Conn had his sights on Croker return

By Niall Gartland

GET to Croke Park and you’re doing something right. This weekend marks Tyrone’s first championship appearance at GAA Headquarters in almost exactly two years – the last time they graced the hallowed sod was an ill-fated quarter-final against Kerry on July 1, 2023. Tyrone didn’t really raise a gallop that day and suffice it to say that Kerry were only too happy to twist the knife.

That was then and this is now, and the circumstances are rather different. On that aforementioned day against Kerry, Tyrone were playing their third game in as many weeks having come through an All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final against Donegal. Kerry by contrast had topped their group and were as fresh as two fiddles against their northern nemesis.

This time the roles are reversed. Tyrone avoided the inconvenience of an extra game and should, in theory, be the fresher outfit this Saturday against Dublin.

It’s not exactly an easy draw – though at this level, it was never likely to be. Due to the rules around repeating pairings, Tyrone were destined to take on either Galway or Dublin in the last-eight.

The Dubs were announced as their opponents during Monday morning’s draw on RTÉ Radio 1, and it will be a fifth All-Ireland quarter-final showdown between the two teams (2005, 2008, 2010 and 2011 the previous meetings between the two teams). It will also be Tyrone’s first championship clash against the Dubs since a ‘Super Eights’ (remember those) defeat in Omagh in 2019.

And their midfielder Conn Kilpatrick, who was at his rampaging best against Cavan a fortnight ago, is glad to be back in Croker. It’s been too long, he says.

“That was a big focal point for us – we haven’t been there in two years.

“For a county like Tyrone, it’s not what we’re used to, or what we expect when we started our the year. We’re happy to be there and we’ll get ourselves ready and hopefully put in a good performance.”

This is the third and seemingly final year of the All-Ireland round-robin format. In previous years Tyrone failed in their quest to top the group and they knew the importance of avoiding the pitfall of a preliminary quarter-final. Their round two defeat Mayo could have scuppered their table-topping tilt but it all worked out in the end.

“You set out at the off-set to top the group and get that extra week’s break, but we knew we had to go to Brewster Park and put in a big performance against Cavan after underperforming against Cavan.

“We didn’t take anything for granted, we knew we had to put in a big shift.

“We were happy to get over the line but know there’s plenty to improve on, they had their purple patches at different times.

“We definitely put massive emphasis on getting that extra week’s break. In the last couple of years it probably hindered us in a way. Topping the group gives us an opportunity to get ourselves well recovered, and to get a good look at who we’re going to be playing.

“Getting that break could be massive – playing three weeks on the trot and going to Croke Park for a big quarter-final is difficult as we found out ourselves a couple of years ago.”

So Tyrone are in a good place heading into this weekend. They ended their group stage campaign on a high note with a resounding victory over Cavan having learnt the lessons of a disappointing display at home to Mayo a fortnight prior.

“That game against Mayo, it definitely isn’t where we want to be. We would much rather have won that game and we’d nearly have been sitting in a quarter-final.

“You get those days sometimes. It’s not to say we took Mayo for granted, we just had an off-day and every team gets one of those at some stage in the year.

“We got a harsh lesson that we needed to knuckle down and we’d two weeks to do it.

“We knew we had a point to prove to ourselves and the supporters, and that we had to put in a performance (against Cavan) and thankfully we did that.”

LAST MEETING

2025 NFL Tyrone 2-20 Dublin 1-16
A DAY of mixed emotions for Tyrone. Their relegation out of the top flight for the first time in a decade was confirmed as a consequence of results elsewhere, but they still put Dublin to the sword with a scintillating attacking display at O’Neills Healy Park.

A sequence of late consolation ‘two pointers’ taking the bad look off the final scoreline from the visitors perspective, while Darren McCurry and Darragh Canavan took stewardship of the scoring stakes, and led the Dublin rearguard a merry dance, while further back team captain Brian Kennedy was immense around the middle, and Michael McKernan, Kieran McGeary and Peter Teague also stood out.

Tyrone: N Morgan (0-2, 2’45); A Clarke, P Teague, N Devlin; M McKernan (1-0), R Brennan, K McGeary (0-2 (tp); B Kennedy, C Kilpatrick; C Daly, M Donnelly (0-1), A Donaghy; D McCurry (0-9, 3f, 2 tpf, 1tp), D Canavan (1-3), P Harte (0-1)
Subs: S O’Donnell for Donnelly, R Canavan (0-2) for Harte, M O’Neill for D Canavan, S O’Hare for Donaghy

Dublin: G Sheridan; D Byrne, T Clancy, C Tyrrell; C Murphy, S McMahon, G McEneaney; B Howard, P O Cofaigh Byrne; R McGarry, S Bugler (0-4, 1tp), N Scully (0-02); K McGinnis, C O’Callaghan (1-0), C Costello (0-8, 2 tp, 2 tpf)
Subs: C Kilkenny for McGinnis, L O’Dell (0-2, tp) for McGarry, J Madden for O Cofaigh Byrne, D Keogh for Scully, E O’Donnell for McEneaney

LAST FIVE MEETINGS
2025 NFL Tyrone 2-20 Dublin 1-16
2024 NFL Dublin 5-18 Tyrone 0-12
2022 NFL Tyrone 0-8 Dublin 0-13
2020 NFL Tyrone 1-10 Dublin 1-7
2019 SFC Tyrone 0-13 Dublin 1-16

SEASON SO FAR

TYRONE

NFL
Tyrone 2-13 Derry 1-9
Armagh 1-23 Tyrone 0-18
Mayo 0-12 Tyrone 0-10
Tyrone 2-13 Kerry 3-13
Galway 1-18 Tyrone 1-18
Donegal 0-19 Tyrone 0-25
Tyrone 2-20 Dublin 1-16

ULSTER SFC
Tyrone 1-24 Cavan 0-20
Armagh 0-23 Tyrone 0-22

ALL-IRELAND SFC
Donegal 0-20 Tyrone 2-17
Mayo 2-17 Tyrone 1-13
Tyrone 0-31 Cavan 0-18

DUBLIN

NFL
Dublin 1-17 Mayo 1-15
Donegal 0-20 Dublin 0-16
Kerry 1-15 Dublin 0-19
Dublin 3-20 Derry 2-12
Armagh 1-20 Dublin 1-12
Dublin 2-19 Galway 2-13
Tyrone 2-20 Dublin 1-16

LEINSTER SFC
Wicklow 0-18 Dublin 2-21
Meath 0-23 Dublin 1-16

All-Ireland SFC
Galway 2-14 Dublin 1-18
Dublin 0-19 Armagh 0-24
Dublin 0-22 Derry 0-20
Dublin 1-19 Cork 1-16

TOP SCORERS

Tyrone
Darren McCurry 0-59 (21f, 7tpf, 2tp)
Darragh Canavan 4-30 (13f, 1-0pen, 1tpf)
Michael McKernan 2-17 (5tp)

Dublin
Sean Bugler 2-39 (3tp, 1f)
Con O’Callaghan 2-35 (4tp, 5f, 1tpf)
Cormac Costello 2-35 (10f, 3tp, 3tpf, 1 45)