BACK in the noughties, All-Ireland success at U21 level painted the backdrop to Tyrone’s breakthrough and an era of unprecedented success.
Three Sam Maguire Cup triumphs followed, and gaelic football’s landscape had been changed forever.
Those glory days have given way to leaner times, but achievement is often cyclical, and a familiar pattern is taking shape.
Champions once again in the U21 grade, the Red Hand county is thirsting for more, and the senior side is ready to return to the well.
Feargal Logan, who played in the 1995 All-Ireland final, and also managed Tyrone to this year’s U21 title, believes Kerry can be beaten in Sunday’s semi-final at Croke Park.
All-Ireland titles are notoriously difficult to retain, and no county has managed to win back-to-back crowns since the Kingdom defeated Munster rivals Cork in 2007.
“They’re taking on last year’s champions, and the odds would say that they won’t defend it,” said Logan.
“They’ll come a cropper hopefully somewhere in the next two games, so why not Sunday? Tyrone are going in as underdogs, they’re going in on an upward curve.
“Kerry are a proper football team that Tyrone will need to improve even more than where they have come from.
“They have incrementally improved with each game, but they need some more improvement.”
Tyrone’s development as a football team has been virtually ignored by sections of the media in recent weeks, overshadowed by commentary on the Tiernan McCann controversy.
But Logan feels the players can benefit from the absence of microscopic analysis of their strategy as they plot the downfall of the Kingdom.
“There’s a bit of a scrum at the moment about all this other… so all things parcelled together, you would hope that it’s a good nip-and-tuck game and that Tyrone might edge it,'' he added.
“Because there has been such a microscopic focus on everything to do with Tyrone, except for their football, their football deserves a lot more credit than it’s getting. And that probably suits in one sense, from a Tyrone point of view.”
Five members of the U21 team have graduated to the senior squad. Mark Bradley and Conor Meyler have nailed down places in the team, while Rory Brennan and Cathal McShane have seen game time in the current championship, with Lee Brennan still awaiting his opportunity.
And Logan believes other members of his title-winning team are ready to step on to the senior stage.
“There’s more where those five came from. There’s another few boys who are equally as good.”
To Logan, the U21 final victory over Tipperary at Parnell Park was part of a process rather than a triumphant climax.
The silverware collected at the end of a thrilling encounter was less important than the development of players capable of progressing to the top level.
Logan has also worked extensively with Tyrone development squads in various age groups, and now, with All-Ireland winning captains Peter Canavan and Brian Dooher by his side, he had been entrusted with the task of securely fastening the final link between under-age football and the senior game.
“I’ve said it before, it was more than about winning medals and trophies with the Tyrone U21s,'' he stated.
“Ultimately it’s always only ever about preparing them to play senior inter-county football.
“Now, obviously the better they do at the grade below, the more it helps, but we knew all along that we had some good talent on our hands, and we knew that they were capable of playing on the big stage, and Sunday’s game will be the biggest stage for all of them to date.
“So it’s good, and it really was always about that. Transition into senior football was one of our main focuses in the U21s, so in that respect, it’s great to see them taking the step up and doing so well and getting to an All-Ireland semi-final.
“But it would be even better if they could put one over on Kerry and get Tyrone back at the top.”
Mickey Harte’s senior side wasted no time in tapping into the energy generated by the county’s rising stars.
Two weeks after the U21 triumph last May, Tyrone faced Donegal in the Ulster Championship preliminary round, and a battling display at Ballybofey just failed to secure a win.
Members of the senior team acknowledged at the time that they had been given a lift in terms of morale and confidence by the exploits of the U21s.
“The sense I got up in Ballybofey that day was that the seniors picked up where they U21s left off,” said Logan.
“And they gave it a real rattle that day and were unlucky not to come out of Ballybofey (with a result) and if anything is attributable to the U21s, it’s that get-up-and-go and give it your very, very best shot seems to have continued through.
“Maybe people looking in might consider that the head of steam that the U21s got up is now standing to Tyrone football in general.”
