MICKEY HARTE has confirmed the Tyrone county board will contest the proposed eight-week ban handed down to Tiernán McCann by the CCCC for his theatrical dive in the latter stages of last Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final win over Monaghan at Croke Park.
At Wednesday night’s All-Ireland semi-final press night ahead of their August 23 showdown with Kerry, the Tyrone boss was unwilling to discuss in detail McCann’s case.
“My thoughts on it will be very brief,” said Harte.
“I’ve said what I’ve had to say on it earlier this week and, obviously, the county board is contesting it and we’ll leave it there. We’ll see where that takes us. If you want to know what I thought of it, look back on yesterday’s reports.”
Asked if he was “surprised” by the controversial sanction, Harte said: “I wouldn’t use ‘surprise’ in this case – I’d use a different word, which is not as pleasant as surprise.”
It is understood McCann has been charged with discrediting the association – which carries an eight-week ban - after he fell to the ground when Monaghan player Darren Hughes ruffled his hair. McCann wasn’t punished for the incident by referee Marty Duffy, but was black-carded minutes later for another incident.
Feigning injury is a yellow card offence, but the CCCC has obviously opted for the stiffer penalty of discrediting the association. It is not yet clear why Hughes got sent-off as he rugby-tackled Colm Cavanagh moments earlier before ruffling McCann’s hair. Following the controversy, several high-profile GAA pundits criticised McCann and Tyrone for their “antics”.
Asked if he believed there was an anti-Tyrone agenda among sections of the media, Harte replied: “I’ll leave that for others to decide. Let people listen to what’s going on and see what emphasis is placed on the football we’ve played versus other things, and let you all be the judge of that.”
Prompted further on the negative depiction being projected of Tyrone football, Harte said that there would always be “fault finders and nit-picking”.
“I don’t know how to describe it, but I always believe in life you get more of what you look for. If you want to look for negativity and hone in on that, then certainly you’ll get lots of that. I would love to think that people would be more optimistic, more open-minded and look for the good.
“It’s typical of our games where you’ve a lot of nit-picking going on and fault-finders and that’s there brief in life. They don’t understand that there is so much good about our games at the minute. Of course there’ll be faults and of course there’ll be things that aren’t what they ought to be. That’s life.”
Harte was flanked by players Peter Harte and Ronan McNabb in Garvaghey on Wednesday night. Unsurprisingly, Peter Harte refused to be drawn on the McCann case.
“That’s not really my job,” said the Errigal Ciarán clubman.
“My job is to go out and play as best I can. You’re only control of what you can do on the training pitch and the field. We’ll work on that and let everyone else worry about it.”
The Tyrone boss confirmed Joe McMahon would not start against Kerry on Sunday week as he is expected to undergo surgery for a hernia problem this weekend after being withdrawn in the first half against Monaghan.
“The surgery is supposed to be done this weekend, but how it leaves him afterwards we’ll wait and see,” said Harte.
“I can’t see him being a starter at this point in time.”
On the prospect of facing All-Ireland champions and favourites Kerry, Harte was typically bullish about Tyrone’s chances of reaching this season’s decider and winning it: “I definitely believe we can win an All-Ireland. If I didn’t believe we could win an All-Ireland, we might as well not go. I believe we can win.”
