No shame in losing to Dubs, says treble chaser McNamee
RONAN McNAMEE was the unfortunate poster boy for Tyrone’s fatal state of confusion last August. The unforgiving camera lens catching the moment when the air went out of the most hyped All-Ireland semi-final in years after less than five minutes.
The image captures Con O’Callaghan, ball in hand while in full stride, brimful of balance and purpose going one way while McNamee went the other, his hand thrown out backwards in what qualified more as a wave than a tackle.
Seconds later and the ball was in the back of the net, the first cut in a 12-point savaging which was held up as compelling evidence that Tyrone had lost their way.
As they start out again today, McNamee does not subscribe to that sense of fatalism.
‘We’d like to think the semi-final was an aberration,’ he explains.
‘Maybe we’ll look back in 20 years’ time and say that this Dublin team was one of the best of all time, maybe the best of all.
‘And maybe in 20 years’ time we might also look back and say that semi-final was an aberration in terms of what was a fine Tyrone team? I really hope so,’ says the Aghyaran clubman.
The good thing, though, is that he does not have to wait 20 years to see how history will view the team that has consumed him for the last six years.
A win today against Monaghan in Omagh would represent a significant step in ensuring how history will frame them.
Even though they have feasted on Anglo Celt Cup success on Mickey Harte’s watch – six of the county’s 15 Ulster titles have been won under his tenure – they have never won three in a row.
Right now, that’s their focus.
‘It’s all about retaining the Ulster title. We don’t want to give it up; we’re going for three-in-a-row up here after a long time when we couldn’t win it at all.
‘Your hunger to win the Ulster title never changes, why would you go to the bother of all the training sessions, in the mud and the cold in the winter, to just cast things aside.
‘Boys put in serious hard graft to play in a game like this and for the dream of going on to Clones to play on final day.’
There is little doubt that Ulster’s capacity to intoxicate those who chase it remains as strong as ever, but Tyrone will have to broaden their ambition beyond provincial domination if they are to be viewed as a ‘fine’ team in 20 years time.
After all, adding to the suspicion that Ulster success has been devalued, they cruised to last year’s title – winning their three games against Derry, Donegal and Down by an average of nine points per game.
And they trounced Armagh subsequently in the All-Ireland quarter-final by 18 points – a sequence of results which suggests that the temperature has dropped in the north.
Those big winning margins might also suggest that too much has been made of Tyrone’s lack of cutting edge, except that when it comes to the big teams they are no longer capable of drawing blood.
Since their last All-Ireland win in 2008, they have lost all seven championship games to football’s big three – Dublin, Kerry and Mayo. In the process, they have managed to score an average of 12 points a game against those teams.
That makes the 0-11 they posted last August against the champions less of an aberration and more like par for the course.
But if last year was not an aberration, then it most certainly has become a point of no return for Tyrone under Harte.
His status as the game’s longest serving manager – he is now in his 16th season – will come under threat if he loses this year like he lost last.
That might explain why there has been a change of emphasis on and off the pitch, with the appointment of Stephen O’Neill as forwards coach and the addition of Lee Brennan to a better resourced full-forward line, where he will team up with Mark Bradley.
‘There’s plenty of potential in our team to get scores,’ insists McNamee (left).
There has been evidence of incremental improvement – they posted 7-92 in this year’s Allianz League compared to 3-87 the previous spring, an increase of three points per game which is not to be sniffed at. We won’t really know until later in the summer as to where they stand, but the real significance of winning Ulster again is that it will pitch them straight back into Dublin’s path in the Super 8s, where the Leinster and Ulster champions will be housed under the one roof. ‘It would be wonderful to have that,’ enthuses McNamee, ‘to have a county like Dublin or Kerry or Mayo coming to Omagh in late July or early August,’ he adds.