Rivalry recalled between Ryan McMenamin and Colm Cooper

Tyrone’s Ryan McMenamin says his infamous battles with the Gooch made him a better defender.

As the pair searched for new ways to outwit each other at the height of the counties’ fierce rivalry of the noughties, Cooper and McMenamin took their own games to new heights.

“From early on, he improved in his movement down through the years as I was marking him, and he probably improved me as a defender too,” he said. “He made me look at other ways of defending, and finding ways to counteract him.