BRIAN Dooher fears his Tyrone players may have lost their focus and left themselves dangerously vulnerable.
Their All-Ireland title goes on the line in this weekend's huge derby clash with Armagh, and the joint-manager insists all outside influences must be expelled.
The Athletic Grounds will be a deafening cauldron come Sunday afternoon, but in the meantime all the external noise has to be ignored.
"Everybody has an opinion, and you're not sure who's right or who's wrong sometimes, but we'll see what happens," he said.
"To be honest, the only people we're worried about are the people we see up in Garvaghey every week at training, and that's the most important group.
"There's a lot of noise going on outside, around that, but you have to separate yourselves from that. The people that matter are the people up here.
"You can't rely on that sort of motivation, that somebody has to say something bad before you get going. That's not going to work, or it's going to be very short-term.
"These boys have a drive and an ambition in themselves internally, which keeps them going, a desire to be better every day they go out.
"And I suppose that's the big thing, they want to get better every day they go out.
"I think that's the big driver, to prove to themselves how good they can be, as opposed to anybody else."
Too many players failed to perform in the Ulster SFC quarter-final defeat to Derry, and the treble All-Ireland winner is demanding that standards are raised.
"Some days things don't happen to you, players don't turn up with their best game and that happens. It happens every footballer, and it just happened to too many of us on the same day.
"They have worked hard over the last two or three weeks, they have done everything we have asked over the last two or three weeks, so you hope now that you can just carry that on to the pitch next weekend."
Like Tyrone, the Orchard men fell flat in their provincial Championship quarter-final, crashing to a hugely disappointing defeat to Donegal at Ballybofey.
But Dooher believes Kierean McGeeney's side's true worth did not surface on that occasion.
"They didn't perform to the potential that they have, it was like ourselves and Derry, when we didn't perform at all.
"I don't think they performed anywhere near their potential against Donegal.
"You have to give some credit to Donegal for that, but for whatever reason, I don't think they played to their utmost, and I'm sure they'll sit back and look at that and take learning from it, get re-focused and ready for us.
"It will be a real tough battle, we have played Armagh a couple of times this year already. They had the upper hand on us in the McKenna Cup and the upper hand on us in the League.
"They're a good team, and they were one of the best teams in the National League, they had some great results, against Dublin and ourselves.
"We're going to have a fair battle, there's no doubt about it."
Dooher said his players must be disciplined in the white heat of battle at the Athletic Grounds.
Five players were sent off in the NFL meeting of the sides earlier this year, four of them from Tyrone, and Dooher admitted that discipline is a problem that has to be addressed.
The reigning All-Ireland champions have also received three red cards in their two Championship games this season, although one of them was later rescinded, and All-Star midfielder Brian Kennedy will miss the crunch derby game against Armagh through suspension.
"We had a harsh lesson, unfortunately and you hope you have learned from it.
"You don't go out with the intention of getting boys sent off.
"We have had too many in the year, you can't argue with that, more than you would like.
"The players themselves will be far from happy, never mind ourselves, but it is what it is, we have moved on."
