‘Tyrone will be relishing tag of final underdogs’
Former star McMahon insists Red Hand have nothing to lose
AS MASSIVE outsiders, Joe McMahon reckons Tyrone can just take their chance on Sunday week and see where it takes them.
Not for the first time, Dublin are coming into the final with scarcely a glove laid on them. The ‘Super 8s’ game in Omagh, which Dublin won by three points, is the closest any team has come to Jim Gavin’s men.
They had five to spare on Donegal and nine in hand against last time out against Galway. From there, their winning margins in the other four outings range from 14 to 26 points.
It means that Tyrone go into Sunday week’s game as 11/2 shots, something that McMahon reckons they should relish.
“I think all the pressure’s on Dublin and nobody, as you know, is giving Tyrone a chance,” McMahon said at the launch of Londis 7s, the All-Ireland Senior Football Sevens tournament, which will take place in Kilmacud Crokes on Saturday, September 1.
“Tyrone will relish that, without a doubt. I would love to be in that position as a player, that nobody’s giving you a chance.
“They have been there before because you can just go out and play and if you get beat, so what, everybody knew that and if you don’t and you go out and win, there’s a big surprise element to it. But I definitely think they can give it a go.”
LEARNED
It’s only a year since Dublin dismantled Tyrone in the 2017 All-Ireland semi-final but McMahon believes manager Mickey Harte will have learned from that game.
“They cruised through Ulster (last year) winning by seven and nine point margins in most games.
“They were quite one-dimensional in their play because they got ahead of teams and were able to sit back and absorb pressure. They did that to great effect.
“When Dublin got on top, Tyrone were unable to adapt as they had done in previous seasons when they had success. They were found out that day with Dublin coming out on top by 12 points.
“I think Mickey has learned a lot from that – he’s gone through the backdoor route, he’s been experimenting with different players, he still hasn’t got a settled team, he has got options there. I think a lot more questions have been asked of them this season than in the last two.”
Just how Tyrone go about trying to end Dublin’s four-year unbeaten run in the championship is the topic of much debate.
But, after seeing their defensive approach exposed in a matter of minutes last year when Con O’Callaghan stole in for a goal,McMahon wants to see Tyrone be more adventurous.
“I would imagine if Tyrone push up and exploit the spaces they like to create, when they have their half forward line pushing up and half back line pushing up there are spaces.
There’s opportunity for the inside line to take their man on a bit more,” he explained.
“Draws fouls or the likes of Peter Harte and Tiernan McCann coming off the shoulder to exploit those spaces. An option is Richie Donnelly at full-forward to play a few balls in, with him as a target man, with the inside men working off him as well.”
Down through the years, Harte has shown an ability to pull a rabbit out of the hat in terms of tactics.
Peter Canavan was brought on and taken off in the 2003 All-Ireland final while McMahon and his brother Joe was posted in the full back line for the 2008 final to mark Kerry’s ‘Twin Towers’ of Kieran Donaghy and Tommy Walsh.
SURPRISE
And McMahon wouldn’t be surprised if Tyrone management tried to pull something else out of the bag.
“In my own time involved I stopped guessing the teams. You had your own thoughts about who was going well but Mickey felt there was other areas that can impact a game,” revealed McMahon.
“He has options, whether he starts Lee Brennan. Look back at the league campaign against Dublin in Omagh – Lee Brennan in the first half caused Dublin problems. There was spaces there.
“Dublin allowed that to happen until the second half when they dropped two sweepers and that totally curtailed his threat. Mickey, Stevie O’Neill and Gavlin Devlin will be looking at areas they can expose them. There will be areas Tyrone can expose.”