REACHING the All-Ireland final is “the stuff of dreams” for Gerard Donnelly and his players but the Tyrone minor manager warned that reality will kick in very quickly against Meath in next Saturday’s Croke Park decider.
Donnelly’s talented, well-drilled youngsters hammered Cork by 14 points in Saturday’s one-sided semi-final and now turn their attention to the Royals (five-point winners against Sligo) in the final.
Stewartstown clubman Donnelly has no previous experience of an All-Ireland decider but backroom team members Conor Gormley and Ciaran Gourley were at the forefront of the Tyrone seniors’ successes in the noughties while Gary Hetherington (1997) and Tommy Canavan (2010) starred at minor level for the Red Hands.
“It’s the stuff of dreams for those young lads and it’s the same for myself,” said former Stewartstown, Carrickmore, Dromore and Eskra manager Donnelly after the 0-23 to 1-6 win in Tullamore.
“Conor and Ciaran have lived it but they’d tell you that it’s different being on the coaching side of it. It’s easy to look ahead and think of the excitement (of the final) but I’d imagine that once I go and watch Meath in the Leinster final or their game against Sligo the smile will come off my face very quickly when we realise what’s ahead of us.”
Former Tyrone U15 manager Donnelly took over the minor team at the start of this season and says he “tortured” his backroom team to sign up with him. Hetherington was his first target and then Gormley, Gourley and Canavan followed suit.
“I’m just delighted for them and Oisin O’Kane, the goalkeeping coach, Gerard Devine, the kit man who does everything, Helen our physio and Eamon McGarrity who does the stats,” said Donnelly.
“We haven’t got loads and loads in the backroom but we have plenty of quality and when you have Conor, Ciaran, Gary and Tommy on the mics telling you what needs to be done on the line it’s first class.
“There’s no better men to keep the feet on the ground and to tell the lads what’s to come next week and what’s to be expected.”
On an afternoon when almost everything went right for Tyrone, the one box they didn’t tick was the goal-scoring category. Five chances went abegging but you could argue that was down to the brilliance of Cork goalkeeper Daniel Walsh who made a string of superb saves.
“We’ll look at that and I’ll be stressing that they have to go in in the final,” said Donnelly.
“When you’re one-on-one with the ’keeper you should be finishing. I’ll take nothing away from the Cork goalkeeper but we need to be putting those chances away. We need to be more clinical and ruthless.
“I wasn’t comfortable until I heard ‘three extra minutes’ being announced and straight after that Cork got their goal. I never get comfortable and I was just relieved when the final whistle went and to qualify for an All-Ireland final in our first year is testament to the lads.”
Tyrone’s brilliant performance means that, despite Meath’s victory over Dublin in the Leinster final and their subsequent semi-final success in Saturday’s semi-final against Connacht champs Sligo, they have been installed as favourites for the final.
“That makes no odds to me,” said Donnelly.
“We know we were beaten by Dublin in a challenge and Meath destroyed Dublin in the Leinster final so that’s our barometer.
“We can’t control who is favourites but we understand what is ahead of us and what we have to do.”
The Tyrone backroom team will have some difficult decisions to make this week as they select their starting 15 for the final. Conor Owens (0-4) and Jack Martin (three points from play) were among the subs who impressed off the bench last Saturday.
“The lads were fantastic and even when I told Paddy (McCann) at half-time that he was coming off he was up patting the other boys on the back and encouraging them on,” said Donnelly.
“That’s team spirit – it has to be about the team rather than any individual. Paddy was disappointed to come off but he was roaring them on and that’s the team ethos.
“We have headaches for sure this week but isn’t it a brilliant place to be before an All-Ireland final.”
