Football

Last year's All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Dublin not the main driving force ahead of return: Tyrone boss Mickey Harte

Mickey Harte's Tyrone side swept aside Roscommon on Saturday to set up an intriguing Championship clash with Dublin in Omagh on Saturday night
Mickey Harte's Tyrone side swept aside Roscommon on Saturday to set up an intriguing Championship clash with Dublin in Omagh on Saturday night Mickey Harte's Tyrone side swept aside Roscommon on Saturday to set up an intriguing Championship clash with Dublin in Omagh on Saturday night

MICKEY Harte insists last season’s All-Ireland semi-final mauling at the hands of eventual champions Dublin won’t be Tyrone’s key motivation ahead of Saturday night’s Super 8s showdown in Omagh.

The Red Hands were left licking significant wounds after being demoralised 2-17 to 0-11 in a painfully one-sided encounter at Croke Park last August.

The sides met in a NFL Division One tie back in February – also in Omagh – in which the Dubs won by five points.

Harte says he knows every action of last summer’s semi-final defeat off by heart.

“We know that game inside out,” he said.

“If you didn’t study that game and try to learn from how we found ourselves in the position we did then we’d be sleepwalking into a challenge, if not the same, but a bigger one than last year.

“When you’re playing the All-Ireland champions you need to be motivated – if you’re not motivated playing against the All-Ireland champions then you’re very difficult to motivate and you’d wonder if you could be motivated at all.

“[But] We can’t make that the rock upon which we build a performance because that doesn’t make sense.

“We have to actually be better at all of the things we do well. We need to add value to that and know that even doing that doesn’t guarantee you a result but it should guarantee us to be more competitive than last year, and that’s the first challenge – be more competitive than we were.”

Tyrone were sent reeling in the early stages of last season’s semi-final after an early goal from Con O’Callaghan while the Dubs proceeded to unpick the Ulstermen’s lauded defensive system at will.

“We didn’t perform the way we could do early in the game so we were on the back foot from the early stages,” Harte recalled.

“We didn’t challenge Dublin the way we felt we might have been able to. So it was damage limitation almost from early on, and that’s not a nice game to be in knowing that you’re playing the best team in the country who have got a bit of a march on you, and you have to be careful you don’t expose yourself to a complete write-off… So it wasn’t a good day and we’ve been reminded of that many times since. We’re well aware of how we’re thought of because of that.”

Tyrone were arguably the most impressive of Saturday’s opening round of Super 8 fixtures at Croke Park, dismissing Roscommon by 18 points.

Harte was also able to make some crucial energy-saving substitutions on Saturday by withdrawing Collie Cavanagh, Niall Sludden and Connor McAliskey before the hour mark.

The Dubs, meanwhile, saved legs on Saturday by indulging in some keep-ball in the second half of their Super 8s win over Donegal.

Cathal McCarron appears a major doubt ahead of this weekend’s mouth-watering encounter at Healy Park after being assisted off the field on 18 minutes while Collie Cavanagh suffered a gash to his shin but should be okay.

McCarron’s potential loss will possibly be better absorbed than this time last year given the emergence of Coalisland’s Michael McKernan while Pomeroy’s Hugh Pat McGeary did well in McCarron’s absence against Roscommon.

Harte name-checked McKernan after yet another assured display in the Tyrone defence last weekend.

“I suppose every year that you hit the road you need to find something new and it’s great if you find something.

“Sometimes players take a while to mature into the team and Michael McKernan is an exception to that, but we knew early on that he’s very comfortable in this company and is a quality player. He belies his age (20) the way he plays the game with a lot of composure and he’s a very smart player too, so he’s one we like to have around us.”

The general impression of Tyrone and Dublin 11 months on from their semi-final is that the Ulstermen are better and that there may be some slippage in the All-Ireland champions.

With the novelty of the Dubs travelling to Omagh for an All-Ireland Championship clash, Saturday’s return match is expected to be much more competitive.

But Harte isn’t banking on home advantage to get them over the line.

“Is Omagh any big fortress for us? There is no real history to suggest that it is but I suppose we’ve never played a Championship game of this importance there before, so we will see what we can do with that. But I won’t be depending on the ground to win this game for us, we’d be depending on many other things.”

Harte is just happy the Red Hands are in Super 8s and that Dublin will be in town on Saturday night, especially after their lucky escape against Meath in Navan 38 days ago.

“It’s something we never dreamt would ever happen, but it’s a very novel idea the All-Ireland champions Dublin coming to play a Championship match in Omagh in the month of July, and we’re lucky to have that opportunity.

“We could have been out of it altogether in Navan the day we played Meath. So we used our luck up quite a bit that day and then we learned to build on that. We’ve taken advantage of that little bit of a break we got in Navan.

“There is a very fine line between a degree of success and huge failure. We’ve had a degree of success at this stage and we’d like to keep it going a bit longer.”