Tyrone's 14 seasons of qualifier prowess
All Hail Tyrone, kings of the qualifiers. In beating Sligo by 0-21 to 0-14 on Saturday, they racked up their 24th win in the qualifiers since their inception back in 2001. Their record now stands at Played 29 Won 24 Lost 4 Drew 1. So impressive have they been that September Road felt it only right to explore and break down the constituent parts of their 14 seasons of qualifier prowess.
In that time, Tyrone have played 21 different counties and have beaten them all at least once. The only exception is Kerry (which will delight Kingdomites), whose 1-16 to 0-6 win in Killarney in goes down as Tyrone’s biggest ever qualifier defeat. Their biggest ever win was over Offaly in 2013 when they ran out to a 1-27 to 0-8 win in Tullamore. They have lost to one side from each province - Kerry, Laois, Sligo and Armagh.
They have spent far more time on the road than on home soil. Of the 29 games, only seven have been in Omagh - four of them in the past two seasons. In fact, they’ve played more qualifier games in Croke Park (eight) than in Healy Park. On their travels, they’ve been to Killarney (furthest), Newry (nearest), Dr Hyde Park (most westerly, twice) and Wexford Park (most sunny southeasterly).
Predictably enough, Seán Cavanagh has been comfortably their top scorer in those qualifier games, with 3-65 to his name. He is followed in the top 10 by Darren McCurry (0-50), Stephen O'Neill (3-36), Owen Mulligan (3-29), Peter Harte (3-19), Peter Canavan (0-23), Brian McGuigan (2-13), Connor McAlliskey (0-19), Mark Donnelly (2-11) and in joint 10th place, Colm McCullagh (0-16), Mark Harte (2-10) and Mattie Donnelly (1-13).
At the other end of the scale, eight players have the distinction of scoring a single point in that qualifier run. Step forward Cormac McGinley, Shane Sweeney, Damien McCaul, Ryan McMenamin, Martin Swift, Aidan Cassidy, Ronan McNabb and Conall McKenna. Every little helps.
David Coldrick and Pádraig O’Sullivan unmoved
A pretty extraordinary thing happened in Croke Park yesterday. Or rather, didn’t happen. Across 140 minutes of football - in two All-Ireland quarter-finals, remember - neither referee produced a single card. No yellows, no blacks, no reds. David Coldrick and Pádraig O’Sullivan weren’t moved at any stage to reach for their book, making it the first time any of us could remember that a double-header came and went without a sanction.
Most likely, it was a function of both games being cakewalks. Kildare certainly gave up all pretence of being interested in throwing shots the longer their game went on. But even so, the level of politeness seemed a little weird. We can probably take it that Monaghan and Tyrone won’t be as quite impeccable with their manners next Saturday.
Just as an aside, it would have been interesting to see how much would have been made of O’Sullivan’s performance in the Dublin-Fermanagh game had the result been more in the balance. Just as extraordinary as the lack of cards all day was the fact that Dublin finished the day having been awarded the meagre total of just four frees. They got one in the first half and three in the second.
It can surely never have happened before that a Dublin team playing in Croke Park lost the free-count 19-4. Equally, you probably have to go back a fair way to a time when Fermanagh’s first goal would have stood. None of it mattered, given the scoreline. But there would have been plenty to talk about if it had been closer.
