By Ciaran Woods

c.woods@gaeliclife.com

TYRONE'S senior ladies have put a turbulent pre-season behind them to lead the way at the head of National League Division One and their new boss insists they have no plans to ease off the pedal any time soon.

Dromore pair Niall Colton and Colm Donnelly took over the reins just a week prior to their opening round tie with Mayo and having secured a surprising two point win in the opener followed it up with a further victory over Laois last time out. Colton admits that things couldn't have gone much better for Tyrone so far.

"I suppose going into it, we really didn't know what to expect, especially for the first game against Mayo. We'd trained with the girls a few times, but it was still very much a case of stepping into the unknown. We've got ourselves a bit of a cushion built up now and it maybe gives us a wee bit of a chance to experiment a bit more."

The Red Hands sit proudly at the top of the table with two wins from two, the only side with a 100 per cent record so far. This weekend they travel to Kerry to take on a Kingdom side still smarting from a drubbing at the hands of Mayo last time out. You would imagine then that this should be a formality for the Red Hands, but the form book has gone out the window in this division.

Tyrone beat Mayo, Armagh lost narrowly to Kerry, Kerry got thumped by Mayo, while Laois who had routed Donegal in their opening clash fell to Tyrone. Colton agrees that not much can be read into how results have gone to date and acknowledges that the final league standings will paint a much clearer picture than the table after two games.

"The results have certainly been strange. I think it has more to do with the number of players travelling. The day we played Mayo they only had 16 girls up with them and there's no way that was the same Mayo side who beat Kerry by such a margin last weekend. So although the positive results in your favour are great to get, it's a sort of a false sense of achievement because you don't know how strong of a hand the opposition are playing against you."

Colton is one of the youngest managers on the scene and on his first venture into the inter-county fray admits that he's had to learn the ropes pretty quickly. Going by Tyrone's progression to date, he seems to be a fast learner.

"It's always a learning curve. The day you don't learn anything will be a bad day. Neither myself or Colm would have that great of a knowledge of the ladies game, but we're quickly picking it up and applying what we've done elsewhere to the Tyrone ladies. There's nothing beats experience and situations like going down to 14 players on Sunday throws you in the deep end. You can't create situations like that in training. If it happens again then you're ready for it."

Tyrone have utilised their squad to it's maximum in the games to date, availing of the unlimited substitutes rule to ensure that all of their players get a chance to impress. They have a youthful squad, containing many of those who played on the minor sides which have claimed the last two Ulster titles. They are missing a number of key personnel for this Sunday's clash, but Colton sees it as an opportunity rather than a disadvantage.

"We'll be missing a few, Sarah Donnelly is unavailable and Neamh Woods has netball commitments this weekend. But it gives us a chance to look at other players, for others to step up and make a case for themselves, because at this stage it's still very much an open book. We made about five changes ahead of the Laois game and we'll do the same for this weekend again. We've a squad of about 34 at the minute and with a few more still to come back in, we'll be cutting the numbers again after the league. Players might have got themselves into a comfort zone, but we're starting from a completely clean slate."

Elsewhere in the division, Donegal travel to Mayo in desperate need of points having lost both their games to date, while Armagh go to Laois confident that they can take the spoils. In division 1B Monaghan play host to Clare and should claim another win. The only other Ulster sides in action are in division 2B where Fermanagh play host to Meath under the floodlights of Brookeborough on Saturday night and Cavan play host to Longford on Sunday afternoon at Breffni Park.

Bord Gais Energy National Football League

(All games Sunday 2.00pm unless stated)

Division 1A

Kerry v Tyrone at Milltown (1.00pm)

Mayo v Donegal at Kiltimagh, Mayo

Laois v Armagh at Mountmellick

Division 1B

Monaghan v Kildare at Inniskeen

Galway v Dublin at Monivea, Galway

Clare v Cork at Cooraclare

Division 2A

Waterford v Tipperary at Lemybrien (Saturday, 2.00pm)

Wexford v Leitrim at Bunclody

Westmeath v Sligo at Pairc Chiaran Athlone

Division 2B

Fermanagh v Meath at Brookeborough (Saturday, 7.30pm)

Cavan v Longford at Kingspan Breffni Park

Division 3A

Offaly v Limerick at Rhode

Division 3B

Kilkenny v Wicklow at Kilkenny

Ulster success in All-Ireland openers

Ulster's big three colleges all enjoyed opening round success this week as the All-Ireland colleges championships, got underway.

The competition is being played on a round robin basis, with the top eight sides then progressing to the quarter-finals before the O'Connor cup weekend is hosted by Jordanstown when the semi-finals and finals will take place.

The action got underway on Tuesday and it was holders UUJ who made the most impressive start. They ran out winners by an amazing 7-24 to 0-0 against St Pat's Drumcondra in a result which will have sent shock waves through the rest of the competition. Queen's also got off to a winning start, 4-18 to 0-9 the final score in their clash with Tralee. St Mary's emerged victorious 2-15 to 3-10 against Garda College in the Lynch Cup.

Their attentions now turn to domestic matters, with next Thursday night seeing the Dowd Cup final contested by UUJ and Queen's, while St Mary's will be in action in the McNally Plate competition.