Tyrone PRO Eunan Lindsay has defended Mickey Harte's decision to include eight colleges players in his McKenna Cup squad.

Mattie Donnelly, Ronan O'Neill, Barry Tierney and Conor McAliskey (all UUJ), Conor Clarke, Danny McBride and Niall Morgan (St. Mary's) and Niall McKenna (Queen's University) will be lining out for their county rather than their colleges in the pre-season competition.

The Ulster Council had hoped the appointment of former Armagh manager Joe Kernan as a mediator would resolve the McKenna Cup impasse which resulted in Queen's pulling out of last season's competition because they no longer had first call on inter-county players attending the university, but this hasn't stopped Tyrone from laying claim to their college players.

Lindsay tells the Irish News that Mickey Harte was left with little option but to call on the college players because of the unavailability of a dozen players, including Stephen O'Neill, Conor Gormley, Kyle Coney, Dermot Carlin, PJ Quinn, Joe McMahon, Justin McMahon, Mark Donnelly, Ronan McNabb and Aidan Cassidy.

"From last year's panel, we are down 12 players, and these players need to be given a chance to establish themselves, and this is the only time we can integrate them, with the National League coming up," said Lindsay.

Tyrone (McKenna Cup squad): Kevin Campbell (Derrytresk), Conor Clarke (Omagh), Mathew Donnelly (Trillick), Hugh Gallagher (Omagh), Kevin Gallagher (Newtownstewart), Conan Grugan (Omagh), Peter Harte (Errigal Ciaran), Peter Hughes (Eskra), Plunkett Kane (Coalisland), PJ Lavery (Clonoe), Connor McAliskey (Clonoe), Danny McBride (Strabane), Tiernan McCann (Killyclogher), Ciaran McGinley (Errigal Ciaran), Shea McGuigan (Ardboe), Emmett McKenna (Eglish), Niall McKenna (Donaghmore), Ryan McKenna (Eglish), Ronan McNamee (Aghyaran), Patrick McNiece (Coalisland), Daniel McNulty (Clonoe), Niall Morgan (Edendork), Michael O'Neill (Clonoe), Ronan O'Neill (Omagh), Patrick Quinn (Dungannon), Barry Tierney (Omagh). Tweet

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