Hugh Donnelly has been appointed manager of the Tyrone ladies minor squad for 2017. The experienced coach will begin his preparations this weekend with trials fixed for Garvaghey on Saturday with two separate group trials at 10-30am and 12 noon. Many of the players from the Under 16 side that reached the All-Ireland semi-final last term will be available to Donnelly and his management team this year. Tyrone lost the minor final in 2016 and several players will also be available again this season leaving Tyrone well placed.
Meanwhile after a successful 2016 the Tyrone senior ladies are already gearing up for life in Division Two of the National League and another assault on the Ulster Intermediate championship with a potential date at Croke Park also on the radar for Gerry Moane’s side.
The fixture list for 2017 as far as the league goes has been firmed up with Moane’s side having three home games; Sligo, Westmeath and Laois with some tricky away ties including, Clare, Waterford and Cavan also on the agenda. The Fermanagh native though is determined that Tyrone will make a fist of this campaign. “We are building for the new season. I believe we are where we should be and alongside Sligo, Kildare and Clare we are able to make a real go in Division Two. The girls have already been putting in the work. It’s the earliest most of them have started but if you are to challenge it’s what you have to do.”
The ladies will open their National League campaign with a home tie against Sligo on January 29th with Moane’s choice of venue being Omagh’s Healy Park. Under the guidance of coach Sarah Connolly, no stranger herself to success as an inter-county footballer, an extended Tyrone squad have been working together since the end of October. The manager has been impressed by the effort put in by the girls but he has made no secret that a good league campaign, retention of the Ulster intermediate title and a real crack at the All-Ireland series are the targets set by him and the players. “We have talked about where we want to be, what we want to achieve. We are having a chat again on Friday of this week. We will be putting in place the exact targets and the focus of our year ahead, but there’s no secret to what we are about.”
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