Mattie Donnelly reckons Kerry were the best side in the country by “quite some distance” this year.
Jack O’Connor’s outfit claimed a clean sweep of League, Munster and All-Ireland honours as they succeeded Tyrone as champions to win a first Sam Maguire since 2014.
Double All-Star Donnelly says it’s “back to the drawing board” for a Tyrone side that never got off the ground in the county’s bid to retain an All-Ireland crown for the first time.
The 31 year old, who made his Tyrone senior debut back in 2012, says Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan’s side will plan a fresh assault.
Donnelly and co survived in Division 1 but, after beating Fermanagh in their Ulster opener, were ambushed in the quarter-final by Derry and hammered by 11 points.
The qualifier draw was unkind to the Red Hand Men as they were pulled out of the hat against another of their fiercest local rivals, Armagh at the Athletic Grounds and crashed out.
Tyrone were dogged by indiscipline on the field all year, with red cards against the likes of Armagh, Dublin and Derry hampering their challenge.
Most of their key players struggled for form after the surprise 2021 All-Ireland victory.
This was in marked contrast to Kerry, who only conceded three goals all year with Tyrone man and 2003 All-Ireland winning trainer, Paddy Tally involved in their coaching set-up.
Kerry lost just one game out of 15 in 2022 — a dead-rubber final round League encounter against Tyrone — as they defeated Cork, Limerick, Mayo, Dublin to reclaim the Sam Maguire.
“I suppose it was hard watching on this past few weeks but the boys will be hungry again,” said Donnelly.
“It’s now very much about devising a plan to mount another assault next year.
“What you do the previous year is never going to work the same, the next season. You have to evolve each year. You can’t stay stagnant at all.
“From our point of view, it’s a case of going back to the drawing board.
“We have plenty of time to reflect on where we went wrong and on how we can improve things for 2023.”
Tyrone lost a raft of senior All-Ireland winners at the start of their 2022 campaign, but they have an Under-20 All-Ireland winning side to bolster their challenge.
On top of this, they also have two potential marquee forwards in Darragh and Ruairi Canavan.
Not many counties have those kind of players coming off the conveyor belt
And a return to form for the likes of Cathal McShane and Conor McKenna would make Tyrone among the All-Ireland favourites for 2023.
Kerry are certainly one of the teams to beat and Trillick club man Donnelly said: “At the end of the day Kerry are worthy All-Ireland champions as they were the best team in Ireland this year by quite some distance in fairness.
“They only lost one game, ironically to ourselves, but the levels that they showed throughout the year, it always pointed towards them winning the All-Ireland.
“In doing so (David) Clifford and (Sean) O’Shea fulfilled their potential and in fairness to them they delivered on the big days when it really mattered.”
Donnelly is playing away with his club as one of the most competitive local championships in the country looms large.
“It’s great to be playing club football and we are going reasonably well at the moment and playing some good football.
“We are missing some experienced players every few weeks but that gives other lads game time so there are good lessons to learn at this stage in advance of the Championship.”
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