Former Tyrone player Kyle Coney says Malachy O'Rourke is 'top of the list' to become the county's next Gaelic football manager.
Fearghal Logan and Brian Dooher's tenure as joint-managers came to an end on Tuesday night when they decided to step away after four years in charge.
Coney says he wasn't 'overly surprised' that the pair decided to move on, with things 'not going to plan' since the great success of their All-Ireland victory in 2021.
"I wasn't overly surprised. The longer it went on (with no news of them staying on), the more you thought they could leave.
"Four years, and delivering our fourth All-Ireland in that was a great success.
"But it probably didn't go to plan after that. The year after the All-Ireland didn't go to plan and it just didn't kick into gear after that then," Coney tells Balls.
Attention inevitably turns to the next man up for the job and Ardboe native Coney says a name like Malachy O'Rourke would bring 'huge excitement' to the county.
Malachy O'Rourke managed Glen to All-Ireland glory earlier this year. He remains in charge of the Derry club. Sportsfile.
He also name-checked former Antrim manager and Trillick's county championship winning manager from last year, Jody Gormley, as well as two-time All-Ireland under-20 winning manager Paul Devlin.
"With Malachy O'Rourke living in Ballygawley for a number of years now, his name is going to be top of the list.
"Jody Gormley is another name that I've heard knocked about in recent times. Paul Devlin obviously has to be in the conversation too.
"But top of the list, having senior inter-county experience with Monaghan, the great job he's done with Glen, yeah Malachy's name would be top of the list.
"It would bring huge excitement back again, the problem obviously is we don't know how far Glen could go," he added.
O'Rourke has also been linked with the vacant Derry job, one that he turned down last year in favour of focusing fully on Glen's All-Ireland bid. He is still in charge of Glen who are in the middle of their Derry championship campaign, complicating matters on that front.
Whoever the next manager is, one factor they will have to take into account is the high turn-over of players in Tyrone.
The likes of Mark Bradley, Paul Donaghy, Tiernan McCann, Rory and Lee Brennan are among those who have walked away in recent seasons and Coney feels it's because of the competitiveness of the Tyrone club League as well as the full-on nature of the split season, particularly for county players.
"A lot of the Tyrone players come from Division One clubs with maybe a handful from the top-end of Division Two.
"There's fifteen League games, the first five are starred games - they're without your county players - you see it, take my own club, they didn't get off to a good start this year and struggled the whole year and only finished one point above relegation.
"Coalisland found themselves in relegation this year against Clonoe, and they've three county men - Niall Devlin, McKernan and Hampsey.
"When you talk about players stepping away, you're talking Mark Bradley, Paul Donaghy, Tiernan McCann, the two Brennans as the ones that come to mind - but they're really to the forefront of their clubs in the League, and now it just rolls straight into club championship, so it's very hard to see them coming back in," he says.
"They've probably got a taste of life away from the county bubble.
"It's not a split season for a county player, but it probably is a split season for a club player in Tyrone.
"You think of players playing a long season with their counties and then straight into club stuff, that's tough on them."
Coney suggests that the Tyrone management should release players on the fringes of the county panel to play the 'starred' league games.
"Being in that situation myself, I remember going 13/14 weeks without game-time.
"So that could be a case that once we have those starred games, if you're outside a certain number of players, you could release them to get game-time.
"Because, that's the best way to keep boys happy. Let them play for the club and come back to the county scene on Tuesday."
"A lot of them lads above, with the exception maybe of the two Brennans Lee and Rory - even though Rory had a child and is recently married - yeah it's hard to see players coming back in to give that mad commitment again."
Inevitably, there are green shoots in the county on the back of two under-20 All-Ireland wins in '24 and '22 and Coney backs some of these players to make an impact.
That being said, he doesn't see any of their senior players such as Mattie Donnelly and Peter Harte walking away this winter.
"Paul Devlin has done a super job at under-20, getting a couple of All-Irelands.
"We brought in a couple of faces to the squad this year that got game-time late on, like my own club-man Shay O'Hare, Ronan Cassidy from Donaghmore, Eoin McElholm from Loughmacrory, and there's probably more for one or two more to come in now, because being honest, I don't see a whole pile of people walking away from the Tyrone scene this year.
"Maybe people expect Mattie Donnelly to walk away, but I fully expect to see himself, Peter Harte...I don't expect them to walk away."
