Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
It’s Harte to see a repeat of this..
MULLIGAN BACKS MICKEY TO GAIN FARNEY REVENGE
OWEN MULLIGAN sees Tyrone turning the tables on Monaghan after their Ulster Championship defeat earlier this year.
Having reached the last four for the first time in 30 years, the Farneymen are bidding for a first All-ireland final appearance since 1930.
But Mulligan believes Red Hands boss Mickey Harte
(inset) will have learned from the 1-18 to 1-16 loss in May.
“I don’t think Monaghan have capability to beat
Tyrone twice in the same year, it’s just a massive, massive ask,” said the former Tyrone star.
“Mickey is a shrewd manager. He hates getting beaten. He will relish the chance to right the wrongs from the Ulster encounter and he’ll have learned so much from that game.
“In all his time as Tyrone manager he has only been beaten in a replay once and that was in 2005 against Armagh. We then went on to beat that side in the semi-final before going on to win the All-ireland.
“This game will boil down to which manager will learn the most from their previous encounter and no manager takes more out of these games than Harte. Trust me on that.
“We saw against Donegal that he has an amazing bench to come on and he’ll have them raring to go for this game.” On that point, Mulligan told Paddy Power News that Tyrone’s options rival that of All-ireland champions Dublin. He added: “Mickey got his game management spot on against Donegal. When we needed more legs and penetration he got it in the form of Kieran Mcgeary and Lee Brennan. “Then the goal-getters, Harry Loughran and Declan Mcclure, came on to seal the victory. Harte is now finishing with a better team than he started with and the last team I saw do that were the All-ireland champions. It’s a massive luxury for any manager.”
Mulligan also paid tribute to the team’s strength and conditioning coach Peter Donnelly. He said: “Mattie Donnelly and Colly Cavanagh broke tackles all day, resulting in a score or a foul being committed. Donegal couldn’t handle their power and drive.
“Tyrone were relentlessly pressing and constantly turning over the Ulster champions. They tackled 57 times which is the highest in the Championship so far.
“I played with Peter in the glory days and he’s a winner with an array with medals. When you have somebody in the coaching set-up that’s walked the walk the players will buy into his methods.”