Tyrone heartened by first day out

By Niall Gartland

TYRONE camogs will travel to take on Wicklow this Saturday steeled with confidence by the manner of their opening day performance against Roscommon, losing by only a single point despite being down a number of key players.

Manager Paul O’Grady admits a slight sense of trepidation heading into their Division 3A campaign, mindful that they’re coming up against a higher level of opposition than last year, but they produced a hugely encouraging performance against the Rossies at the Tyrone GAA Centre at Garvaghey.

He was in good form after the game and justifiably so, and they’ll be quietly confident of coming out on top of Saturday’s battle against a team they beat on two separate occasions in 2024, Wicklow.

O’Grady said: “We came into the league and were unsure of how we were going to get on and Roscommon are definitely one of the teams to contend with. Added to that we’d a few girls unavailable and injured, so we’re delighted with the performance, it was a great battle and the girls didn’t shy away from it at all.”

It was a relatively unfamiliar Tyrone line-up in a number of respects. Grainne McDonald, normally an outfield player, did extremely well in nets with Eimear Colton unavailable, Aisling Hagan played her first intercounty game for more than a decade, and there were a few new faces who have been drafted in during the off-season. Star forward Lara Devlin needs surgery and is out of commission, but the team did extremely well and were unlucky not to get something from the game last Saturday.

“We’re still finding our feet, we’d planned to use the league as something of a training ground and work from there.

“We’re bringing girls into new positions and new girls into the team, so it’s going to take a while for the team to gel but we’re feeling positive.

“Aisling Hagan came back in and had an outstanding game, and it’s great to see someone like that leading by example.

“We’ve Wicklow next up and we’ll have a few more players back. Eimear Colton will be back in so Grainne McDonald will be out the pitch again. Aine Cunningham will be back, Lauren Fitzgerald will more than likely be back. There’s a lot of new girls to come back into the mix.”

O’Grady also had special praise for their temporary goalkeeper McDonald, who lined out between the sticks for the very first time and more than held her own.

“It was just by chance with Eimear being unavailable but Grainne doesn’t shy away from anything and will give you 100 per cent no matter she you put her on the pitch. She’ll put in the effort and it’s brilliant to have a player with her versatility.

“Eimear is hard to replace as she’s a serious goalkeeper but Grainne did so well and I’m proud of all the team and it’s definitely something to build on.”