McMenamin: No panic in Tyrone

RYAN McMENAMIN has dismissed suggestions Tyrone’s days at the top of the Gaelic football tree are at an end and has declared the county’s league campaign a success despite their relegation to Division Two.

The Red Hand county claimed three All-Ireland titles, four Ulster championships and two NFL titles in the first decade of the new century but questions are now being asked about what the future holds for them.

Defeat by Dublin two days ago condemned them to tier two football for the first time since the 1990s and a high proportion of Mickey Harte’s first 15 have been going to the well for nigh on a decade now.

“Only time will tell,” said the defender. “We are all confident in our own ability. Mickey has complete confidence in what we can do and we are confident in what we can do. We all know that we have to knuckle down and work harder because the bar has been raised in the last couple of years, by Kerry and Cork.

“Dublin have come out now with a new vigour that the media has been saying has probably been lacking from them in the past, that they had no backbone, and were not a hard working but a fancy team.

“You saw there that they were a good hard-working team who made it difficult for us in the first-half and they are going to be there with a shout. At the end of the day, it is you in the media who is going to say whether we are finished or not so I’ll let you decide.”

Their experiences in the league were hardly suggestive of a team progressing in a positive direction but McMenamin begs to differ and points to the blooding of a number of the victorious 2008 All-Ireland minor team.

Kyle Coney, Peter Harte, Ronan McNabb, Peter Harte, Niall McKenna have all been offered a taste of senior football while fringe players like Dermot Carlin and Martin Penrose have come to the fore.

“All in all, you can look it in two ways. In the short term, we got relegated but, in the long term, we have blooded in eight or nine good guys who will serve Tyrone well for the next five to 10 years.”

Whatever about the summer to come, Tyrone will not find life in Division Two a picnic. It has taken Armagh three long seasons to return to the top flight having vacated it in 2007.

How many of the current panel are still on board 12 months from now remains to be seen but McMenamin reacted with some surprise when asked if defeats like Sunday’s made him question his own inter-county career.

“That’s a wild question,” said the former All Star. “I might just go for the rope after that. At the end of the day, it is going to be hard. Every time you go out and play and lose, you question yourself no matter what age you are.

“At the end of the day, Tyrone football is not going to stop once Brian Dooher and I quit. There is plenty of better footballers in the county than Brian Dooher and I. I am sure that the set up is there to make sure we carry on for the next 10 years.

“Whether I am playing or not does not matter. I am happy enough to be part of the squad and, as long as Tyrone win, I am happy whether I am number 30 or number four so it will not matter at all.”