though but broke forward for a lovely goal .
Derry are a prime example of a team whose manager doesn’t think they have a hope of winning so he sets them up to make sure they don’t.
I’d be more afraid of Tyrone then Kerry.
Tyrone are live contenders for the AI Championship this year
Contenders maybe, winners I doubt.
That team is setup for Croke Park- they may not win Ulster but they’ll outlive anyone who does win Ulster in the championship
It’s like going back in time to 2005 watching Tyrone again. Building a serious team again
They sure are and as you said as the summer progresses they will only getting better and better. Ronan O’Neill & Sean Kavanagh as full forwards will cause havoc to teams in the big open space of Croke Park.
Called it that they’ll walk through Derry and so it transpired. Hard to read too much into it as Derry are poor. As I was saying earlier in the week there are some very poor sides in Ulster too.
I’m looking forward to seeing how Tyrone go the next day out though. I don’t think teams in Ulster have the forwards to exploit Tyrone at the back. They’re not as good defensively as they once were but they can definitely cause us problems should we meet them in either the Quarters or the Final.
The RTE commentary is rubbish though, Marty making sweeping judgements on elite players and what they should be doing and Carney with his 'it must be said’s and long list of clichés. The hurling is as bad - Canning bemoaning the yellow cards when it isn’t a dirty game, which has completely nothing to do with it. The pair of them are generally going on about what a shite game it is, do they not want anyone to actually watch it?
Leopards. Spots. I nearly puked when I heard Carney’s voice. Again. You are literally talking about the same people talking the same s***e for decades. Decades!!!
I don’t think Marty has a clue - he called a great kicked pass for Tyrones first goal a ’ long ball’ and Carneys ’ nothing malicious there ’ catchphrase is not funny any more.
So we have an Ulster Football thread. Hope Rufus manages to get beamed over here to the new site.
Tyrone’s fluffed goal opportunities v Kerry last year are still one of my main memories from the Championship. We won’t know for a while yet how much Div 2 football will undermine their preps but I’d tend to agree with @GAAIniesta. Tyrone could definitely take out one of the top three sides on a given day.
As for RTE, you would’ve thought in an era of Sky, Setanta & TG4, they’d push changes in their team of commentators, analysts etc through more rapidly. While they’ve added new faces in recent years, they’re hugely reluctant to jettison ANYONE. Carney & Spillane being perfect examples!
Tyrone could be dark horses for Sam. I reckon it will be a Dubs v Tyrone final as they have improved from a good base in 2015 especially with the 5/6 from last year’s winning U/21 team.
But equally as Tyrone looked good, Derry were disappointing. Once the first goal was scored by Tyrone heads appear to drop.
Could ya imagine it , Tyrone could do to us what we did to Kerry in '11 
As is so often the case after a relatively one sided match, trying to consider the underlying reason can be difficult, i.e. were Tyrone great or were Derry woeful. Traditionally Celtic Park has been a very difficult place for visitors to win, and that should have been especially so for Tyrone, given the depth of the rivalry. Much of the analysis since has tended to concentrate on Tyrone, with plaudits indicating that they are there or thereabouts for an All Ireland.
I’m not sure that’s the case. I thought Derry were absolutely woeful. They are at a low enough ebb anyway but their performance was pretty poverty stricken. They kept in touch early on with some excellent points from far out and from acute angles, but that was never going to generate enough scores to leave them challenging after an hour. Indeed, the game was gone in little over half that time - the Tyrone goals effectively killing the game off. Tyrone cruised to the final whistle in a non-event.
Tyrone will of course be there or thereabouts in Ulster, and barring some sort of unforeseen disaster, they should be playing in Croke Park in August, although not necessarily as Ulster Champions. I would guess that any of Cavan, Donegal or Monaghan would represent a much more formidable challenge than Derry, and if Monaghan can gain some self belief, then they have what it takes to overcome Tyrone. Tyrone to my mind are too reliant on the Cavanaghs, and thereafter they strike me as being quite physically small. I just couldn’t see them getting to an All Ireland.
Derry I’d imagine will implode quite soon in the qualifiers and the knives will be out for Barton. That will allow everyone in Derry to get on with what they enjoy most - club football.
We take our bow tomorrow in Cavan. They beat us by seventeen points in the league, with suggestions in some quarters that we took a bit of a dive ahead of this game. Even if there was some truth in that, then I can’t see it making any difference tomorrow, as quite simply Cavan are a better team than ourselves and also have home advantage. We had an abject Championship last year, and got relegated in the league this year, whilst Cavan in contrast got promoted. I think we’re up against it.
A source told me that Geezer is very optimistic about this Ulster campaign - if this is genuine, then he clearly has an insight that I do not have. I would expect us to get beat tomorrow by between 4 and 7, but would hope that we can put in a commendable performance that gives some hope for the future. A repeat of last year’s Championship would be severely damaging, not just to morale in the County, but to Geezer’s long term tenure. I would hate to see it happen, but the reality might be somewhat different.
McGeeney really should just give up at this stage. Whatever it is, he doesn’t have it.
At least his fly keeper tactic kept us all amused
