Tyrone return to competitive football on Sunday after six weeks away, opening their All-Ireland SFC campaign against Roscommon at Dr Hyde Park at 14:00 BST. Feargal Logan said he wants his side to “turn up big” as they try to reset after a disappointing Ulster exit and a long layoff.
Tyrone were beaten by Armagh in the Ulster Championship preliminary round, a result that sent the eventual provincial winners on their way and left Logan’s squad watching the latter stages from the outside. Roscommon arrive with a different kind of momentum after winning the Connacht title this month, and Logan was clear about the scale of the task in front of his players. “Roscommon have always had superb forwards, they have added to their supporting cast, around their back and their keeper has been well tightened up, so Roscommon are a full force and ought to be challenging around semi-finals and finals of the All-Ireland stage,” he said.
The layoff has given Tyrone time to recover, but Logan admitted that sitting back can cut both ways. “Sometimes sitting back and watching others empty themselves out, [in latter rounds of the provincial championships] all the injuries and suspensions and stuff comes with it is good, but momentum is still key in sport,” he said. That balance is at the heart of Sunday’s meeting: Tyrone have freshness, while Roscommon bring the form and confidence of champions.
The match also comes with an eye on what lies ahead for the championship itself. The All-Ireland series will have a new format in 2026, replacing the group stage with a qualifier system built around an initial round of eight games. The winners will move into round 2A, with the four winners from that stage advancing to the quarter-finals. The first-round losers will go into round 2B, and the four winners there will meet the losers of 2A for the final four quarter-final places.
Logan said he expects the change to make for a busy spell in the competition. “It’ll be interesting to see how it goes,” he said. “The round robin has been a bit tedious the last number of years so one default backdoor system, it will be an exciting couple of weeks coming up.” For Tyrone, though, the immediate question is simpler: after six weeks without competitive football, can they match a Roscommon side that has already found its rhythm?
