Red Hands ‘must keep improving’ to retain Sam Maguire

TYRONE are under no illusions about the task required to retain their All-Ireland SFC title.

The improvement curve must continue on its upward journey if Sam Maguire is to maintain residency in the Red Hand community, according to assistant manager Fr Gerard McAleer.

McAleer, who has worked with Mickey Harte since minor ranks, conceded that the champions were fortunate on Saturday against Galway.

"They had a penalty and Padraic Joyce missed an open goal. Those things happened at critical times. We had a lot of wides at the start of the second-half and there is always the danger that in a situation like that, one team will draw away.''

Overall, he and manager Harte were satisfied with the performance, given the happenings of the past year.

"If you're talking about Tyrone's loss of form, a whole lot of factors come into that equation.

"We can't forget the impact of Cormac McAnallen's loss in our lives and on the team. That's the first thing. We try not to say that, but let's be blunt.

"Facts are facts and Cormac was an enormous influence in every way. When you are emotionally down, as we were for a long time, it's very hard to put quality performances together again.''

Fr McAleer also pointed to the injuries to Peter Canavan, Enda McGinley, Mark Harte and Colm McCullough which disrupted their preparations ahead of Saturday's tie.

"We went into the game without a number of players who played at important stages last year or in the early part of this season.

"When you take players like that out of the team, it explains our under-performances. We have been happy to get it together. We won the game, but we did not play well.''

He stressed that the display represented an improvement on the Ulster semi-final defeat to Donegal.

"We were ahead at half-time and it never crossed our minds that in the second-half we would cave in - but cave in we did. There's no other way to describe it. We had our pride. We had to redeem ourselves. Maybe it was the kick we needed to get us going again, to refocus our minds.

"It was not that people were being less than enthusiastic. But it forced people to think again and say, 'look, we have an awful lot to do if we are going to hold on to this All-Ireland'.

"The Donegal match poor and all as it was was the kind of injection we needed at the time.''

He described Armagh's performance in the final against Donegal as 'nothing short of extraordinary'.

"They have one All-Ireland and we have one All-Ireland. I suppose they are hot favourites, but we are still a team in the making."