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Danny Hughes: Tyrone template is what Down should be aiming for

Ryan Johnston was one of Down's better performers on what was a disappointing day in Sunday's Ulster final, but the Mourne county should be looking to kick on and learn from the experience
Ryan Johnston was one of Down's better performers on what was a disappointing day in Sunday's Ulster final, but the Mourne county should be looking to kick on and learn from the experience Ryan Johnston was one of Down's better performers on what was a disappointing day in Sunday's Ulster final, but the Mourne county should be looking to kick on and learn from the experience

TYRONE are worthy Ulster champions. You could argue that Down missed a gilt-edged chance at the end of the first half, but in truth I think that Darragh O’Hanlon can take comfort from the fact that it may have only reduced the winning margin rather than actually affected the outcome of the game.

When you analyse Sunday’s game, you have to take account of Tyrone’s progress compared to Down’s over the last few years.

Do you remember Tyrone going down to play Kerry a few years ago in a Qualifier (2012) and Kerry players over-celebrating a relatively routine win?

For players like Paul Galvin at the time, it brought tears to his eyes and, for him, it perhaps laid a

few ghosts to rest.

In truth, it was a Qualifier game in Kerry and it was as bad a Tyrone side as we’ve seen since before the breakthrough teams of the early noughties.

For the Tyrone lads, it wasn’t a final and they knew that the team wasn’t nearly as good as those that had gone before.

For many of the previous Tyrone All-Ireland winners, in their heads they still remained superior to the Kerry teams, despite Galvin’s tears in July 2012.

In my mind, though, that game was a bit of a watershed moment for the Red Hands.

All-Ireland winners in Tyrone retired and Mickey Harte, who most thought would retire too, began to overhaul and

introduce new blood to the set-up.

Since then, they have experienced more lows than highs.

Being beaten by Donegal and Monaghan in the Ulster Championship over the years, as well as enduring a relegation from Division One in the same period, made it a difficult time to be a Tyrone inter-county player, Mickey Harte and a Tyrone supporter in the five years since 2017.

While Down players, management and supporters will be hugely disappointed this week, it is time to take 2017 as their watershed moment.

The progress, even since February of this year, has been significant. They have adapted to the modern game and wins over Monaghan and Armagh have demonstrated this progress to date. The potential is there.

The players will need to stay together, develop more game intelligence and, more importantly, make progress athletically if they want to follow Tyrone’s path.

Down players will have learned a lot from their first appearance in an Ulster final since 2012. In fact, the first half provided a fair bit of reassurance that they can live with most teams for 35 minutes.

However, currently they do not have nearly enough of the resources or experience Tyrone possess, epitomised best by the impact of Tyrone subs Declan McClure and Ronan O’Neill.

O’Neill in particular has been around the Tyrone squad for some years now and, while you hear of his prowess at club level, he has been unable to really nail down an automatic spot for Tyrone.

Down need to be competing in an Ulster final every three years. This will be a minimum and the challenge here will be to develop inter-county players from a younger age and introduce them more quickly into senior county football.

An example is Con O’Callaghan for Dublin. At 21 years of age, he kicked 12 points in the Leinster final last Sunday, half of these scores from play. If you are good enough, you are old enough.

IN a way, this Tyrone team winning back-to-back Anglo-Celts in 2016 and 2017 emerged from a dark day in 2012.

The Tyrone of today is virtually unrecognisable and a new breed of leader – Peter Harte, Mattie Donnelly, Niall Sludden and Tiernan McCann to name a few – has emerged.

You still have the two Cavanaghs marshalling the entire team and their style of play has adapted and changed in the last few years to maximise the chances of winning medals and cups. That experience has been critical.

Mickey Harte has also looked at what it takes now to win an Ulster title and an All-Ireland. As a result, he went about developing a player and a system to suit.

There has been a long-term view adopted, lacking in so many other counties by so many managers.

Let us not forget here that Peter Donnelly and Gavin Devlin have played huge roles in Tyrone’s progress.

Is it coincidental that Cavan’s underage development over the years has been hugely successful under Donnelly and now in Tyrone more success has started to follow.

Club Tyrone has played its part too and you can never underestimate that. Annual funds raised are regularly in excess of a half a million pounds and, for a voluntary committee, that requires serious organisation.

What struck me about Tyrone last Sunday was their fitness levels and discipline in the tackle. They can run and they can tackle.

After that, they are in bonus territory and, to be honest, none of their players look uncomfortable on the ball.

Perhaps in other teams, you have the corner-back, a tight marker, and you are happy for him just to hand-pass the ball.

Soloing is forbidden, a kick pass is only allowed in extreme circumstances and you must never shoot.

That is not the case in modern football. They are expected to be as complete a footballer as a corner-forward. They are expected to have the fitness levels of a half-back or midfielder.

Tyrone have developed a complete team of these players, as have Kerry, as have Dublin.

I still think the latter will be too strong for Tyrone, even if their concession rate provides a bit of hope for the Red Hands.

DOWN, meanwhile, go back down the Qualifier route and play Monaghan, which is a farce.

Teams should be restricted from playing one another in these circumstances as they have played before.

Perhaps after the quarter-final stage, in an open draw format, meeting again would be acceptable.

Monaghan have not exactly breezed through the Qualifiers, with Carlow putting up a brilliant display against them last time out.

However, they will fancy their chances in another meeting with Down. Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me.

Down played respectably against a good Tyrone side, who are much further down the line development-wise.

The experience to date has left plenty of room for improvement and beating Monaghan again will be an important hurdle to jump.

If they do this, a quarter-final will be another huge achievement and, more importantly, banks the kind of experience it takes to win future Anglo-Celts.