Joe Brolly lays into career of ‘copy-cat’ Tyrone boss

How successful Tyrone’s season so far has been is up for debate.

While they were relegated to Division 2 of the NFL, they did push All-Ireland champions Armagh extremely close in the Ulster SFC, losing by just a point in the semi-final.

And in the opening game of the All-Ireland groups stage, they took down Ulster champions Donegal.

But after their loss to Mayo two weekends ago, the ever-outspoken Joe Brolly has had a pop at manager Malachy O’Rourke.

A former All-Ireland winner with Derry, Brolly said in the Irish Independent: “After being relegated to Division 2, beaten in the Ulster semi-final, and walloped by Mayo at home, is [Malachy O’Rourke] all he is cracked up to be?

“Malachy’s career, after all, has been built on successfully imitating Jimmy McGuinness’s blanket defence, possession-holding formula…

“At its core was endless rehearsal of the zonal defence, hard running, holding of possession, no fouling in the scoring area, killing the game and all of the other features of that nightmarish decade for Gaelic football.”

While the Red Hands are currently third in their group and in a qualifying spot for the preliminary quarter-finals, this weekend’s game against Cavan is likely to be a winner-takes-all clash.