The Tyrone squad: An evolution in personnel

Niall Gartland examines how the Tyrone senior panel has undergone a significant shift in personnel since landing Sam Maguire in 2021

TIME marches inexorable forward. For this piece we’ve delved into our fairly recent past and there’s one fairly obvious conclusion to make: the Tyrone senior intercounty panel has undergone a massive transition in the space of a few short years.

From the 2021 All-Ireland winning team, only 17 players remain involved from a panel of 38. That comes with an important caveat: a full dozen men who started the final against Mayo in 2021 are still central figures on the Tyrone team. Ronan McNamee and Niall Sludden have retired while Conor McKenna has headed back to the world of AFL.

Three years before that, Tyrone fell short against Dublin on All-Ireland final day. From that team, only 11 Tyrone players are stil part of the senior set-up. No surprise really – it wasn’t yesterday.

With so many players vacating the set-up in the intervening years between one thing and another, it’s left an obvious gap to fill.

The last time the Tyrone set-up was officially listed in print was in the match-day programme for our Ulster Championship semi-final clash against Armagh back on April 27.

A panel of 36 was registered, though Cathal McShane is no longer involved, departing the set-up in subsequent days, while Ruairi McHugh and Conor O’Neill received call ups earlier this month.

Then there’s the existence of Malachy O’Rourke’s development panel, while players who aren’t making the match-day 26 have been permitted by the Tyrone manager to line out with their clubs, so there’s a sense of fluidity to the whole thing at present. In our book, a good thing.

But anyway, we can still glean where the changes have come in recent years. First, it’d be remiss not to mention our mainstays who have given uninterrupted service to Tyrone for many years – Peter Harte, Mattie Donnelly and Niall Morgan are the longest serving players on the team, followed by various All-Ireland U21 winners from 2015 – Padraig Hampsey, Kieran McGeary, Conor Meyler and so on – but then you have a core group who are newer to the scene.

And on that note, it’s instructive to shine a light on our All-Ireland U21 winning teams of recent years.

From the 2022 vintage, Niall Devlin, Ciarán Daly, Seanie O’Donnell and Ruairi Canavan have become regular fixtures. Lorcan McGarrity, Ruairi McHugh and Michael Rafferty – who played on both the 2022 and 2024 All-Ireland U20 winning teams – are also on board.

From last year’s all-conquering U20 team, there’s the aforementioned Rafferty, Eoin McElholm, Shea O’Hare, Conor O’Neill and Ronan Cassidy. Ben Cullen would have been on that team only he opted to throw his lot in with the seniors. McElholm and O’Neill were also key figures on this year’s U20 team, of course.

Then you have a batch of players who have filtered through at various other stages down the years. Michael McKernan, U21 captain back in 2017, made his senior intercounty debut in 2018, as did Ben McDonnell.

Errigal Ciaran trio Darragh Canavan, Cormac Quinn, Joe Oguz and Trillick’s Liam Gray are among others who had strong underage careers with Tyrone before progressing to the senior ranks, and if there’s one recurring theme, it’s exactly that – it’s very rare these days for a Tyrone senior intercounty player to, in effect, come out of nowhere. Three-time All-Ireland winner Ryan McMenamin famously never played underage for Tyrone, while Philip Jordan and Conor Gormley were also late bloomers – Jordan was a sub for example on All-Ireland winning teams at underage level.

Anyway, on the whole, the panel is in good health. There’s your classic mix of youth and experience and all the rest of it, and the subs’ bench is stronger than it has been in a number of years. Whether it’ll be enough to propel us to a fifth ever All-Ireland senior success – we’ll soon find out.

2021 All-Ireland winning panel (bold text denotes players who are currently involved)

Niall Morgan

Darragh McAnenly

Hugh Pat McGeary

Ronan McNamee

Liam Rafferty

Rory Brennan

Tiarnan McCann

Conn Kilpatrick

Conor Meyler

Niall Sludden

Darren McCurry

Kieran McGeary

Frank Burns

Michael Cassidy

Ronan O’Neill

Mark Bradley

Peter Harte

Brian Kennedy

Cathal McShane

Michael McKernan

Padraig Hampsey

Michael O’Neill

Lorcan Quinn

Jonathan Munroe

Conor McKenna

Matthew Donnelly

Darragh Canavan

Richie Donnelly

Peter Teague

Paul Donaghy

Cormac Munroe

Lee Brennan

Conor Quinn

Ben McDonnell

Niall Kelly

Conor Shields

Michael Conroy

Shea Hamill

Still involved: 17/38 players

2018 All-Ireland finalists panel (bold text denotes players who are currently involved)

Padraig Hampsey

Mattie Donnelly

Harry Loughran

Michael O’Neill

Aidan McCrory

Jonathan Munroe

Ciaran McLaughlin

Padraig McNulty

Ronan McNamee

Conor Meyler

Frank Burns

Niall Sludden

Michael McKernan

Niall Morgan

Connor McAliskey

Cathal McShane

Michael Cassidy

Rory Brennan

Mark Bradley

Conall McCann

Ronan McNabb

Lee Brennan

Brendan Burns

Tiernan McCann

Hugh Pat McGeary

Kieran McGeary

Peter Harte

Ronan O’Neill

Richie Donnelly

Declan McClure

Cathal McCarron

Ronan McHugh

DD Mulgrew

Colm Cavanagh

Still involved: 10/34