Tyrone eye Down’s tally

MUCH of Tyrone’s win has focussed on how it was a fitting reward for the likes of Peter Harte, Mattie Donnelly, Niall Morgan and Ronan McNamee who have worked at the coalface for so long. These lads may be the elder statesmen of the team, but it’s unlikely they will be walking away any time soon. Even if they do, the spine of the squad is now in prime age with so many players coming from Feargal Logan’s u-21 sides of 2014 and ’15. In short, Tyrone may now have a fourth All-Ireland title, but there is plenty of reason to suspect that they could join Ulster neighbours Down on five in the next few years.

NIALL MCCOY

Huge step for Ulster camogie

IT WAS a big day for Ulster Camogie last weekend, as Antrim won the Intermediate title. Paul McKillen would say that this year was harder to win than last year, when Antrim lost the final to Down. He would say that of course as it makes the achievement all the better. His point is that they were playing stronger teams this season. But the reason why it is so good is that now Ulster have two camogie teams playing at senior level. The profile that this gives the game is great particularly when you consider that the numbers who attend those matches are growing, and the TV coverage is class. The English are crowing about Emma Raducanu promoting tennis, but the Saffrons playing at the top level should hopefully inspire more young girls to start playing camogie in their clubs.
RONAN SCOTT

What a difference a year makes

The Tyrone management duo of Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher are a modest pair so they aren’t going to come out and say it themselves, but holy moly what a difference they have made to the Tyrone team this year. Yep, I know they’d reached a bunch of semi-finals in the past, and I know their gameplan hasn’t been totally overhauled, but they were unrecognisable in other ways from previous years. They’re finally scoring goals at Croke Park, they’re finally beating the likes of Mayo and Kerry, and most crucially of all, in the last ten minutes of these big games they look like they’re going to push for home, whereas in previous years they tended to fall short. They’ve been a joy to watch, frankly, and it won’t surprise me if they win another All-Ireland in the next few seasons.
NIALL GARTLAND