COULD NOUGHTIES TYRONE STOP THIS JUGGERNAUT?
Red Hands’ ability to find an extra gear in past deciders should concern Dublin
NOTHING would ever be the same again. On the morning of August 24, 2003, an unsuspecting GAA public woke up, anticipating that afternoon’s All-Ireland semi-final would go one way. Tyrone would trouble Kerry but, ultimately, come up short against Paídí Ó Sé’s team because that’s the way it always went.
Mickey Harte had different ideas. By the end of a seismic semi-final, Séamus Moynihan was shaking his head and saying a congested Croke Park felt like Times Square. Pat Spillane had coined the ‘puke football’ phrase and the match was immortalised in one moment captured on camera of eight Tyrone players surrounding a bewildered and helpless Darragh Ó Sé.
For those hoping this Sunday’s decider will be a contest, that 2003 game is what they are clinging to. Harte has the nous to come up with something unexpected, like the time squadrons of seven or eight Tyrone players hunted any Kerry player in possession.
Peter Canavan referenced that infamous semi-final when he spoke about how Tyrone should approach Sunday, saying they should display the same ravenous hunger. But in the three teams that Harte led to ultimate glory in the 2000s, the 2003 version was the least likely to topple Dublin.
By 2005, they had a more refined offensive plan with one of the greatest attacks that ever played the game. Brian McGuigan was orchestrating from centre-forward with Stephen O’Neill, Owen Mulligan, Brian Dooher and Peter Canavan — used sparingly in the final — all benefiting from his creativity.
The 2008 team was different. Even though they inflicted the heaviest Championship defeat in three decades on Dublin, they were very much tailored to fit different opposition. Hence, the McMahon brothers were utilised in the full-back line for the final to quell the threat of Kerry’s twin towers of Kieran Donaghy and Tommy Walsh.
Here we assess Harte’s three great teams and which would be best equipped to take down Jim Gavin’s Dublin side, with an estimated scoreline.
TYRONE 2003 PROJECTED SCORELINE: Dublin 2-12 Tyrone 0-13
THE first team to bring Sam Maguire to the Red Hand County and one that will always be remembered for their ravenous hunger, as demonstrated in the way they hunted Kerry in packs in that infamous All-Ireland semi-final. The idea that it was all about hunger and toil does the team a disservice as they were also a fine footballing side.
There was a 40-second spell when eight Tyrone players descended on Dara Ó Cinnéide, then Eoin Brosnan before finally Darragh Ó Sé. Of course, the problem is that this Dublin team are well-schooled in how to deal with swarm-defensive tactics — and are adept at it themselves.
But the 2003 Tyrone team had other strengths. Their refusal to lose and defiant nature was summed up in Conor Gormley’s last-ditch block on Steven McDonnell in the AllIreland final — it remains one of the most iconic moments in recent football history.
They were also blessed with some wonderful footballers. The late Cormac McAnallen’s redeployment as full-back after Down snaffled four goals in the drawn Ulster final was the first of many managerial masterstrokes by Harte and showed just how adaptable this bunch of Tyrone players were.
Against both Kerry and Armagh in the semi-final and final, it was the power of the collective, as much as their footballing ability, that won the day. They only scored 0-13 in their final two games of the year, but it was enough as they kept their opponents to 0-6 and 0-9 respectively. Harte spent the summer of 2003 defending his team’s style, pointing out they were racking up some of the biggest tallies of the Championship — sounds familiar, doesn’t it? — but come the two biggest games of the year, they focused on restricting their opponents, so they could get over the line.
However, it is not possible to beat this current Dublin team with a restrictive game-plan. As Andy Moran has pointed out, 20 is the magic number that teams need to reach to beat the All-Ireland champions. 0-13 just won’t cut it.
Their collective effort was focused on shutting their opponents down. The swarming might work against this Dublin team for 55 or 60 minutes but they will find a way around, possibly by unleashing the likes of Cormac Costello or Eoghan O’Gara from the bench.
TYRONE 2005 PROJECTED SCORELINE: Dublin 2-15 Tyrone 0-18
EARLIER this year, Conor Gormley suggested that the Tyrone team of the 2000s would beat the current Dublin team. He was probably thinking of the 2005 version. This was a Harte side at the peak of their powers. They claimed their second All-Ireland title after 10 games, beating three of the four provincial champions — as the National League winners — on the way. Stephen O’Neill and Brian McGuigan played football from the heavens at times as their team averaged 18 points a game and did it all by focusing on hurting their opponents on the scoreboard, rather than restricting them. Harte’s judicious use of Peter Canavan’s genius in 2005 enhanced his status as a masterful manager. Canavan started the final, scored an exquisite goal, was withdrawn at half-time and was sent back on for the fraught final 18 minutes as Kerry threw everything they had at Tyrone.
What made the Red Hands so good in 2005 was their ability to engineer points to keep the scoreboard ticking over even when other teams were dominating them. When opponents were in their purple patch, this Tyrone team — with the likes of Canavan, O’Neill, Mulligan and McGuigan — could still out-score them.
Never was this more evident than in the final when the Kingdom dominated possession for much of the first half, but Tyrone still managed to score 1-8, while recording only two wides.
McGuigan, their orchestrator, was surprisingly overlooked for an All-Star in 2005, with his father Frank offering to hand back his own award because of the snub. Another oversight was McGuigan failing to pick up the man-of-thematch award for the 2005 final. He was the most influential player on the field, having a hand in almost every Tyrone attack.
McGuigan, in his pomp, would ask serious questions of Cian O’Sullivan. O’Neill, Mulligan and Canavan would test the Dublin full-back line. Seán Cavanagh would keep Brian Fenton busy around the middle and challenge him in the sky, Philip Jordan would keep Brian Howard honest while Ryan McMenamin and Conor Gormley would restrict any goal chances.
If any team could take Dublin down, it was this one.
TYRONE 2008 PROJECTED SCORELINE: Dublin 2-14 Tyrone 1-15
THIS Tyrone team handed Dublin their biggest Championship defeat in three decades when they clashed in the 2008 quarter-final.
It was a day when Harte outthought Paul Caffrey on the sideline, and his warriors — in the shape of McMenamin and Joe McMahon — out-fought the Blues on the field.
In the final, Harte again pulled a rabbit out of the hat, placing the McMahon brothers in the full-back line to stifle the threat of Kerry’s twin towers in Kieran Donaghy and Tommy Walsh. It summed up Tyrone’s year. Having recovered from an opening Championship defeat to Down, they ironed out their issues on their back-door route through summer.
And by the time they got to the decider, Tyrone knew what to expect of their big players. Seán Cavanagh was averaging five points from play, Brian Dooher three points.
But they weren’t as water-tight at the back as previous Tyrone sides. In the semi-final, Wexford — even with Mattie Forde going off injured at half-time — hit 1-14 against them.
They conceded more than the previous two Tyrone sides, and didn’t have the same attacking venom — although Harte did coax Stephen O’Neill out of retirement before the 2008 final. They would come up just short, possibly to a late sucker-punch goal from Paul Mannion or Kevin McManamon.