Tyrone could pay dearly for Harte’s refusal to change
John O’Mahony
MICKEY HARTE does not seem for turning when it comes to his tactical approach. Tyrone supporters will travel to Healy Park tomorrow, hoping to see some adjustment in the gameplan from their legendary manager but any views that he has expressed in advance of the Monaghan game seem to indicate that he is sticking to his guns.
Harte revolutionised football in the early 2000s with a level of intensity in defence that nobody had witnessed before, captured memorably in one image of eight Tyrone players surrounding a single Kerry man during their infamous 2003 All-Ireland semi-final when Paidi Ó Sé’s side were rocked to their foundations. Harte repeated the dose against the Kingdom in 2005 and 2008.
Things were different back then. Harte’s team were able to play that system without it having any negative impact on their attacking threat. That was down to the players available to him, such as Brian Dooher who played such a key role in linking defence and attack. And that Tyrone forward line were full of match-winners Brian McGuigan, Stephen O’Neill, Peter Canavan, Sean Cavanagh, Enda McGinley and Owen Mulligan. More significantly, they could all win their own ball.
All those talented players have long since left the stage — Cavanagh the last to depart after last August’s hammering by Dublin. And without such gifted forwards, Tyrone have struggled, particularly outside Ulster, to implement an effective attacking strategy.
The extent of that problem was illustrated in last August’s All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin, and their feeble effort after Con O’Callaghan’s early goal.
Stephen O’Neill has been added to this year’s back room team to give Harte’s side a more cutting edge up front. However, O’Neill’s task is a difficult one and not just because of the defensive tactics. There is also a distinct lack of physicality in the Tyrone attack. Lee Brennan, Mark Bradley and Conor McAliskey are excellent finishers but need to be given the ball. They aren’t really able to win the dirty ball as Mulligan and Enda McGinley were able to.
The most interesting thing after that drubbing was the reaction of the stakeholders in Tyrone football. Their supporters had a mixture of anger, disappointment and puzzlement at the no-show, while Cavanagh recently expressed his frustration at the difficulty of achieving success with such defensive tactics.
Harte later bizarrely suggested that if O’Callaghan had followed Padraic Hampsey in the previous Tyrone attack, as he should have done, he would not have been in position to score the goal at the other end. Jim Gavin and 50,000 Dublin supporters would not agree.
We will finally see if there is and adjustment in attitude tomorrow in Omagh. Monaghan are not Dublin but they are credible Ulster contenders and it would not be a major shock if they dethroned Tyrone.
Malachy O’Rourke has done one of the best management jobs in the country over the past few years. He has maximised output from a limited player pool, capturing Ulster titles in 2013 and 2015. He has continually refreshed his team.
For instance, up front Conor McCarthy and Jack McCarron have eased some of the scoring burden on Conor McManus.
The winners in Omagh will contest the Ulster final — with Donegal likely to emerge from the other side of the draw. It will take a fully-fit Colm Cavanagh, who has missed the national league, as well as a more attack-minded strategy to carry the day for the home side.
If Harte persists with placing 13 or 14 men behind the ball, then I feel O’Rourke will be in pole position to lead Monaghan to a third Ulster title.
“All those talented players have now long since gone”