TYRONE BEGIN TG4 ULSTER CHAMPIONSHIP

PADDY HUNTER

A Tyrone ladies football team will have the honour of being one of the first sides to play at the newly refurbished Pairc Esler in Newry this week. The senior squad will open their TG4 Ulster senior football championship campaign against Donegal as the curtain raiser to the Bank Of Ireland Ulster replay between Down and Cavan. A high profile venue for this high profile championship quarter final that Tyrone, despite all their injuries will start as slight favourites.

Tyrone go into the tie on the back of an indifferent league campaign, there’s been plenty for manager Jimmy McCloughan to mull over since the end of the run that produced the emergence of several potential new stars in the white shirt if little else. Sunday will be a far cry from the pristine surrounds or not indeed as it proved to be in Bannagher earlier this year as Tyrone lost to Kerry, the atmosphere is expected to be great with well over 10,000 expected at the Newry venue and the new surface is said to be the best in Ireland.

One Down commentator said this week that “if you cant play football on Pairc Esler now then you will never be able to play football”.

So the ground is up to the job, but what of Tyrone, its fair to say Jimmy and his assistant Pat McAtee have given new girls the chance to stake their claim for places in Sundays starting 15, a new look championship this year too will over Tyrone three games against other sides in the height of Summer but it’s the Ulster championship that the Fintona duo have set their sights on, and maybe not even this year. McCloughan has seen it all before though, having guide Tyrone vocational sides to numerous Ulster and all Ireland titles, he’s a realist though and is looking at the big picture.

“ Its not about this year” he told me, “ don’t get me wrong I want to see Tyrone win every match but this is a three year plan, whatever we get out of this year will be a bonus, we have the talent and the skill but its now about getting it out of the girls, An Ulster final is not beyond us this season but I am looking ahead”

Looking no further than Sunday at Newry though, McCloughan is confident Tyrone can advance but just like his men’s counterpart Mickey Harte injuries to upwards of five key players leaves him with a headache.

“ I know Donegal will be tough to overturn, its all the more harder now with the likes of Ann Dooher and Maura Kelly all carrying knocks going into this first game, there’s no long term injury problem but this game is maybe too soon for some of the current injured”

So if Dooher, Kelly and co miss out, what’s the mangers options, well thankfully the new young guns that he called into this new look squad are quite capable, three, Sarah Connolly, Christiane Hunter and Niamh Woods picked up Ulster minor medals last week and McCloughan has been so impressed by that team he’s asked Clodagh Poyntz and Laura McGillion to link up with the panel,

“ I have been impressed with the young girls, the minors have particularly impressed in the group this season, I am confident that they are the nucleus of Tyrone sides in the future but they are not here to   make up numbers now, No   I have every confidence in their ability, they are there on merit and I know they can do a job for us if needed this weekend.”

It is then a very youthful squad in some quarters but the bulk of the experienced heads are still in the dressing room too, Dooher, Kelly, Gemma Begley and Siobhan McGarvey make this a very balanced side, one that should give Ulster a rattle   this season. The work has been put in at Youth sport Omagh since the Winter nights of December when McCloughan was appointed, the league campaign saw Tyrone remain in the top flight and with this new look championship format Tyrone indeed will benefit from all the football. The manger is looking forward to the task and admits Tyrone are in the better side of the Ulster draw.

“We are all looking forward to Sunday, it’s the championship after all and it’s a new experience for me, the ladies Ulster championship , I realize that we are up against a Donegal side that too have some older heads mixed with fresh young faces, but I feel we have the better side, the winners face Down and we are in the better half of the draw, Armagh and Monaghan meet I think on June 16 th , they are waiting in the wings but I think an Ulster final is not beyond us, first though we must get past Donegal”

For Tyrone it was of course set to be a home fixture on this coming Saturday,   until the Ulster council stepped in and put the game at Newry, its caused some annoyance though in some quarters with the game set to start 15 minutes after Tyrone’s Ulster opener with Fermanagh at Clones. Some families will be split then with family members involved in both squads. Its all part though of integration and in the long run it’s a boost for the ladies game to be on par with the men in terms of the venues and the profile.

A win is certainly what the manger and the county want this Sunday, they should overturn the Tir Connel girls but McCloughan will take nothing for granted, nothing has been left to chance and the preparation has been methodical, its is the mangers first few months of a three year plan, the ultimate goal… Croke Park and an October date with the All Ireland championship…..   the shouting stops on the Sunday and the long road to Croaker begins. Throw in Time on Sunday is 2-30pm