Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport

Never write off Tyrone, I know for a fact they feed off that

- eamonmcgee

FOr tHE vast majority of my career, I was obsessed with winning an All-Ireland.

To win just once, as The Saw Doctors used to sing.

You think one would be incredible, and you’d be happy for life.

Then you win, and everything changes ...

A solitary All-Ireland medal doesn’t carry the weight that you thought it did.

I’ve been in Dublin a few times and mixed with Dublin players of recent times, or Kerry and Tyrone players from the noughties.

They have medals falling out of their pockets, All Stars too.

You’d be afraid to mention your wee Celtic Cross in that company.

There’s always another level.

That’s why even the greatest have regrets. Nobody wins every final. We all look back with regret on the ones that got away.

If I’m honest with myself, I think my CV is decent — both with Donegal and Gaoth Dobhair. But not backing up what was won still nags at me.

We had the chance with Donegal in 2014, taking down Dublin in the semi-finals, but we still fell short.

Same with the club. We tried hard, really hard, but we never retained the Donegal title, never backed up our Ulster crown.

I dreamed so much about success but got it completely wrong. I thought it sates you. Not a bit of it. It just makes you want more and more and, when you fall short, it hurts. Maybe the best way of describing it is living near a mountain and looking up at it every morning. Getting it into your head that you’re going to climb it. Eventually, you do but, when the cloud cover clears, you realise that there’s another higher peak beside it.

We worked so hard to get to the summit in 2012. Worked ourselves to the bone.

Then we realised that we had to work even harder once we’d got there. I have to admit that I found that dishearten­ing.

That’s the reality of top level sport, though.You have to constantly challenge yourself and keep pushing on.

Won

Why am I going over this ground? It’s because I’ve been thinking about Tyrone and where they’re at.

They won an All-Ireland that no-one saw coming in 2021.

What did it do to them? Did a fair amount of them figure their work was done, they’d achieved what they wanted?

I’m pretty sure they’d deny that’s the case but then you look at the amount of lads that have left the set-up, you consider their pathetic Championsh­ip last year and their

WINNErs: tyrone players celebrate winning sam in 2021 and

before their defeat to roscommon in the league this season

two crushing defeats in the McKenna Cup final and in the League against Roscommon in the last couple of weeks.

With the players that walked away, you can argue that they weren’t first choices.

But all of them used to feature at different times and, when you lose so many from a squad, it does leave a void.

It can be dangerous too in giving voice to the notion that county football doesn’t have to be the be-all and end-all.

What impressed me most about Tyrone in 2021 wasn’t just the way they played — which was really impressive.

What stood out even more than that was their attitude and how they approached the semi-final and final.

They were underdogs in both games against Kerry and Mayo but weren’t in the slightest bit bothered.

Mentally, they all seemed so strong. That was the first year of the management of Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher so, for a maiden season, to have that kind of a team on show was quite a feat.

Learned

I think of the Mayo team of the past decade and how they could have learned from what Tyrone did in 2021.

I see different Donegal teams and think the same thing. Donegal teams with more potential than Tyrone 2021, but Tyrone went out and did it.

I’ve heard so much about the Tyrone camp not being a

happy one and there was a rumoured crisis meeting after the Roscommon game in the dressing room.

I don’t think there is an unhappy camp and, in fact, I think the opposite might be the case: it’s a happy camp, too happy with what they’ve done.

Also, if Darren McCurry hadn’t slipped last week and went on to score the goal then there wouldn’t be much being said about Tyrone and an unhappy camp. There are always small margins.

For now, though, there’s a question mark over them. Earlier this week, my good friend, Darran O’Sullivan, tipped them to be relegated. I was thinking ‘what are you at, Darran?’

You never write off Tyrone because I know, for a fact, they feed off stuff like that. They love it.

They love nothing better than having their backs to the wall so they can come out fighting.

On Sunday, they host Donegal in Omagh and the visitors showed a lot of fight in beating Kerry a week ago.

Counted

With about 10 minutes to go to half-time, Kerry went six points up and I figured Kerry would run away with it, winning by 10 points or more.

But Donegal didn’t fold. Players, both old and new, stood up and were counted.

The crowd responded too. Paddy Carr, a man under pressure, greeted the final whistle by turning to the supporters and pumping his fist.

He was very emotional in his interviews after the game too.

Emotion got the better of a few of us. I bumped into Paddy in the press box and ended up giving him a hug. Sorry, Paddy ...

There has been a lot of negativity in Donegal for a while. The win gave everyone a lift. Backing it up in Omagh is a big ask, though.

I think Brendan McCole will pick up McCurry, who is a huge danger. If he wins that battle and Donegal can do well on Niall Morgan’s kick-outs, they can win.

But I suspect there’s a kick coming from Tyrone. They should win by three or four points.

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 ?? ?? tense: Games between tyrone and Donegal have always been passionate affairs and (left) eamon McGee finally gets to lift the sam Maguire back in 2012
tense: Games between tyrone and Donegal have always been passionate affairs and (left) eamon McGee finally gets to lift the sam Maguire back in 2012

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