Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Stand up managers, it is your time to shine!
TO HAVE All-ireland semi-finals two days in a row is so unique to Gaelic football and it sets things up differently as we get to analyse them side by side.
All the talk is about matching up players in positions but not one onfield performance will hold a candle to that of the four managers involved.
What they come up with tactically will be essential to whether their team reaches the September 3 final.
With all the furore over Mayo and Kerry, the low key build-up to the Dublin-tyrone game will help Tyrone. And while the big question in today’s match is where Aidan O’shea plays, the big one for Jim Gavin is will he start Diarmuid Connolly.
That decision will have a massive bearing on the outcome. A lot of people think Connolly will come on but I think he’ll start.
If he was introduced with 25 minutes to go it would be the perfect scenario for Tyrone, who would quickly look to get into his head.
Make no mistake, he’ll be targeted, but it would be less likely to happen if he gets into the game from the throw-in.
The bottom line is that if they’re going to win an All-ireland, they’re going to start Diarmuid Connolly in the final. So why not start him now?
Gavin has everyone fit and chomping at the bit and a number of them won’t start.
By all accounts they’re flying and he has timed it brilliantly in terms of freshness and hunger, avoiding the O’byrne Cup and effectively giving his senior men a four or five month break.
But they’re playing
Tyrone now who are a different proposition. They’re stronger physically and mentally than last year, they’re scoring ratio is seven to eight points better.
Their half-back line is contributing six points on average per game and the bench is providing similar. Mickey Harte has his mojo back – and like his team he has moved up through the gears this year.
The big thing for Tyrone is staying in the game until half-time. Harte finishes with his best team a lot but in the League in the last few years he has set up to frustrate Dublin.
And it will be equally as tight with the blanket defence tomorrow, but with much more precision and pace on the break. The
Tyrone bullets are coming from different guns – they have 11 or 12 scorers now as opposed to five or six.
They’re ready to do business so it comes down to how effectively Tyrone can score on the counter.
They won’t beat Dublin with pure football. They must bring what Tyrone teams of old brought – physicality, tactical brilliance and gameplan execution.
If you look at the tactical game Dublin employ now, with two players hugging the sidelines, emptying the middle on rotation, remarkable off the ball movement.
Jason Sherlock (left) has done great work introducing what is effectively a zonal basketball gameplan that has provided a whole new dimension. And the Dubs should shade it.