Footballers, from left, Christopher McKaigue of Derry, Shane Walsh of Galway, Michael McKernan of Tyrone, Niall Scully of Dublin and Paudie Clifford of Kerry during the launch of the GAA Football All Ireland Senior Championship Series in Dublin.
By John Harrington
Tyrone defender, Michael McKernan, believes the reigning All-Ireland champions have learned a lot from their early exit from this year’s Ulster championship.
They’ve had five weeks to review that heavy defeat to Derry and have worked particularly hard on addressing indiscipline and poor skill execution.
“Derry just taught us a lesson that day,” said McKernan. “But look, we've had five or six weeks of hard training. We've reviewed our season to date and we've looked at the discipline aspect, just probably the basic skills and concentration within games. Yeah, there's been a lot to work on over the last few weeks and hopefully we'll get back up to the level we were at last year.
“We knew throughout the league the discipline was maybe not where it was last year, with the red cards. But even basic skills, tackling and stuff like that there, giving the ball away.
“We maybe weren't holding ourselves to the high standards that we were last year. We had a red card against Fermanagh and we had a red card against Derry so that's one of the major things that we're looking at. It's maybe shown a lack of focus as well as discipline. No, that's one of the main things that we're looking at and trying to improve on.”
Michael McKernan of Tyrone during the Ulster GAA Football Senior Championship Quarter-Final match between Tyrone and Derry at O'Neills Healy Park in Omagh, Tyrone.
Much has been made of the fact that six players – Lee Brennan, Tiernan McCann, Mark Bradley, Ronan O’Neill, Hugh Pat McGeary and Michael Cassidy – chose to leave the Tyrone panel this year but McKernan doesn’t believe that contributed to their poor form in the Ulster SFC.
“No, I don't think it did,” he says. “Those boys all had personal reasons, a lot of them were getting married or moving into homes. They have been great servants to Tyrone over the last number of years. No, I think there's still a strong panel and there have been new boys brought in at the start of this year.
“We have brought in some U-20s now that have strengthened it even more. They're pushing on. We had the U-17s at the weekend, and the U-20s who won Ulster and All-Ireland this year, so look, those boys (over winter) were leaving, they had their time and it was just their time to move on. There are new boys coming through and they're pushing it on now.”
Tyrone play an Armagh team on Sunday they’ve already lost twice to this year – in the McKenna Cup and Allianz Football League – so the already hot rivalry between the counties has risen a few more degrees.
“Even for the neutral it's good,” says McKernan of what should be a seriously competitive game.
“In Armagh, it's not a nice place for any team to go to. Their fans get behind them and the last game will be in the back of our minds probably. We've played them twice this year and they've beat us twice.
“We know the challenge that we're faced by. But look, it's something to look forward to, for us, for Tyrone fans and even for Armagh fans. Just in general, GAA people can look forward to it too.”
