Tyrone’s strength in numbers can be the difference
MICKEY HARTE’S Tyrone can be accused of being many things – but a one-man team isn’t one of them. In the post-Peter Canavan, Stephen O’Neill and Sean Cavanagh era, it really speaks volumes for the manager and for the ethos of his Red Hand set-up that they are odds-on favourites to reach the All-Ireland final tomorrow yet currently don’t have a single player in the All-Star football team, according to the bookmakers’ latest odds. Their most effective operators are all cogs in a system, willing to play their part for the greater good, something that is reflected in Tyrone’s lack of representation in the market for individual recognition. Sweeper Colm Cavanagh is currently their most likely All-Star (11/4 third favourite to get the nod at midfield) while their next two shortest priced players are defenders Padraig Hampsey (2/1) and Tiernan McCann (11/8). All of which is testmanent to Tyrone’s focus on the group mentality. It was their bench that made the difference against Donegal last Sunday in Ballybofey — dragging them across the line in that crucial final 10 minutes with the game still very much in the melting pot. As Micheal Clifford of this parish has pointed out on these pages, the Tyrone subs have contributed 6-19 to the cause in the Championship — an average of 4.6 points per game. That’s twice the return of semi-final opponents Monaghan who have been boosted to the tune of just 2.1 points per game by their replacements. It’s unlikely there will be much more than that same two-point margin separating these two teams when all is said and done tomorrow. The fact that Monaghan have already beaten Tyrone in this Championship (in Omagh) — and that they finished above them in the Division 1 table, having beaten them along the way there too (by a point in Casteblaney) — appears to have counted for very little to the oddsmakers who still have them as 6/4 underdogs tomorrow and the 9/1 outsiders of four to win the Sam Maguire. The only explanation for that is Monaghan’s lack of experience on the big stage — they haven’t been in an All-Ireland semifinal since 1988 when they were beaten by Cork — and the fact that they are largely perceived to be, fairly or unfairly, a one-man team themselves. Or at least a team with more recognisable individuals than Tyrone. The shortest priced Tyrone player to win Footballer of the Year is Mattie Donnelly — 12th in the market at 20/1. That puts him behind three Monaghan players — goalkeeper Rory Beggan (18/1), attacking wing back Karl O’Connell (18/1) and the main man himself, Conor McManus. McManus is third favourite to win the top individual honour in the game at 15/2, behind only Dublin’s Ciaran Kilkenny and Brian Fenton. This will all change should the Red Hands get the better of their old Ulster rivals tomorrow, of course, with Cavanagh, Hampsey and McCann likely entering the fray and being joined there by Frank Burns and Niall Sludden. But for now the bookies seem to think that Monaghan are good enough to justify five AllStars to Tyrone’s none — yet not quite good enough to beat them when it matters tomorrow.