Donnelly: Success breeds success

Tyrone’s young guns face the first major test of their careers this weekend, according to attacker Mark Donnelly.

The Dubs will expose and exploit any weaknesses in an inexperienced Red Hand side in Sunday’s Allianz FL decider. But Donnelly sees the Croke Park clash as the perfect opportunity for a handful of rookies to step up to a new level.

“If you’re winning games, it becomes a habit, and that’s the sort of habit you want to get into coming into the championship, and it’s a great boost for the younger lads.

“And if they’re used to winning McKenna Cups and National Leagues, they’ll feel as if this is the norm, and nothing will faze them,” he said.

“At the beginning of the year, Mickey [Harte] set out to win every game, and to get into the top four, which would give us at least one extra game to prepare for the Donegal game, and I suppose it give Mickey a chance to look at a wider range of players.

“Not only that, but to test them against the best teams in the country, which is very important in getting that competitive edge that you get from a semi-final and final, and we’re definitely going to get that against Dublin, because Dublin are the form team at the minute, they have clocked up a lot of scores this year.

“We will be tested and hopefully we can give them a good game, and hopefully come out on the winning side.”

It’s a decade since Tyrone last won the league with young stars on the 2003 team including Brian McGuigan, Philip Jordan, Kevin Hughes, Stephen O’Neill, Sean Cavanagh and many others who became household names and treble All-Ireland winners.

Ten years on, Donnelly senses an opportunity for the latest wave of emerging talent to follow a similar path.

“If you look back at the 2003 and 2005 All-Ireland winning teams, a lot of those fellows, like Brian McGuigan, Kevin Hughes and Conor Gormley, they were all young fellows with no fear. They had won under-age titles, they were full of confidence.

“And with this batch of young players coming in, the likes of Niall Morgan, Darren McCurry, Conor McAliskey, Mattie Donnelly, they’re confident players and they’re used to winning, and they want to carry that in at senior level, so it’s a great boost to have those type of players coming into the panel.”

And the Carrickmore man is encouraged by the fact younger players have stepped into central roles in the team.

“If you look down the middle spine of the team, you have Niall Morgan, Conor Clarke at full-back, Mattie Donnelly at centre half, Peter Harte at centre forward, they’re all young players, and they’re not just fringe players.

“I suppose that’s what Tyrone maybe needed, they have brought a great injection of pace an enthusiasm into the team, and the likes of Ryan McKenna and Ronan McNamee have come in and played a lot of league football this year.

“There are plenty of young lads who have pushed on well and it’s a great benefit for Tyrone. They’re keeping other boys on their toes.”

Donnelly acknowledged the Dubs have the capacity to run riot, such is the quality and extent of their attacking options.

With Bernard Brogan back from injury, and several top-class forwards vying for selection, manager Jim Gavin has an embarrassment of riches at his disposal.

“I have been following young Mannion this past few games, he has been scoring a lot, and he’s a formidable player.

“When you look at all the players they have, they have the pick of maybe eight or nine top class forwards, which any county in Ireland would love to have.

“So we know we’re going to be up against it, and we’re going to have to prepare for that. It’s not going to just be up to the defenders, we’re going to have to work hard as a team to try and snuff out their attack.

“From Tyrone’s point of view, my feeling would be that the extra competitive game is great preparation for the Donegal game, but whenever you get to a final, you want to win it, and we’ll be putting everything into winning the league final.

“If we beat Dublin in Croke Park in a league final, it will give us great momentum to carry into the Donegal game, and I think that can only be good for Tyrone.”