You’d nearly forget that Tyrone are still one of the big guns.
Not to burst the bubble, but there are only three teams who could really win the All-Ireland – we all know them.
Outside of that, there are only three – four max – who could mix it with those sides and maybe upset them on a given Sunday.
They are Galway, probably Monaghan and Donegal, and definitely Tyrone. Tyrone, on their day, can beat anyone and the reason is simple.
No-one can break them down.
On The GAA Hour, Derry were taking a bit of a kicking for walking right into the Tyrone trap yet again. Mickey Harte’s men flooded everyone but Mark Bradley into their 45′, Derry walked up to the wall at a snail’s pace, they went sideways, they went backwards, they eventually lost the ball and they were overrun like clockwork.
It was routine stuff but Colm Parkinson doesn’t blame Derry. He asks who the hell could deal with that defence?
“Dublin are a little bit more sophisticated as in they’ll keep it wide, play two men outside, they’ll try and work the opening,” Wooly explained on The GAA Hour.
“There’s an awful lot of times that the openings don’t appear, lads. Tyrone have 13 of 14 men back in that area – 13, they leave one up.
“So you find me a team that is good at breaking Tyrone down. I can’t find one.
“You name me a player playing in a full forward line that scores consistently against Tyrone. You don’t find one. End of story.
“You don’t break Tyrone down easily. When you play Tyrone, you do a Mayo on it or you do a Dublin on it and you play them at their own game to some extent. The game ends up 0-11 to 0-10, it’s not a great game to watch, and that’s the only thing you can do against Tyrone.
“That’s the reality of it. I don’t blame Derry for not getting through that. How the hell can you get through that?”
Cian Ward backed it up by claiming that it’s not just a case of getting bodies back. Tyrone are way past that level.
“There are a lot of teams who get the bodies back but you have to be good at it and Tyrone are a step ahead of everyone else at it. They’ve moved it on,” the Meath man said.
“They get the bodies back into the right zones and they’re pressing the opposition in the right positions.”
Listen to the full discussion from 38:50 below.
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