In the original encounter at Healy Park on Sunday past the Red Hands looked to be in complete control as they established a seven point lead early on but they missed chances that would have put them out of sight and a rejuvenated Down hit back to snatch a deserved draw.
In terms of quality it was a poor spectacle, a fact acknowledged by Tyrone great Frank McGuigan (See comments below).
McGuigan, scorer of one of the best ever goals in championship football at the Newry venue back in 1982, pulled no punches when referring to what he saw on TV.
"I am glad I didn't make it to Omagh, because I'd have been looking for my 'twenty quid' back. It was absolute and utter rubbish, a terrible game altogether and it left me despairing even more than I already was about the future of the game.
There was no football in it, indeed it's getting to the stage where there in hardly any Gaelic football being played nowadays. It's basketball and that's not what I want to see; if I want to see basketball, I'd go to Madison Square Gardens, not Healy Park.
It was pure crap football and I have to say if things keep going the way they have been for some time now there won't be anybody interested in the sport within about five more years. And I blame the so-called super coaches.
"All over Ireland they are doing the same thing, from schools upwards; they are getting youngsters to run round in circles, fisting the ball to one another; and I really do fear for the future.
But, having said that, the youngsters are growing up knowing nothing else and maybe they think this is the way it has always been!
There's no kicking the ball anymore; that's why this was such a scrappy game. When there is no real system involved, apart from hand-passing and trying to find the closest man to lay the ball off to, then that's an inevitable consequence.
Look at the stats from the game and it'll show you how bloody dreadful they were at doing that, too; 33 turnovers from Down and 27 from Tyrone. When Tyrone won the All-Ireland they didn't give the ball away 27 times in the whole championship!
Down won the midfield battle the whole way. And that's halfway to winning a game; if you do that and you have any kind of forwards, then you should be well on your way. But what were they doing when they got the ball in midfield, they were passing it to the halfbacks more often than not.
Instead they should have been releasing it to forwards. The ball can travel a lot faster than players and I can't understand why the players don't realise this and make it do the work."



Read the rest of Frank's opinions on the match in this week's TYRONE TIMES - on sale now at all good newsagents in Mid-Ulster and South Tyrone.