Tyrone must up performances to reclaim Sam, warns McMenamin

RYAN McMENAMIN has warned that Tyrone will need to up their performances if they are to claim a third All-Ireland in five seasons come September.

Mickey Harte’s side have mixed the good, the bad and the average in their three championship appearances so far and Sunday’s defeat of Monaghan was typical of their campaign to date.

Superb in the first and third quarters, they were outplayed for much of the second and fourth by Monaghan and were fortunate to escape Clones with the title.

“It was probably a bit up and down,” said the Tyrone right-back of their provincial experience. “We weren’t good against Fermanagh but we raised ourselves for the Donegal game. We showed bits and pieces of what we were capable of against Monaghan, but they could have stolen it at the end. We will need to improve for the rest of the All-Ireland.”

There may be work in progress but the pieces of the jigsaw are coming together. Brian Dooher was superb in the semi-final defeat of Donegal and, though quieter last Sunday, had hardly trained between the two matches. He will be all the better for the 70 minutes, while Stephen O’Neill’s recovery also continued apace with another 20 minutes at St Tiernach’s Park.

The cherry on top was the contribution from Sean Cavanagh. “Big Seanie was outstanding,” McMenamin agreed. “He’s getting back to his old self. He’s been working hard in training and kicking points off the right and left boots. Hopefully we can get the whole team playing together one day.”

And so to the negatives. Eight points up with 25 minutes to play, Tyrone had Monaghan peering over the precipice. But it took the underdogs until the final whistle to finally topple over.

“We were happy to be four points up at half-time, but we weren’t happy with the way we were playing. Mickey Harte had a few harsh words for us in the dressing room. We knew we had a lot to do. We went eight up and then took the foot off it. It was my mistake that let them back into it. I dropped a ball and the next thing I knew it was in the back of the net.”

Unfancied against Down and Derry, few gave Monaghan any hope of taking Tyrone’s scalp, but they took the favourites to the edge.

“It’s been the year of the underdog so far and Monaghan were the underdogs against us,” said Sean Cavanagh. “We saw what Sligo did against Galway so it’s great to win an Ulster title.

“It’s a great day but Monaghan were unlucky and maybe a draw would have been a fair result. We know this Monaghan side, we know their manager and Martin McElkennon. We knew we were in for a battle.”

Perhaps Mickey Harte’s chief concern will be the extent of the damage wrought by Monaghan’s belated decision to inundate Vinny Corey with high ball on the edge of Tyrone’s small square. It took Monaghan 15 minutes to take the aerial route towards the Clontibret player once he was re-positioned from full-back after half-time, but the return was instantaneous.

“The full-back line was under serious pressure but they saved us a couple of times in the first-half,” Cavanagh pointed out. “We owed the full-back line at half-time.”