TYRONE haven’t won the National Football League since back in 2003 and, despite watching his side come in a distant second against Donegal last weekend, manager Mickey Harte hopes to put an end to that wait this year.
But the Red Hands boss admits that his players have a lot of hard work ahead of them to finish in the top two as an engrossing top-flight battle comes to the boil. With two rounds remaining, Dublin, Donegal, Tyrone and Monaghan are locked together on seven points with Kerry still not out of it on five.
“We’re probably safe from relegation but we’d like to think that we’re in with a chance of getting to the final,” he said yesterday.
“When you’re within touching-distance of a League final you have to give it all you have to make that final. It’s a tall order with Mayo coming to us and us going to Kerry we’ll have to play very well in both games if we want to be in the final, but that’s our ambition just now.”
Harte reflected on “back in the day” in 2003 when his side hammered Laois 0-21 to 1-8 to take the League title and carried that form all the way to September when they dethroned Armagh in the All-Ireland decider. He says this has been “an exceptional year” for the National League.
“You couldn’t say who’s going to win Division One, Two or Three yet, you couldn’t say who’s going to be in the final. There’s nobody striding ahead,” said Harte.
“The only division is division four – Wexford are already up and Westmeath are in pole position to take second place. But the other three divisions you couldn’t say for sure who is going to win them and in the bottom end of Division One Roscommon, who unfortunately didn’t pick up any points so far, are the only ones relegated.
“In an eight-team League that’s a very tight contest and that different about the League.
“I remember back in 2003 when we last won the League, lots of the bigger teams in that era didn’t take it particularly seriously, they felt that the League was to be played for and maybe do a bit of experimenting, but when the Championship comes along, we can turn on the championship button.
“Over the last decade or more, that has not been the case and I suppose it has been the emergence of that mentality that Dublin have won the last four Leagues in-a-row, and have been very successful in the All-Ireland as well.
“People used to think if you do well in the league, you mightn't necessarily be a big shot in the Championship. But it has turned full circle, it has become very important to be doing well in the League to give yourself a chance of doing well in the Championship, that is why the League has become more important and the games are more competitive.
“That’s why it has been the big focus this year, where there are four teams on seven points after five games - that is very unique.”
To make it to the final, Tyrone will have to finish strongly and they complete their campaign against Mayo, who visit Healy Park on Sunday, and then travel to face Kerry at Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney a week later. Harte admits his team will have to improve on what they produced in a six-point loss against Donegal last Saturday night.
“We would be very disappointed,” he admitted.
“We’d be disappointed that we lost the game, number one, and secondly that we lost it by such a big margin – we never would have anticipated that that would happen to us.
“But it happens sometimes in games that it slips away from you and you almost can’t get it back. I’d feel that in many ways that game slipped away from us in the last 10-12 minutes of the first half.
“Now we were never in really flying form anyway – Donegal were the best team in the first 20 minutes – but it was still a 4-4 game and we had a few chances to be going in at half-time, maybe not ahead, but certainly within touching distance.”
