Football

"I think there should be enough footballers at that level to be able to contest your games" - Mickey Harte has his say on Donegal's McKenna Cup withdrawal

Tyrone's Mickey Harte after the BOI Dr McKenna Cup Playoff Semi-Final between Down and Tyrone at The Athletic Grounds Armagh 01-12-2020. Pic Philip Walsh
Tyrone's Mickey Harte after the BOI Dr McKenna Cup Playoff Semi-Final between Down and Tyrone at The Athletic Grounds Armagh 01-12-2020. Pic Philip Walsh Tyrone's Mickey Harte after the BOI Dr McKenna Cup Playoff Semi-Final between Down and Tyrone at The Athletic Grounds Armagh 01-12-2020. Pic Philip Walsh

Bank of Ireland Dr McKenna Cup semi-final: Down 1-10 Tyrone 2-16

MICKEY Harte appeared to aim a swipe at Donegal’s decision to withdraw from the McKenna Cup, saying a county team should “be able to stand up” to the Sigerson Cup’s demands on players.

Declan Bonner pulled his team out of their planned semi-final with Monaghan because of a combination of university commitments and a flu that had hit the camp.

That left Seamus McEnaney to take a seat in the stand at the Athletic Grounds, running his eye over proceedings as the January standard-bearers reached their 11th consecutive McKenna Cup final.

The debate over the clash between pre-season competitions and the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cups has dominated the airwaves all week, ahead of what was an outstanding weekend for Ulster sides in the football competition.

But Harte feels Donegal still should have fielded for their semi-final.

“It is what it is, you have to live with it. We had eight or nine players away on Sigerson duty today as well.

“Within a county, I think we should be able to accommodate that and stand up to it. I think there should be enough footballers at that level to be able to contest your games anyway.

“Donegal decided they hadn’t got enough to do that, and that’s their business.

“We decided we had enough people even though we were threadbare. A couple of men in the subs today were carrying injuries that meant we didn’t want to use or couldn’t use them.

“As long as you have enough to start the game and enough to come on if you need a few subs, then I think you can be imaginative enough to have enough people to play the game.”

The Red Hands’ boss said that Tyrone had been in favour of retaining the colleges in the McKenna Cup and were “one of very few counties” who voted in favour of a mid-December start that would have facilitated their inclusion.

But in past years the conflict has been less about Sigerson Cup and more about whether universities get access to their best players, or whether the counties get to keep them.

“There’s always been a dilemma, even when it was played at a later stage,” said Harte.

“That competition [Sigerson] has expanded very much from what it used to be, and it’s hard to accommodate everybody’s wishes and preferences.

“We had eight players away today playing Sigerson and if every county has to live with that, so be it, we’re not stopping them playing Sigerson.”

Down boss Paddy Tally, meanwhile, saw his side produce two very different halves of football. They were completely over-run in a poor first half and faced an 11-point gap at the break, but they whittled it down to four before a black card for Johnny Flynn stopped the comeback in its tracks.

That left them down to 14 men for the last 10 minutes of normal time, and when he came back on, Pierce Laverty was being carried off and was unable to be replaced as Down had made their five subs.

“I’d like to have seen the last 10 minutes with 15-on-15, a two or three-point game when the momentum was all with Down,” said Tally.

“Really, we left ourselves too much to do. We left a mountain to climb, and against a very good team, you’re not going to climb that mountain.

“It was a very disappointing first half. The start of the game, before we knew it, we’re five or six points down and you’re always chasing after that.

“The second half we showed a bit of spirit and heart. But the black card had a big impact in the last period of the game.”