IF MICKEY Harte’s aim is to be entering his 18th year at the helm of Tyrone senior football in 2021, yesterday’s early Championship exit and the question marks it will raise regarding his reign will have done him no favours.
Six Ulster Senior Championship titles, three All-Irelands since his initial appointment in 2003: the stats are well rehearsed, but then so too are the facts that the last All-Ireland victory came 12 years ago, while their last final appearance at Croke Park ended in a chastening defeat to an all-conquering Dublin in 2018.
Speaking on The Sunday Game after yesterday afternoon’s victory for Donegal, Colm O’Rourke will have stoked any emerging debate on the future of football in the O’Neill county.
“I don’t know if Mickey wants to remain forever or not, but I think a bit of freshness in the Tyrone set up would certainly improve things,” the Meath man said.
“Tyrone have a lot of quality players, they are a team that is going to be around. Like at the beginning I was talking about the forward line that they could potentially put out with Mattie Donnelly and Cathal McShane added to Conor McKenna and Darragh Canavan, Darren McCurry and Mark Bradley, they have very exciting forward players.
“What Tyrone are short of at the moment is the sort of quality backs that they had in the noughties, but they are a team that are going to be in the top six, top eight for the foreseeable future. Maybe a new manager would get a lot more out of them,” O’Rourke added.
Harte will be 69 by the time the 2021 Championship comes around, by some distance the elder statesman at Gaelic football’s top table. Having come to the end of a three-year term following his reappointment in 2017, all Harte had to say about the matter in the aftermath of yesterday’s defeat was that he had nothing to say about the matter, "I haven't considered anything about that just right now."
But the Errigal Ciarán clubman became a bit more wistful when he turned to what might have been on the Ballybofey pitch on a grim November afternoon.
“We almost pulled it off and that is something to be consoled about,” he said.
“But not much, when you know that that is Championship 2020 over and another season gone.”
You can’t help but wonder whether Harte has decided that it’s not just another season, but the final season, which has now passed him by.
