Harte takes a leaf out of Gavin’s book but stardust is not a quick fix
Harte has turned to O’Neill for help but it’ll take time to pay off
JUST over a week after he stood on a Croke Park sideline and watched his carefully-constructed plan to beat Dublin get skewered by Con O’Callaghan, Mickey Harte held a de-briefing session with his squad. Despite what transpired in the All-Ireland semi-final, the message was that overall, 2017 had been encouraging.
Someone within the Tyrone County Board clearly agreed. A few days later, they handed Harte a new threeyear term — 12 months more than he was looking for. He wasn’t complaining, though.
Tyrone may be on the verge of winning a three-in-a-row in Ulster for the first time in history, but there was a sense over the winter that things had to change. So, Harte did something which he never did in his previous 15 years as Tyrone senior manager — he organised a challenge game.
Turlough O’Brien’s improving Carlow side were invited up to the Garvaghy GAA centre in a match that was played behind a locked gate with security men standing guard.
More pointedly, Harte accepted that his backroom team needed freshening up. It took a chastening afternoon in Croke Park back in 2014 for Jim Gavin to accept that changes had to be made to his backroom. After his side were ambushed by Donegal, Gavin called his former team-mate Jason Sherlock, whom he knew to be an intelligent and astute coach. Dublin haven’t lost a Championship game since.
Having to absorb lessons of a similarly chastening afternoon in Croke Park, Harte also called an old friend. Even in Tyrone’s wondrously talented team of the 2000s, the instinctive genius of Stephen O’Neill stood out. As a footballer, he was a joy to behold, especially in 2005 and especially at headquarters, when he seemed able to slice the ball over the bar from any angle.
By enlisting O’Neill’s help, Harte is accepting that his forwards need some guidance. Even though he has pointed to the fact that Tyrone were the highest-scoring Ulster champions in history over the past two years, they have managed to do that without a recognised strike-forward. There is no Paddy McBrearty, Conor McManus or Paul Geaney in their ranks — someone who can be relied upon to nail seven or eight points on a day when the team are in need.
The evidence of Tuam last Sunday suggests that it will take time for O’Neill’s stardust to rub off. On a filthy January afternoon, they only managed to score three points from play. It again raised questions of whether the sort of rare attacking gifts that O’Neill possessed can actually be coached — or developed.
And it has to be remembered that O’Neill was only one part of what was one of the greatest attacking forces modern football has ever seen. He had Brian McGuigan behind him, the orchestrator at centre-forward, one of the finest players to ever play that position. On the wing, Brian Dooher augmented his ravenous appetite for hard work with an ability to score critical points.
O’Neill and Owen Mulligan provided the ammunition in the inside-forward line alongside the genius of Peter Canavan. And there was the graft and guile of Enda McGinley. It was a sensational attack, with players who each filled a different role and could do different jobs.
While everyone climbed over themselves to declare the blanket defence dead after Tyrone were swept from the field last August, that might not be the problem for Harte or his team. It may stem from the fact that it is all very much samesame when it comes to the Tyrone forwards. If Darren McCurry, Conor McAliskey, Mark Bradley and Lee Brennan were placed in a line-up together, most people would have difficulty differentiating between them. It is the same when they are on a football field. They are all nice and tidy footballers, with plenty of skill, None of them offer anything different. In the recent McKenna Cup campaign, where Tyrone reached yet another final as a matter of course, Harte tried Ronan McHugh, a more physical and imposing presence, at full-forward. McHugh has been racking up noticeably decent totals in club football, but he has a bit to go before he becomes a Plan B in the way that Eoghan O’Gara or Kevin McManamon are able to when sprung from the Dublin bench. There are no panic buttons being pushed in Tyrone just yet. Galway under Kevin Walsh are not the nice football side they once were. They know how to get down and dirty, particularly on a day like last Sunday. It was a bit of a shock that Tyrone were beaten, but results like that always happen in the first weekend of the League. It’s not outlandish to predict a Tyrone win in Healy Park tomorrow evening. On a heavy pitch on a dark, damp February evening, Harte could well devise a plan to dig out a result against the All-Ireland champions. It’s not difficult to see the Ulster champions winning on a scoreline of 0-9 to 0-8. But what will that mean come the summer? It won’t mean very much unless O’Neill discovers a formula to make one of Tyrone’s similar-looking attackers stand out as a strikeforward that can be relied upon — in the same way that he and Mulligan were relied upon.
Even in the classy team of the 2000s, his talent stood out