FIVE points from seven games and scrambling to stave off the drop heading into the final day. Sound familiar? That was the sorry picture for Tyrone at the end of their league programme but it was also the eventual final stats for Armagh at the conclusion of their NFL season.
Yes yes I get it that the Orchard men were operating in a higher echelon across those early months of the year in Division One whereas Tyrone were ploughing their trade one tier down, but there is nothing about Armagh’s sequence of results in 2026 up to now should have us quaking in our boots heading into the lion’s den this Sunday for the Ulster Championship opener.
Of course the home side will be favourites.
That is to be expected given the match is on their turf and they will have the vociferous backing of two thirds of the attendance (at least) in the Athletic Grounds.
On top of that there has been little to no evidence for near on ten months now (dating back to that All-Ireland quarter-final with Dublin at Croke Park) that Tyrone can produce a sustained performance of pace and purpose across the full seventy minutes to topple one of the heavy hitters.
We Are Tyrone GAA Podcast: Have Tyrone any hope against Armagh?
Nobody in the Tyrone management set-up will be seeking excuses for their sloppy showings across the duration of their Division Two campaign, but it has been a steep leaving curve for a lot of the relative rookies, with the likes of Peter Harte, Conor Meyler, Kieran McGeary and Paudie Hampsey (each All-Ireland winners just five short seasons ago) not around to coax and cajole them through those rougher midgame moments.
Factor in too that other key cogs in that memorable 2021 Sam Maguire success against Mayo- Ronan McNamee, Niall Sludden and Conor McKenna- are also no longer around
Injuries, retirements and other factors have left the Red Hands shorn of the services of a plethora of experienced men over the past few seasons and maybe that has finally caught up with us, whatever about the conveyor belt of exuberant young talent coming through.
Remember that infamous Alan Hansen quote about “You’ll win nothing with kids!”
The scar-faced Scottish pundit was left with enough egg on his face after that line to rustle up an omelette (the target of his wrath Man Utd going on to do the double in 1996) but in fairness he did have a fair point in the grand scheme of things.
The vast majority of successful teams possess that potent blend of youthful audacity and wizened sagacity that come with clocking up those miles.
Too much of an imbalance in the young old age scale rarely provides the recipe for glory.
Age-wise, Tyrone fielded one of the youngest panels on average in the League across the 32 counties and the teething problems were there for all to see as they repeatedly failed to seal the deal in over half their matches, when victory was theirs to grasp.
Such a frustrating trend is one of the prime reasons why they aren’t deemed one of the top half dozen contenders for Sam Maguire heading into this Championship season, a rarity indeed given the amount of accolades accrued since the turn of the Millennium.
No better place to start proving the supposed experts wrong than at a heaving Athletic Grounds on Sunday with the nation watching.