FIRE BURNS IN TYRONE CAMP
FRANK BURNS has revealed how jointmanager Brian Dooher threw down the gauntlet to the Tyrone players in the wake of their defeat to Roscommon.
On the back of a poor defence of their All-ireland title last year, further question marks emerged after they were swamped at Dr Hyde Park in their League opener, though they bounced back with a strong performance against Donegal in Omagh on Sunday, running out 0-16 to 0-8 winners.
Burns was particularly impressive having been restored to the team after failing to even get off the bench against Roscommon.
“There was a bit of soul-searching at training in Garvaghey during the week,” he explained.
“People were saying that we had perhaps become a bit soft after winning the All-ireland and Brian put that question to us to see what was in the bellies and thankfully we got a response but we have to keep showing that going forward.
“I wouldn’t say that we got a bit soft and trained any less than teams did in years gone by when defending the All-ireland.
“Honestly, it’s hard to just put the finger on what happened last year as we trained just as hard as we did in 2021 if not harder.
“Look, it’s a new year and we just wanted to push as hard as we can and see where it takes us.
“Last week in Roscommon was under par for us but the good thing about the National League is that there is only a week between games.
“We knew that we had only seven days to get ready for Donegal and show a bit of a response and thankfully we did that.”
Tyrone’s next two outings are on the road against Galway and Mayo, before Kerry come to Omagh.