THIS WAS DEFINITELY a game of two halves.
With what started as a very cagey and nervous affair, ended in a dominant Tyrone second-half performance where they scored 2-11 to ensure their passage to the All Ireland semi-finals and a rematch with Monaghan.
Tyrone’s intensity and fitness
One area that Tyrone have upped massively since their defeat to Monaghan in the Ulster championship was their tackling and intensity levels.
Tyrone put together 34 tackles against Monaghan in the Ulster opener. Against Dublin they put 44 tackles on the board and yesterday in Donegal’s home ground they massed a total of 57 tackles. That is the highest that I have seen from any team in this year’s championship.
The difference in Tyrone’s tackling now and in May is their ability to get not only a second man helping to box up the opposition – something they were not doing previously but they are now starting to get a third man in at times.
This is part and parcel of Tyrone’s game plan: two men closing a man in, turning him over and breaking. Their intensity level has also risen in each game. It was 48 against Monaghan, 74 versus Dublin and yesterday it reached 81. Tyrone’s tackling, especially in the final quarter, was at times ferocious, they were hunting their prey and were not going to relent for one moment.
Donegal were nowhere near Tyrone’s level in this regard contributing 35 tackles and an intensity level of 53.
Along with Mickey Harte, credit must go to Tyrone’s strength and conditioning coach Peter Donnelly for his work. The fitness and conditioning levels of this Tyrone team are of the highest level possible.
This is shown by their ability to finish games so strongly continuing to get up and down the pitch fluently. They dismantled Donegal in the final 20 minutes, outscoring them by 2-7 to 0-2 in this period. It was also displayed in the performance they put up against Dublin late on.
Tyrone subs
Yet again, the Tyrone subs came up trumps for Mickey Harte’s men with a return of 2-5 from the bench.
In the second half, Tyrone changed tact and went more direct in their attack. They ran at the Donegal defence in greater numbers and were not allowing themselves to get smothered up by the blanket like they had in the first half.
Mattie Donnelly had it off to a fine art by the end of the game, running at angles taking or giving a quick pop pass or drawing a free or taking a shot on.
Lee Brennan was the other man that epitomised this, causing the Donegal backs nightmares. He scored four points in total, one from a placed kick and three from play.
Kieran McGeary who also had a great game driving forward, while Harry Loughran contributed a goal at a crucial time.
A goal for Tyrone from Harry Loughran. pic.twitter.com/hwOR8VClKV
— The GAA (@officialgaa) August 5, 2018
And Declan McLure put the icing on the cake in the 67th minute.
Declan McClure with a late Tyrone goal. pic.twitter.com/LqGMJJf4Hr
— The GAA (@officialgaa) August 5, 2018
The stand-off
Tyrone started this game brightly going three points clear early on however this game then became very edgy and also very safe. Both teams were very concerned about protecting their “D” area than going for the game.
Donegal went away from their normal game plan yesterday and instead they decided to bring everyone back when Tyrone had the ball, they had not done this before yesterday.
This is an extremely tiring game to play with massive energy and fitness levels needed in reserve to continue to keep going over the 70 minutes. It was shown late on that they did not have the levels required to do this.
Tyrone will probably have to play a similar game when they come up against Monaghan who showed on Saturday evening against Monaghan that they are hard to play against when they get a lead on you, they got out of the traps early and put Galway on the back foot.
Kick-outs
Probably the biggest area in the game of Gaelic football now is definitely the kick-out strategy of teams and yesterday was no different, both teams adopted different approaches.
Tyrone decided to allow Shaun Patton go short within the Donegal 45 metre area and dropped their forwards out. From the 45 metre line out becoming their tackling engagement line where they continued to press up from there and get their pressure on Declan Bonner’s men.
This may have to be the tactic that they go with against Monaghan as Rory Beggan again showed on Saturday that even when Galway pressed his kick-outs, he put the ball in the eye of the needle.
Donegal however opted to go with a different approach and decided to press up on Niall Morgans kick-outs throughout. This did pay dividends for the Donegal outfit as they got a goal directly from this by everybody being pushed up.
Niall Morgan tried a short kick-out and Ryan McHugh intercepted and played a quick pass to Michael Murphy who was at hand to bury the ball to the net.
Niall Morgan was not all to blame for that short kick-out however, Padraig Hampsey did not attack this ball and should have had the ball collected by the time Ryan McHugh intercepted.
Declan Bonner’s men returned with 24% of the Tyrone kick-out.
Goal for Donegal. Michael Murphy with an emphatic finish. pic.twitter.com/AgUyF0BGWj
— The GAA (@officialgaa) August 5, 2018
Whats next?
For Donegal, its the end of 2018. They will be happy with their Ulster title. They did however get relegated to Division 2. The key for Declan Bonner is to get promotion back to the top division in the spring. The return of Patrick McBrearty will be a massive addition.
Tyrone now face Monaghan in an all-Ulster semi-final. They will be very happy to get the chance of a rematch with Malachy O Rourke’s men. They are on a great run of momentum at the moment and will be hard stopped by any side.
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Who backs Delaney tho’ ? For such a small & beautiful country we accept a very low standard & we pay the wrong people way too much.
Delaney is a gormless plank,put into the FAI by his ticket tout father
Far from gormless.
Figure out how he can be removed from office, who has to agree to it and who pays their wages.
Nothing gormless about that.
Ah who cares, Trap is still manager. Just have to get used to it till he’s gone. COYBIG !!
Too little too late, both Delaney and Trapp are stuck in a greed warp, unconscionably high salaries and selling Irish soccer short. Under their stewardship, a cancer is taking hold of Irish football that is going to end up setting us back decades.
To appease fans, the big news is that Trapp is attending a match in England today – says it all that this is news. Delaney should go for giving this has been a new long term unaffordable contract before the Euros and Trapp should have been fired. Upcoming friendlys should be boycotted. €150,000 pa is more than enough to pay the FAI head.
Thats even too much for Delaney to be honest,he shouldn’t be there,look at the state if the irish league!!
Sick of the same news recycled by the press everyday about Trap , he’s the manager so let’s move on and back him up during the qualifiers because if we don’t do that we’ve no chance of getting to the world cup.
Trap and Delaney are symbolic of FG and Labour. Only concerned about bondholder payments to themselves.
What?
We hava gooda mentality and a gooda team.
If only.
That Delaney fella is some ass clown, he should have stepped down after the 33rd country comment after the French match, 450k a year for making comments like that. But sure why step down if your signing your own checks. His stupid head suits Irish soccer in fairness, annoying!!
Wolfgang do u read your comments before you post them??
No, why do u?
Sports administration at the highest level in any sport is all political and John Delaney is the consumate politician. No matter how you do the sums we cannot afford for Trap to go with bankrupting the FAI finanacially, so you might as well get used to having Trap until the end of the road for us at WC 2014 however soon it comes to an end for us.
look at the head of tardelli looks like he is hiding something from trap..I smell a rat!
Lol looks like he’s just farted and Trap’s just got wind of it!
LOL. Spot on Mac.
How much do the Irish government contribute toward the FAI either in direct subsidies or in tax breaks, allowances, advertising on pitches, employment grants, ticket purchases, the list goes on. Transparency please as their are people hungry in Ireland while Delaney is bleeding the system for pension and expenses plus his salary. How much will his pension cost as I think he will live to be 100 in spite of us all.
Trap should join Fianna Fail
So John delay gets paid 360000 a year , amount cut in fai grant aid to local clubs last year 370k , how are we still paying so much for such bad leadership and organisation?? A symbol of everything that’s wrong with country at the moment..