Tyrone ace is cagey on a lions den
MICHAEL MCKERNAN says Tyrone are up against it going to Celtic Park to face Derry this weekend.
Mickey Harte’s outfit are back-to-back Ulster champions while Tyrone have struggled to build on their 2021 Anglo Celt and Sam Maguire triumphs.
But Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan handed out six League debuts in last weekend’s victory over Roscommon at Omagh.
And with an All-ireland under-20 title bagged in 2022, those players are starting to filter through in bigger numbers to join Ruairi Canavan and Cormac Quinn, who made the senior breakthrough last year.
Other big positives were the displays of Peter Harte, who ran the show, and Darragh Canavan, who shot eight points.
“He [Canavan] is unreal,” said Mckernan, who lined out at centre half back with a raft of experienced players missing and Ronan Mcnamee and Niall
Sludden retired.
“You just have to look at how he played against Roscommon.
“He’s always an option to kick to and not being the biggest, I don’t know how he does half the stuff he does.
“There’s a lot of boys to come back – Kieran Mcgeary, Frank Burns, Conor Meyler, Cathal Mcshane, Mattie Donnelly.
“But the younger boys have stepped up, and that can only be good for us as it’s more competition. That’s exactly what you want.”
Mckernan added: “It’s something to build on but we know the challenge we’re going to have on Sunday.
“Derry were very good against Kerry and we know we’re up against it. We’ll see what the story is.
“I think every game is extremely important with the quality that’s in it.
“You only have to look at Monaghan beating Dublin – so we know the challenge against Derry. They’ve won two Ulsters in a row.”