By John Harrington

Brian McGuigan is one of the greatest players in the history of Tyrone football, but he doesn’t think he would make the grade in the current county team. 

McGuigan retired from inter-county football in 2011 and believes the game has changed considerably in the last five years because the physical conditioning of players has gone to a new level. The Ardboe man was a gifted centre-forward who was blessed with wonderful vision, but doubts he’d have the fitness to survive and thrive in the current era.

“I think the game has changed, and wouldn’t suit my sort of game,” said McGuigan at the launch of this year’s Bord Gáis Energy Legends Tour Series in Croke Park on Tuesday.

“You need to be full of running, and fitness. Look at Dublin and Donegal, it’s about moving the ball from defence into the attack, and the big change in Tyrone this year is Colm Cavanagh. Last year he’d have been the sweeper, around the ‘D’ area, and would have stayed in that area, or walked out of it. Now if the ball breaks he’s charging out of that area, getting on the end of some moves. Mattie Donnelly is the same, and that requires a massive amount of fitness.

“The main aim of teams now is to cover the position that I used to play. I would have always tried to find pockets of space out on the wing and at the top of the D, but there is just no room to manoeuvre anymore. You see Donegal on Sunday, Michael Murphy has to come out the field because he just doesn’t get the space that he would inside and that is just the way the game has gone- the way teams set themselves up.

“I was at an event on Saturday night, and there were five or six of the Tyrone lads at it, and even what they’re eating and drinking at these events is different, it’s as if football is everything. They were just sipping away at the water and maybe had their own water bottles with them. Whenever the food was set out on the table they weren't eating it, they must have had their prep food with them or already in them.

“When I speak to Tyrone players that I would have played with, on successful teams, we comment on the physical shape of these Tyrone players, they are way above what we were – not saying in terms of footballing ability, but physically way above us. That is the way the game has gone.”

One of McGuigan's favourite habits in his playing days with Tyrone was to have a Chinese take-out on the Saturday night before a match, but he doesn’t imagine he’d get away with that now. The current Tyrone team might be fitter than the side that won three All-Irelands in the noughties, but McGuigan believes much of the joy of being a part of a team at the highest has now drained away.

“I think it has, I was actually talking to Sean Cavanagh one day and one thing we always prided ourselves on was that after we played matches we always liked to go for a drink, after a good Championship match, and Sean says that doesn't happen now.

“It's back to recovery and into the pool session and going home. Like, there's no spirit at all. Even on the bus, we always would have had great craic on the bus now everyone has their headphones on and there's no talking or communicating at all. So I think the fun has gone out of it but if you want to keep up with the best I suppose that's what you have to do.”

This year Tyrone look more capable of competing with the best than at any time since their heyday in the noughties. They beat a good Cavan team in the Allianz League Division Two Final and then ran through Derry in the Ulster Quarter-Final. In both of those matches their physical conditioning was particularly impressive, and McGuigan believes that’s largely thanks to the appointment of Peter Donnelly as the team’s strength and conditioning coach last year.

"Peter did a massive job with Cavan for years there and he always spoke about how he wanted to come back home again to Tyrone. The big stumbling block was whether Tyrone were willing to take him on, I suppose, financially, it was his job.

"They did make the step to do that. Mickey put it out there that he wanted Peter back and I think you can see the rewards on the field now. The players can run for the 70 minutes, and what stands to them now is they have a good panel, it's not just 15 players.

“Even the last day against Derry, seeing McCurry from the sideline, and I’d know him since he was a wee cocky light lad. But I could see the change in his physique. It’s as if Peter Donnelly has squeezed every last piece of muscle in those lads.”

McGuigan also believes that Tyrone boss Mickey Harte deserves a lot of praise for sticking to the task and rebuilding a new-look team in his 14th season as manager.

“Massive credit, because I would have said two years ago Tyrone had gone very stale, didn’t have the conveyor belt coming through, that Mickey needed to find his voice. How he does it I don’t know. He has come through personal tragedies and the fact that football has taken his mind off other things, it is his main goal whenever he leaves the house and it is a distraction for him, because he went through a tough time. 

“Personally I would love to see Mickey win another All-Ireland for himself but also for the memory of Michaela.”

*All-Ireland winning star Brian McGuigan was at GAA Headquarters for the launch of this year’s Bord Gáis Energy Legends Tour Series. He is one of the GAA greats who will host tours of Croke Park as part of the 2016 Legends Tour series, an event that offers GAA fans a unique chance to experience the stadium from a player’s perspective. For more information about this summers’ GAA Legend tours, log on to www.bgeu21.ie