HANDS GET NO HOME HELP
SEAN CAVANAGH says Tyrone would prefer to play Monaghan in Clones than Omagh this Sunday.
Although they enjoy home advantage at Healy Park for the Ulster quarter-final, Cavanagh feels the ground doesn’t suit their style of play.
The Red Hands start out a Championship campaign without Cavanagh for the first time since 2001, after the three-time All-ireland winner retired last year.
He said: “It’s a strange place, Omagh. It’s open, it’s impersonal at times. Through the League in particular, the ground is very heavy underfoot and for whatever reason we never really seem to take off in it.
“Tyrone players would probably prefer to play the game in Clones or Armagh. I think they would fare better in those places but Monaghan will probably relish that.
“We’ve had a few battles with them in League and Championship up in Omagh and there has never been any huge margin and I don’t see any difference now.
“As a Tyrone player, we always fancied ourselves in the wider, expansive pitches against a team like Monaghan, no disrespect to them.
“We backed the skills and fitness of our players against most counties but bar one match in Ulster in 2013 I think we have had the edge on Monaghan.
“But they are better now and Malachy O’rourke has created a much stronger team in the last few years.
They’ve unearthed a few players during the League.
“Whether they know their best team, there’s still an uncertainty there.”