By Rory Gallagher

PEOPLE will be quick to write off Tyrone after the manner of their loss to Cork, but I'd say write them off at your peril.

One thing about Tyrone is that they almost seem to have to be hurt to come back from it and be successful, that's the pattern that they have followed over recent years. It's like they have to have a point to prove, and when they're a wounded animal they're a dangerous proposition.

Last Sunday they were flat, and they came up against a team which was more hungry than they were.

Cork stopped Tyrone playing, especially in the second half. They were cynical, it was a win at all costs attitude, which you can't really blame them for. They were determined not to let Tyrone build any sort of momentum, and they weren't going to let them back into the game the way Kildare did. They fouled in the right places and they knew where and when to stop the play. It might not be how you want football to be played, but it was the right thing for them to do in the circumstances.

I think that Tyrone should have played more negatively than they did. When they lost possession, I'd have been getting the wing-forwards right back into defence. They left the middle of the pitch open for Canty, which they would have been very disappointed with. Canty was Cork's key man. They were determined to get him onto somebody like Joe McMahon, because Canty doesn't like doing marking jobs.

Losing Sean Cavanagh so late in the day was a huge blow. Even on a bad day he'll still step up with a couple of points. They didn't just lose him as a player, but they also lost the system they would have had in place around the middle third. Cork will have been delighted he wasn't playing, because they would have had to put one of their key men on him, be it Miskella or whoever.

They were unfortunate too that Enda McGinley hasn't had the chance to play much football, and Brian Dooher's game time has been very limited this season. They're key players who didn't get a run at it this year at all.

Personally I'd have played Conor Gormley at centre-back. He'd have organised things and dictated the play in the middle. He wouldn't have allowed the likes of Canty to come up through the centre. He didn't have the greatest of games, but I think his experience could have helped Tyrone out there.

You have to give Conor Counihan great credit for changing his kickout strategy. They played a high number of short kickouts, and that allowed them to build while Tyrone were preparing themselves for the ball to go long. I think Mickey Harte will be disappointed that his players didn't adjust better to it out on the field, that they didn't think on their feet. It was a mark of the respect they had for Tyrone's ability to win break ball that Cork were reluctant to send the ball long even though they had the height advantage.

It disappointed me that Tyrone didn't get the ball in early enough. I thought that when Cavanagh came on he should have gone to either centre-forward or full-forward. He came on and went very deep, but what they needed was an option to go route one, to bypass the Cork half-back line who looked so solid. Tyrone's build up play was too slow, they were never going to get the goal they needed to bring them back into it. O'Neill was on fire, and I'd have been letting the ball in to him and Cavanagh to see what happened.

Tyrone looked tired against Cork. But they didn't look tired at any other time this year, certainly not against Kildare. I think it was down to the fact that Cork were so hungry. Tyrone didn't meet a team so far this year, or all of last year, that had a higher level of hunger than themselves.

The expectations in Tyrone, because of the standards they've set themselves, is to get to an All-Ireland final and to win it. That's a good thing, but on reflection I think genuine supporters will appreciate an Ulster title.

I don't think it'll be the end of any of the Tyrone players. If they've all got the hunger, then they'll all be back. They all still have something to give. There's no need for major surgery, all it will take is a few more players to get them back to those dizzy heights. And there's no better man than Mickey Harte to reinvent things.

Bannon should be taken to book

I thought that referee John Bannon was terrible last weekend, and I think that Tyrone came out on the harsher end of it.

I personally feel that he doesn't handle Ulster teams well, and that he has been particularly sore on Armagh and Tyrone any time they've come across him.

For the second half, Cork seemed to adopt an approach that they were going to push it to the limit, because there was no way he was going to send a second man off. He was too lackadaisical in that regard. In many ways, Alan O'Connor could have got a straight red card for his first offence.

I think he should be made explain why he booked John Miskella for a clear strike instead of sending him off. Someone should be accountable for that. People will say it didn't make much of a difference, but it could have made a difference at this time of the year.

It's not about new rules or anything else. John Bannon allowed Cork in the second half to slow down the play.

There were times Tyrone seemed to have good tackling and they got penalised, and at times Tyrone seemed to have to work so much harder for their frees than Cork did.

It's not too often you see Mickey Harte so incensed that he would approach a referee like he did at half-time. I can understand Tyrone's frustration.

I don't like Bannon as a referee, and I'd stand by my statement that he doesn't referee Tyrone or Armagh particularly well. From being in Dublin, southern teams and southern people resent that style of tackling of crowding out and getting men around the player on the ball. While it's not in the rule book, they only want to see one-on-one tackling.

People can say it wouldn't have made any difference, but a free here or there early on, especially in scorable positions, makes a huge difference, and who knows how it might have affected the outcome.