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Tyrone manager Mickey Harte only looking to the future after heavy defeat to Dublin

Mickey Harte has no thoughts of quitting despite Tyrone's heavy defeat to Dublin
Mickey Harte has no thoughts of quitting despite Tyrone's heavy defeat to Dublin Mickey Harte has no thoughts of quitting despite Tyrone's heavy defeat to Dublin

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final: Tyrone 0-11 Dublin 2-17

MICKEY Harte has voiced his strong desire to take charge of Tyrone next year despite this devastating defeat by Dublin.

The Red Hands were swatted aside by a superb performance from the three in-a-row-chasing champions but the losers’ boss wants to take on the challenge of closing that significant gap.

Indeed, he agreed that he expected to be Tyrone manager for a 16th senior season, even though this is was his biggest Championship loss in all that time:

“I do, I do. I think I’ve made that suggestion many times during the year. I do expect to be here.

“It’s not in my hands. Somebody else might choose to do something different – that’s their prerogative to do so. At this point in time, I’ve no intention of walking away.”

Harte managed to find some humour amidst the gloom of this chastening chasing that Tyrone had been given the Dubs. He quipped that the soft drinks set in front of him in the media room “might not be enough after that”.

He also smiled when it was suggested to him that the

so-called ‘Super Four’ had now been whittled down after his county’s comprehensive defeat.

“Super Threes now, is it?”, he asked with a laugh. “I think it’s going to be worth an experiment. There are going to be some very entertaining games in that.

“There may be some that won’t be as close as that but then again, how will we know until we try it out?

“I think it’s worth experimenting with something different than the current format because I always, always have been an advocate of the fact that the people who win a provincial title need at least a second chance, same as everybody else. I’ve said that many times that should happen.

“This [the Super Eights] is an alternative to a knock-out for a team that has won a provincial title and I think that is a good thing.”

However, Harte accepted Tyrone will have to do a lot to get close to Dublin’s level, whatever the format.

“Maybe it’s a good insight to know what standard you need to get to now if you want to play at their level regularly.

“It’s the best Dublin team that I have faced in my Championship career at senior level. I think you have to give them that now. I wasn’t sure before today if that was the case, but I think I can be quite sure of that now.”

Belief will be a key element to reaching the heights the All-Ireland champions hit, he says: “Before we played them I didn’t see the gap as that significant. So what we have to believe is that it shouldn’t be that wide. That we should be capable of taking that team on.

“Therefore, we must go away and do what we need to do to make sure that we as a group can do something that will give us the capacity to close that gap.

“I do not believe we should sorta give up and say, ‘This is an impossible task’. There is nothing impossible, if you put your mind to it.

“I believe we will be capable of coming back and reaching the level that is required out there. I can’t say exactly when but I believe we will be back and will compete at that level.”

The chances of a comeback were slim to non-existent yesterday, arguably from as early as the fifth minute when Dublin took the lead for the first time.

Harte felt Con O’Callaghan’s goal had a major bearing on the way this semi-final went:

“Dublin were always superior, and particularly after that goal, the game was played on their terms, not ours, and that was not what we set out to do.

“We held out to half-time trying to play the system that we know best, but it wasn’t proving very effective for us, so we had to change things up at half-time, and there’s a great gamble in that.

“It leaves you open to more sufferance at the back, but I can’t fault the players for their effort, and particularly in the second half, we asked them to give it all they had and see where that takes us…

“You don’t want to say that you can’t win the game, but the reality of the matter was that it was going to take a miracle turnaround for us.

“We wanted it to be a more respectable scoreline at the end, and I feel it could have been, we had more chances to close the gap, but we didn’t take them.”

Dublin’s tackling, from their forwards back, contributed to that, with Harte acknowledging that their desire was too much for Tyrone:

“I think we had a good idea what they were going to do, but you never know the ferocity with which they’re going to come at you until you’re toe to toe with it.

“We never experienced that in any of the League games we have played over the years.

“But this was a different level. They had a real energy and a real drive and it’s something that we hadn’t seen face to face. We saw them in the League and that’s a different time of the year and they’re at a different stage of their training regime.

“We didn’t experience the ferocity that they would bring to us. You can’t experience that until you’re toe to toe with it, and I have to compliment them, they were very up for this game.”

Apart from praising a superb Dublin side, Harte lauded his skipper, who has finally retired from inter-county football: “Sean Cavanagh is with these Tyrone seniors as long as I am, and he was a faithful servant.

“He gave so much, he has so many accolades to prove his value across many, many spectrums of awards.

“He has nothing to regret really, he gave it all he had. We were hoping that he would get another day before he finished his career, we haven’t been able to provide that for him, but I don’t think he’ll walk away with many regrets.

“There’s not many players will leave the game of Gaelic football with all that he has achieved, particularly not in Tyrone anyway.”