Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
We know that we’re going to be hunted this year
Burns says everyone will want to beat champions
‘THIS IS our lives.’
It’s a comment that stuck with Frank Burns.
Time to get back to what they do with those lives.
The Tyrone star has hit the “reset button.”
Time to go again.
Tyrone are back from a team holiday in Orlando a few days now — a reward for landing last year’s All-Ireland title.
They’ve already got a rude awakening from Cavan as to what the defence of their various crowns might hold.
Mickey Graham’s side hammered them in the McKenna Cup during the week, by 1-17 to 0-5.
In a shortened inter-county season they’re already playing catch-up.
Burns, who was on the bench for the Cavan game, knows they can’t afford to live on last year’s glories. Tyrone have their eyes firmly fixed on 2022.
He has an All-Ireland senior medal to go with his Under-21 All-Ireland from 2015, but that was 2021.
You’d think the pressure might be off but the Pomeroy man doesn’t view it that way.
“(The) pressure is on if anything,” Burns (26) told Star
Sport. “Now the expectations are higher in both the club and your county.
“I think if it gave you a feeling of pressure off you’d be off to a bad start this year — unless you are retiring maybe and you could rest back on it.
“We know now that we are going to be hunted this year and that’s a new and big challenge for us, and one that we haven’t had before. But one that we are looking forward to.”
Defeat
Stepping out of Under-21s as an All-Ireland winner in 2015, Burns says he anticipated a senior crown with Tyrone.
He didn’t envisage it taking six years, though.
An All-Ireland final defeat by Dublin in 2018, a semifinal l oss t o t he s ame opposition in 2017 and another semi-final reversal at the hands of Kerry in 2019 meant Tyrone were always knocking on the door.
They never quite looked like breaking through that door though, with Dublin in their prime and appearing more and more unstoppable as time wore on.
When the opportunity arose last year, they grabbed it with both hands and put Mayo to the sword in the final.
It was a victory for perseverance if anything: “Ah for sure, never give up,” says Burns.
“These group of lads are some of the most driven individuals I have ever shared company with. I suppose that’s not bad company to be in.
“No matter how many times Tyrone teams over the years get knocked down they always get back up and go again.
Honest
“So, the big take from it would be just to never give up.
“To be honest I feel the resources are there in Tyrone to give each individual the
chance to be the best version of themselves so I feel that going forward Tyrone football is in a good place.”
The s tandards th e Tyrone players and management demand of each other are clear to see in how they defend as a group, and their skill level across the board.
When you have four defenders scoring in two different games in the latter stages of the Championship, as well as a series of last-ditch blocks, it tells a story.
“It (reaching the standards in training) is a challenge definitely, but without a challenge there is no growth so you have plenty of leaders on the team,” says Burns.
“Plenty of boys set the bar
in terms of physical and fitness levels. There are other boys that set the bar in terms of skill levels and you are all the time trying to strive to get to them levels.
“I would like to think it (AllIreland win) would give us more confidence going forward, the fact that we have already done it.
Realise
“We realise the challenge that lies ahead and the target that’s going to be on our back. We are just going to put the heads down and go at it again.”
Burns — a p ersonal trainer with a civil engineering degree — heard something his Tyrone colleague Richard Donnelly said last year and it struck a chord.
Football is what they do in Tyrone, and he can’t wait for the challenges which lie ahead over the next seven months.
His motivation is simple enough.
“To be honest the thought of just getting to go and give it a rattle again this year,” he says.
“As Richie Donnelly said, after the last All-Ireland it sort of stuck with me: people say we put our lives on hold for this, but this is our lives.
“It’s the same with most teams. You wouldn’t be doing it if you didn’t love it.
“For us the chance to give our families, our supporters and the people of Tyrone more big days out, that’s enough to motivate us going forward.
“When you brought the Sam Maguire to your house or brought it to people locally who had supported you along the way, that’s when it hit home that we actually won the All-Ireland.
“The holiday was just about sitting back and a reflection of how lucky you were to be part of the team. Being thankful for the people who made the holiday happen and put things in place for us to get away.”
Priced
Already the bookies have Tyrone at 9/1 to retain their AllIreland title. They’re alongside Mayo in the betting, with Dublin and Kerry both priced at 6/4.
“Personally I don’t read into it too much,” says Burns.
“Others maybe would. I am not a gambling man and it doesn’t affect me anyway.”
They beat the odds last year. The challenge is to do it again.