It wouldn’t be a proper round-robin knock-out competition without some sort of group of death, and as the senior football championship enters that new ground this weekend, the honour is generally perceived to have fallen to Group Two.
Featuring Connacht champions Galway, beaten Ulster finalists Armagh, 2021 All-Ireland winners Tyrone, plus last year’s Tailteann Cup winners Westmeath, there is unquestionably some hard football to be played, even if in the end only one of the four will end up being given their last rites.
Tyrone forward Conor Meyler isn’t so sure, however, pointing to Group One, which features Kerry and Mayo, both leading All-Ireland contenders, and at least they’ve avoided Dublin.
“The fact the top team goes straight through [to the quarter-finals] is a huge incentive,” he said. “To try to win the group, rather than wait until the last day, trying to get a result against Westmeath. You wouldn’t want to leave it that close.”
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First up is Saturday’s trip to Salthill to face Galway, a team Tyrone haven’t beaten in their last three league meetings, before Armagh come to Omagh, having knocked Tyrone out in their first-round qualifier last year.
“It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out now, especially in regards to next year,” Meyler added. “Is there a benefit of going the whole way and winning the Ulster Championship?
“Potentially, yes. I’d love another Ulster Championship medal but when you look at the route you have to go, for the likes of Derry or Armagh, they’ve had some really tough games and have to come down, reset and go again.
“That’s going to be a challenge. At the same time, they are fairly battle-hardened then, they know their squad and know who to rely on in the big games. There is no question winning games and building momentum will stand to you as well. We’ll soon see who it stands to and who gets it right.”
Five weeks on from their surprise Ulster quarter-final loss to Monaghan, Tyrone set off again as so-called backdoor specialists, winning two of their All-Ireland titles through the qualifier route (2005 and 2008). After Ulster championship exits in 2013, 2015 and 2019, they also reached All-Ireland semi-finals, and the final in 2018.
What is at least certain for Meyler is that Tyrone are aiming to go a lot better than last year, their All-Ireland defence quickly unravelled after an Ulster quarter-final loss to Derry, then that qualifier loss to Armagh.
“First of all I’ve a lot of admiration for teams that do go back-to-back, it’s a seriously impressive feat to be able to do that. We struggled, I think when you look back now, with a lot of small things, rather than one big thing.
“Our club season ran on until the middle of December, which in hindsight, meant you didn’t really get a pre-season, and there was no real switch off after the All-Ireland period. We sort of went straight from the All-Ireland, I remember playing a club game the week after. It was full-on at it, and no period of reflection, or being able to enjoy it, to come down again.
“We finished up with the club season, went on a team holiday, came back on the Tuesday, maybe played a McKenna Cup on the Wednesday. So I’d say from the get-go we were maybe chasing our tail, which was tough.
“We’d done enough to stay in Division One, which was brilliant, then obviously had a tough draw in the championship. Still I feel if we had got any sort of luck there, had progressed a bit further, we would have picked up a bit of momentum and maybe things wouldn’t have been as doom and gloom as people perceived. Because we were on an upward trajectory, just came across Armagh when they were going well. So all that probably sums up last year, for me.”
Given how easily Monaghan were taken out by Derry, before Derry went on to win last Sunday’s Ulster final after a penalty shoot-out, Tyrone might appear to some to be even further behind in the Ulster rankings. Again Meyler is not so sure.
“To be honest. I still think this year, more than any year, the All-Ireland is so open. Most teams will be looking at that and thinking teams can beat each other.
“We had what we had with Dublin, a number of years ago, where they were dominant and there was a fear factor with them as well. They were that standout team. At the moment, I don’t think we have that, although Derry are on an upward trajectory and I’m really impressed by them. If we were to draw them down the line, I wouldn’t be fearful either.
“You learn to move on and I’d like to think we’re going to get more chances with the new format. I don’t know how it’s going to go, but I’m excited by it. We were going out to win the Ulster championship, on reflection maybe the couple of weeks there has stood to us, a really hard training bank, so trying to take positives anyway.”
