By Niall Gartland

MALACHY O’Rourke has given the seal of approval to the return of the McKenna Cup competition, believing that it will allow him to road-test an eager batch of fresh recruits in a competitive environment.

O’Rourke was thrown into the deep end in his first year in charge with all the various pre-season competitions scrapped following a meeting of Central Council, where concerns were expressed about fixtures congestion.

The decision didn’t sit well with all parties, however, and the McKenna Cup has made a swift return to the calendar with Tyrone’s campaign set to commence with a trip to Armagh on the evening of Friday, January 2, before hosting Down on Sunda January 11th.

It’s an obvious testing ground for rookies to the intercounty scene, though Tyrone manager O’Rourke stresses that talented younger players won’t be discarded if they don’t make the National League panel.

“We’re delighted to see it back, particularly if we do bring newer players in, we’ll want to get a good look at them.

“There’s no better place than in competitive action, so that’ll be good, and it gives us a good chance to look at not just the fringe players.

“Last year we were only getting to know a lot of the lads and we want to be able to get a really good look at them and pressure-test them in competitive games.

“Then we’ll be picking a panel for the national league and will go on with that panel. But like last year, the panel isn’t closed at any stage, we’ve a development squad as well. There’s so many good young players coming through and we don’t want anyone to be lost. Fellas develop at different stages.”

He added: “We don’t want to look at someone in a couple of McKenna Cup games and dismiss them and never come back, so it’s important we give them a chance.

“We have to make calls before the National League but a lot of those lads are still involved in the system and will still keep developing and will hopefully will still be there for again.”

The Red Hands were unfortunate to suffer relegation from the top-flight but O’Rourke isn’t too worried about the corresponding levels of competitiveness in Division Two, where they will ply their trade in 2026.

“I don’t think so because the games are going to be really competitive, there’s a lot at stake in every game and you’re playing quality teams.

“It’s up to us to apply ourselves properly and we know it’s going to be no easy task winning any of the games, we’ll have to be really at ourselves to be up at the top of the table and that’ll be our aim.”

“As well as that, when you look at all the teams in the division, they’re all sort of on an upward trend.

“They’re all coming off good seasons so that makes it very difficult as well.

“There’s a really committed panel full of quality players, a nice mix of youth and experience. The attitude among the panel is really good so we’re looking forward to getting work done and getting ready for the next season.”

Assessing the 2025 season as a whole, O’Rourke says they made progress but adds that their second-half performance in the All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry suggests that there’s plenty of learning to be done.

“To be fair we did feel we made progress. We knew the work the boys were putting in over the year. We’d some really good performances, beating Donegal in Donegal, beating Dublin in Dublin, and a couple of games in the national league. We did feel we were making progress as a team.

“Having said that we were disappointed with the second-half in particular against Kerry so we know we have an awful lot of work to do as well. We’re realistic to know that and we know what’s in front of us.”