Brian Dooher admitted Tyrone’s inability to make a concerted follow-up to last year’s All-Ireland SFC triumph is the “million dollar question” that they will seek to answer.
The reigning Sam Maguire Cup holders will not be defending their crown any longer after being eliminated in the qualifiers by Armagh on Sunday, having already seen their Ulster defence ended by Derry.
Tyrone joint-manager Dooher reflected on the disappointment after the game with RTÉ Sport.
“It’s difficult. It’s not nice to exit any championship and it’s just disappointing,” he said.
“We started off the game well, got an ideal start but just could never build on it.”
Dooher said the search for answers as to why Tyrone could not replicate the heights of 2021 will be sought over the coming months.
“That’s the million dollar question at the minute – what happened and why it didn’t happen,” he said.
Seán Cavanagh thinks Armagh’s six-point winning margin flatters his native Tyrone.
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“Maybe a lot of reasons there. We must look at that and what can be done better.
“We couldn’t get that form that we had last year and that momentum. We just didn’t get it this year to build on it and we always seemed to be chasing games a bit too much.
“But we’ll sit back now over the next weeks and months, look at it and see what we can do differently.”
On the possibility that Tyrone did not have the same level of hunger having tasted success, Dooher suggested that was far from the case.
“A lot of people will say they know the answer and they have the answer,” he said.
“I suppose I have a bunch of boys in there, they gave their all last year, gave everything and then played a long club season, so it’s hard to know what it is.
“But we just couldn’t hit the heights that we hit last year. That’s evident. But we can’t question the attitude of the fellas. They gave everything.
“They gave their heart and soul to Tyrone football. They did everyting we asked of them, so we give credit to them. I can’t fault them.”
