LEGENDARY manager Mickey Harte has stepped down as Tyrone senior football manager after 18 years at the helm.
The three-times All-Ireland winning manager had hoped to stay for one final year in charge – but the county board refused this request.
After days of intense speculation over his future following their Ulster Championship exit to Donegal on November 1, Harte announced his decision to The Irish News at his Glencull home yesterday morning – but there wasn’t a trace of frustration that his highly decorated managerial career with his native county that spanned a remarkable 30 years had ended.
Harte said he was “at peace” with his decision and didn’t rule out staying involved in the game in the future.
In a wide-ranging interview, the 66-year-old discussed the events of the last couple of weeks in the senior manager’s role and paid a glowing tribute to chairman Michael Kerr.
“It was just time to end the speculation,” he said.
“And, look, I knew this day was coming some time. Because of Covid, I believe this was a lost year. If you take six months out of the year [March to September], you think about that time we would have had together…”
Confirming his one-year request to continue, he said: “I made it quite clear that I didn’t see it as an extension; I saw it as a replacement for a year that was lost and therefore I wanted to finish my final year because it was going to be my final year.
“I never talk about my ‘final year’ because I’ve learned from experience and from other codes that when you make it public that it is your last year, it can be problematic, even for the players. I thought that it was an awful year to finish on. But it wasn’t to be.”
He added: “I have to pay tribute to the county chairman, Mickey Kerr, who has been more than supportive of me, 100 per cent. He helped us to be the best that we could be and he would have been longing for us to be still in this All-Ireland as much as we would ourselves.
“But he’s only one person and there is a management committee that has 14 or 15 people on it who all have different opinions and he has to go by what people decide there too. And they feel there is another way, a better way, and that’s fine by me.”
Harte took over the Tyrone minors in 1991 and enjoyed unprecedented success at all levels of the county game with the Red Hands. In a statement he expressed his heartfelt thanks to “the fantastic people of Tyrone, and indeed Gaels across the entire globe. Through the various highs and lows, my family and I have been supported by so many good people from all backgrounds and communities.”
Asked why he toiled for so long on the sidelines, he said: “I did it for anybody who had Tyrone football at heart. That’s a big spectrum of people: those who go out to their small clubs who never get much recognition but they’re keeping the game alive in their area.
“I did it for the people who administer the games at club and county because there is hard work in that. And I did it for many of the people in Club Tyrone who put their hands in their pockets or asked others to put their hand in their pockets to actually give Tyrone GAA the best facilities that they possibly can have so that we can be the best that we can be.
“There are a lot of really good people who do a lot of really good work who deserve a good outcome.”
Even in the lean years, Tyrone still dined at the top table on a consistent basis under Harte.
As the curtain comes down on an amazing career with Tyrone, Harte said: “I was blessed with the time that I’ve been here because we've been to places that we’d never been before and I’m grateful for that.
“It was the joy we gave to so many people. I never went one day not desiring to win for Tyrone. Many days we did and others we didn’t. But we never stopped trying.”
