Holders Tyrone reached yet another Dr McKenna Cup final with a nine points win over Down at the Athletic Grounds.

Amazing the things you pick up while out and about.

Ryan McHugh doesn’t remember much about his father Martin leading Cavan to an Ulster title, but he says his family will always have a special bond with the county.

Tyrone great Sean Cavanagh has claimed Tiernan McCann has a reputation locally for being “too nice” and that he’ll be “gutted” with his two-match ban.

Munster hasn’t caught fire but still smouldering.

Monaghan v Armagh is the pick of the All-Ireland Round 2 SFC qualifier draw although Mayo face a tricky encounter against Down at Newry on Saturday week.

Discipline is a big buzz word you hear bandied about in most sporting codes.

Tiernan McCann is likely to face retrospective punishment for his actions against Donegal’s Stephen McMenamin early in the second half of Saturday night’s Ulster semi-final in Kingspan Breffni Park.

Summer certainly hasn’t started temperature-wise but from a refereeing perspective it did yesterday. The games in Cavan and Kilkenny swung the Championship into life.

The game itself was a walking, talking, advert for a tiered football championship, so when the competition on the pitch doesn’t scare you, you look for motivation elsewhere, and Richie Donnelly found it within his own dressing room.

Tyrone charged through to the Ulster SFC semi-finals with a demolition job at the Athletic Grounds.

Despite playing the last 25 minutes with 14 men, Tyrone picked up their first win over Dublin in six years as the All-Ireland lost three round games for the first time in Jim Gavin’s reign.

Frank Rich of the New York Times had within his gift the capacity to sink a Broadway play with a damaging opening night review, but at his most acerbic, he’d be hard put to pour cold water on this new Kerry production.

Killyclogher came back from the dead to deny Ardboe in an extra-time thriller at Carrickmore yesterday and book their place in the Tyrone SFC final.

The Cluxton kickout

Struggling as we are for an original metric to measure this Dublin football team by, perhaps the candidates for an All-Ireland final man of the match offers an informative perspective.

Dublin 2-17 Tyrone 1-14

Ciaran Kilkenny had scratched plenty off his bucket list before this.

Margin of error is something a lot of observers don’t consider when analysing a referee’s performance. Refs don’t go out with a plan to make mistakes but neither do they believe they are going to get everything 100% correct.

For me, this current Dublin team is the best ever and even now — a year out — there’s almost a certain inevitability about the five in a row.

Our five-time All-Ireland-winning columnist expects Mickey Harte’s defensive set-up to frustrate Dublin.

Down will be without their free-taker Donal O’Hare for their round 2 Qualifier against Cavan on Saturday.

I’m led to believe Stephen Cluxton had blood in his mouth following that first-half clash with James McGivney, so the conspiracy theorists won’t be happy.

Tyrone escaped from Navan with a narrow win and a place in the second round of the Qualifier series, squeezing out a courageous Meath side in an extra-time thriller.

The word all last week was that Tyrone might have been happier playing this one in Clones.

Monaghan 1-18 Tyrone 1-16: Typical, really. Murphy’s Law.

Manchester City win the league hitting the 100-point mark, 18 points more than Manchester United and 25 more than Liverpool and yet City haven’t been able to beat either in recent games. 

Mickey Harte believes Dublin could be more vulnerable this year than they have been for a long time and he questions whether they will have the hunger to go deep and long into the summer.

Tyrone’s top scorer Lee Brennan has emerged as a doubt for the big Ulster SFC opener against Monaghan on May 20.

Former All-Ireland winning Tyrone defender Conor Gormley has admitted the county lacks serious firepower and has challenged the current forwards to prove they’re ‘marquee’ talents.

Tyrone footballer Tiernan McCann has to ice his fractured kneecap every 30 minutes and is unable to walk or work because of the serious injury sustained last week.

Galway 1-9 Tyrone 0-8: A sharp winter’s day, a wet ball on a heavy pitch and a swirling wind that went all over the place … perfect conditions, you’d imagine, for Tyrone to get their league campaign off to a winning start and get Mickey Harte’s 16th season up and running earnest.

Galway scored their 13th ever league win over Tyrone when they led throughout a tough contest at Tuam Stadium.

All-Star nominated Tyrone defender Tiernan McCann has admitted he’s ‘sorry’ about his infamous dive during the 2015 Championship.

Tyrone and Fermanagh made it two wins from two in the McKenna Cup, but Kieran McGeeney is worried about a possible fixture pile-up in the wake of postponements elsewhere yesterday.

For the first time in the history of the PwC All-Stars, there are four candidates for the footballer of the year including two goalkeepers, David Clarke and Stephen Cluxton, writes John Fogarty.

For the first time in the history of the PwC All-Stars, there are four candidates for the footballer of the year including two goalkeepers, David Clarke and Stephen Cluxton.

Mickey Harte was last night re-appointed as Tyrone senior football manager for a 16th season, ending speculation that his reign was about to come to an end.

It seems laughable to think of it now but this was a summer that started with suggestions that Dublin were slipping back towards the chasing pack thanks to their loss to Kerry in the league final.

David Clarke (Mayo)

His manager is certainly no fan of the ‘mark’ but Niall Sludden thinks it is helping the game evolve for the better.

It’s hard to believe. Tyrone 1-21 Donegal 1-12 — and it was a scoreline that flattered Donegal.

After so much criticism, scrutiny, and negativity, this was Tyrone’s day of deliverance with the team unleashing possibly its best and most significant victory of this decade at Clones yesterday.

The pendulum has swung decisively in Tyrone’s favour in the battle of Ulster’s giants following a runaway win at Clones.