Football

Mickey Harte holding on to faintest of hopes over McShane

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte and assistant Gavin Devlin. Picture by Philip Walsh
Tyrone manager Mickey Harte and assistant Gavin Devlin. Picture by Philip Walsh Tyrone manager Mickey Harte and assistant Gavin Devlin. Picture by Philip Walsh

Allianz Football League Division One: Monaghan 1-12 Tyrone 0-11

THE day was always coming when Tyrone’s list of absentees and defectors would catch up on them, and yesterday was that day.

Mattie Donnelly, Connor McAliskey, Richie Donnelly, Padraig Hampsey, Michael McKernan all out. Peter Harte and Tiernan McCann only filtering back in. And Cathal McShane, of course.

The question still lingers, and so it had to be asked again. With the Leckpatrick man currently back on home soil and reportedly mulling over an offer from Adelaide Crows, Mickey Harte says he hasn’t given up hope, yet he sounded like he has.

“I always said I wouldn’t give up hope until I was sure that he had signed an alternative arrangement.

“I’m not sure that that has happened right yet, but I know that it’s on the agenda.”

Still, no list of absentees excuses just how far off the mark they were in Castleblayney. How Monaghan only won the game by four points was the most curious aspect of all.

Tyrone were turned over 12 times in their opponents’ half in the first 35 minutes alone. And now they’re going to face the might of the Kerry full-forward line possibly without all three of the full-back line that started the 2018 All-Ireland final.

Ronan McNamee was taken off as a precaution following a clash of heads with Kieran Hughes, while Hampsey and McKernan both remain sidelined.

That game takes on a different life now, with Tyrone’s eyes surely focussing in very sharply on the simple need to stay up.

“Kerry is Kerry, and they’re always a challenge. We always feel that we have a better chance of challenging them at Omagh than we have in Killarney or Tralee,” said Harte.

“If we take some value out of it being a home venue for us, then hopefully we can put them under a bit of pressure.”

“But going on today’s performance, it doesn’t look very bright for us right now, but that’s our challenge over the next seven days, to see can we do better.

“Safety is always the first goal anyway, that never changes. But then you want to do as well as you can.

“The previous two seasons, we had a good start and a bad finish, last year a bad start and a very good finish, so we were hoping that we would get a mix of the two.

“But it looks like it’s going to be a bit of an up and down season again.”

Meanwhile, Seamus McEnaney holds court in the upstairs room of Castleblayney’s clubhouse, reminding fresh ears that this was his second National League win over Tyrone, not his first.

“It’s my second. Only my second, may I add? An oul National League game in 2010 in Inniskeen, I could nearly tell you the date and time! I was on the end of a load of it the other way lads.”

This was not just a good day for Monaghan, but a very heartening one. Their performance in Galway came close to meriting something, whereas this one definitely crossed the threshold.

“Tyrone, as we have known down through the years, they are tricky opposition to play against. You need to be in control of what you are doing and our lads were doing that and were quite happy with that.

“We went in at half time reasonably happy, the point before half time could have been avoided but other than that, I think the goal was a crucial score in the game,” he said, paying tribute to Karl O’Connell and hometown man Dermot Malone.

Off he goes then, his smile wider than Mickey Harte’s furrow. It doesn’t take long for things to turn in this game.