Tyrone - they haven't gone away you know
ONLY a fool would make a definitive judgement on a team's chances in the league, let alone the championship, on the basis of their pre-season tournament form, nevertheless beg our indulgence.
There was something of the old swagger in Tyrone's display in the Mckenna Cup Final that made us think that maybe Mickey Harte's men are on the way back.
In 2011 all of that seemed to have disappeared. Mickey Harte seemed wedded to those players with whom he won those three All Irelands (their only All Irelands full stop remember), but with Kevin Hughes and Brian Dooher now retired Harte's hand is increasingly being forced to go with younger players.
They were fresh faces in fine form against Derry (admittedly they were down to fourteen men from an early stage making it hard to set too much store on what happened in the Athletics Grounds) – Michael Murphy at midfield excelled, Mark Donnelly played brilliantly at full-forward, Ronan O'neill and Kyle Coney (hardly a fresh face at this stage, but a guy who deserved more game time last season).
Add to that seasoned campaigners like Dermot Carlin, Stephen O'neill and Owen Mulligian and they're looking good.
