McCann’s charges embracing senior step up

By Shaun Casey

THERE isn’t a much tougher start to the championship than an away day trip to Galway, but Tyrone boss Darren McCann says this is the level his girls want to be playing at.

Having won the All-Ireland Intermediate Championship last season, the Red Hands are operating at the top level now and Galway will be an extremely challenging encounter.

The Connacht champions are one of the best teams in the country and reached the Division One league final earlier this season, coming up short against Cork.

“We’re really looking forward to it,” McCann said .”It’s a different challenge and we know it’s not going to be easy; no group is. It’s doesn’t come much more difficult than facing Galway in the first day out.

“We’re away from home as well and with injuries and different things it won’t be easy. It’s another game and we’ll give it a lash. Our objective is pretty simple, we want to get out of the group, but we know that’s not going to be simple.”

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Tyrone will be underdogs heading into the weekend, but McCann doesn’t mind that particular tag being attached to his team.

“Galway have been at the top end of the Senior Championship over the last number of years, and they’ve probably been unlucky not to have won an All-Ireland at this stage.

“They lost an All-Ireland final to Kerry two years ago, they were very unlucky last year to lose out to Dublin after extra time. They’re favourites for the All-Ireland for a reason.

“They have an abundance of talent with pace and power all over the pitch. It’s a really good challenge for our girls and that’s where we want to be playing. You have to put up a fight, and these girls have shown that all year.”

McCann believes that his team have been underestimated by observers, but he says they relish the underdogs’ tag.

“They’ve been written off this year in every game to date. I’m assuming nothing will change this weekend, but we’ll use that. Hopefully that’ll work to our advantage come Saturday and the girls will give a good account of themselves.”

Tyrone demonstrated in the Ulster Championship that they can compete with the top teams in the country. They beat both Donegal and Armagh to top the group before losing out narrowly to the Orchard County by the minimum of margins in the showpiece.

“There’s lots of learnings from those games,” McCann continued. “We had lots of time to prepare for Donegal and that set us up well against them. We knew at that stage that if we won that game, we’d be in the Ulster final.

“The Armagh game, we were well in the game and that little bit of experience showed in the end, having won the last two Ulster titles.

“We ran out of time more than anything. That last play, with the hooter system, but we can take a lot from it. We definitely pushed them to the pin of their collar, they know that and we gave a really good performance against Donegal.

“We’re looking forward to Saturday and to Saturday week against Meath, these are the teams you want to be playing against, the best teams.”